[Part 1 here]
As I noted last week while walking by the canal seen here, the image below rather sums up twenty-first century China up in a nutshell; calm water between walkways lined by trees and red lamps, while in the background cranes scrape the sky.
I never get tired of seeing these roofs. I tried to avoid the couples in these photos, who were enjoying some quality time on the bridges.
Our group drove out to a place called ZiXi Mountain Scenic Area (紫溪山景區), which unlike what I’d seen in Taiwan and Yunnan thus far, bears resemblance to mountains and forests in Europe and the United States. People in the field by the entrance ride ponies, eat corn, walk around, and shoot slingshots. People there really love shooting slingshots, attempting to hit pine cones from far away, or setting up water bottles on top of stone monuments or tables and doing target practice. While walking by someone who used her slingshot to shoot upwards, I wondered what the likelihood of being hit in the head. I figured the chance was low so I didn’t worry much.
This is a statue of the “Headcloth King”, who in this area is said to have been fathered by a dragon. He could turn “bamboo into horses and beans into goats.” He wrote a letter to his father, the dragon, attached it to an arrow and shot it toward the Black Temple where the dragon lived. Instead, the arrow landed in the ChuXiong government office, compelling the government to send armies to attack. In the end the Headcloth King was defeated by spell-casting Taoists.
There was a young boy with his mom, who asked me who I was. “I’m a monster and I eat children!” I said, and he tried to get by me. I blocked him for a while by just moving back and forth as he tried to get around me, like basketball. He soon got too quick for me and returned to his mom, who was watching nearby.
Water streamed beside us, mushrooms grew on dead trees, moss covered the steps. It was peaceful. We walked.
And walked.
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