Gorgeous Guilin

A visit to China is an experience that’s big in numbers — in number of years, in square-kilometer sizes, in multitudes of people. The Chinese, past and present, do not know the word “small.” Everything is large, larger, largest. And despite the need to improve sanitation practices, China’s people, history, culture and wealth are truly worthy of admiration.

Guilin, the ethereal subject of many Chinese paintings, has countless hills — karst (limestone) formations — vertical, green, gentle mounds covering almost all of the 27,000 square kilometers of the city. The sheer beauty of these natural protrusions is viewed not only from afar, but right behind people’s backyards!

We took a four-hour cruise on the Li River to Yang Shou and enjoyed non-stop hills, each turn bringing forth different shapes — elephant trunks, horses, camels — depending on how vivid one’s imagination is.

A popular tourist activity is watching trained cormorants (black birds) catch fish. They store the fish in their throats; they turn it to their master, who pulls the still-wiggling catch out of the bird’s mouth.

West Street, the oldest street in Yang Shou (1,400 years old), is a very quaint shopping street in the heart of Guilin. Well, shopping by day, bars by night. It is called West Street because foreigners came and married local women and set up businesses there. 

In the old days, a beautiful woman was defined as having big hands, big feet, and a big behind. Hands and feet were prized for working in the fields, since women did the farm work. The big behind showed an ability to bear healthy children. (The one-birth policy does not apply to ethnic minorities.)

There are four ethnic minorities in Guilin: Miao, Dong, Yao, and Zhuang. We entered a Miao handicraft store which sells beautiful split-thread embroidered products. A silk thread is split into eight to 12 finer threads, for a fine, lustrous effect. Even embroidered portraits of women look like photographs.

The Reed Flute Cave, a 250-meter-deep cavern, was discovered in 1959. It has been a very popular stop for tourists — even President Clinton — since it opened in 1962. Stalactite and stalagmite formations take the shapes (in our minds) of tigers, dragons, turtles, humans. As our tour guide advised when looking at these shapes — it’s 30 percent form, 70 percent imagination.

Big, Bold Beijing

Beijing is a 3,000-year-old city, but has been the capital of China for only 800 years. It has only been 36 years since China opened itself to the world in 1978, but the preference for all things grand, both ancient and modern, remain. Feng Shui has defined Tiananmen Square as the head of the dragon, the Forbidden City as its heart, and the Olympic site of the Cube and the Bird’s nest as its tail.

The Forbidden City, built by Emperor Yongle, home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qin dynasties for 499 years, has 9,999 rooms, and covers 720 square kilometers. It was forbidden to enter or leave the city without the Emperor’s permission. Only the Emperor, his family, his concubines, his eunuchs, and his physician were allowed to sleep inside it.

For security, no tree or building outside the Forbidden City can be higher than the buildings inside. The compound’s grounds have 15 layers of bricks. No assassin can kill the emperor from above or dig a tunnel to attack from below.

There is a separate building for every activity that the emperor does — a structure for him to wear his robes, another to receive visitors, another to make his proclamations. There is also an all-red Hall of Union for the Empress!

The construction of the Summer Palace, for the royal family’s rest and recreation, was started in the 12th century and expanded in 1750. It is four times larger than the Forbidden City. Everything in it is manmade, including King Ming, the heart-shaped lake made to honor the Emperor’s mother. The Summer Palace became a public park in 1928.

The Temple of Heaven, built at the same time as the Forbidden City, is three times larger. Since agriculture was the main activity of the kingdom, the Emperor went to the temple in the spring to pray for a good harvest. He returned in the summer to pray for rain. He returned in the winter to thank heaven for a good harvest.

Before he performed the Rite of Worshipping Heaven, the Emperor fasted for three days: no food, no alcohol, no concubine.

The Ming Tomb covers 42 square meters and was built at the same time as the Forbidden City. Thirteen emperors were buried here, but in 1966, the Red Guards burned all of the tombs.

We are told that the Chinese language does not have a past tense, but only uses the present tense. China’s rich history seems to be told in the same way: the past comingles, unfolds comfortably into the present. Thousands of years, a billion people, the extravagance of royalty,  the anger of the hungry, the rise of the people’s republic — China, then and now, is power.

There are countless places to be visited by foreign and local tourists in China, but be ready to bear with all of the jostling and pushing.

Now, if they could only keep the toilets clean.