Our vacation in Guilin continues to amaze and surprise. On Saturday morning we visited the Xanadu inspired by the Eastern poet Tao Yuanming’s “Peach Blossom Spring”. Tour boat took us to the picturesque paradise of beautiful landscape and pastoral scenery, blue waves of the Swallow Lake, vegetation prosperous Peach Island, joy soothing sounds of birdsong, and seamless integration of people feel like being in the book Land of Peach Blossoms. Original and indigenous tribal dance performances along the ride were like icing on the cake.
In the afternoon, the four of us went drifting on the Yulong River on manually propelled rafts. The Yulong River is a small tributary of the larger Li River in Southeastern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that runs through the major city of Guilin to Yangshuo. The October sun was still scorching but the moist breeze made it tolerable or even pleasant. We were simply in awe of nature’s beauty and the unbelievable tranquility surrounding us since for a while our two rafts were the only sign of human existence on the river.
“This is so peaceful and beautiful! All my worries are gone at this moment!” Our friend Guanghui exclaimed.
“What worries can you possibly have? You’ve got everything.” One of the raft men refuted.
“I think I have more worries than you do. You get to enjoy these hills, the clear water and the clean air everyday. You are very fortunate!”
“Tell me about your worries.” I turned to the man standing at the end of the raft working the bamboo pole skillfully and realized that his job was quite labor intensive.
“Money. If I had more money, all my worries would go away.”
Guanghui claimed that money couldn’t solve all problems and we should all be happy with what we had. The raft man was politely agreeable but I didn’t believe he was convinced.
For dinner, we went back to West Street. There were more musicians who were eager for business because it was Saturday night. Guanghui took the menu from a young male singer and asked me choose a song for our 25th anniversary. I picked “The Moon Represents My Heart”. We paid him 200 Yuan (about $30) after 8 songs. Guanghui commented that it was much cheaper than the price in Beijing.
Today we went up the mountains to see the Guilin Silver Cave and the Butterfly Spring. At the Butterfly Spring, we watched a 40-minute show performed by the minority young actors and actresses. It was very entertaining.
Between the two scenery destinations, the tour guide took us to the Moon Mountain (the hole in the mountain of the above picture is thought to be the moon). As I put on the colorful minority attire and looked into the eyes of the love of my life for 25 years, I was reminded once again of the lyrics of “The Moon Represents My Heart”:
You ask me how deep my love for you is,
How much I really love you…
My affection is real.
My love is real.
The moon represents my heart.
You ask me how deep my love for you is,
How much I really love you…
My affection does not waver,
My love will not change.
The moon represents my heart.