Having looked around at a map of the local tourist spots and after talking to the girls in the business centre of the Hotel, we decided to go to Seven Stars Park in Guilin.
We had planned to go to Fubo hill and the Reed Flute Cave today, however having looked at the local area map we realised that they were on opposite sides of the city. Alternatively, the Seven Stars Park seemed to have all of the above and more in one convenient place and close enough via taxi, so we went to the lobby to negotiate a price on a cab. For a £1.50 agreed fare, we were on our way. As always, through the quite mad chinese traffic.
The Qixia Temple
Once inside the park, the first place we visited was the Qixia Temples. This temple was first built and named Qixia Temple in the Tang dynasty (618－907), but since then it has been regulary upgraded by many emperors over the last 1000 years.
Outside each of the Temple buildings are huge incense burners and people regularly come along with incense sticks and plant them in the huge burners. The whole place smelt of sweet jos sticks, some of them were as large as garden candles.
There was an 'at peace' atmosphere about the place and inside the temples were huge effigies of different looking Buddha types - see pics for more. Each temple is full of colour, radiating from the statues and the flowers that adorned the altars.
We walked around the corner to be greeted by a monastery with an ornamental pond where a young chinese family were feeding the fish some bread. It was the sort of place that you could sit for hours, losing track of time and the things going on in the busy city outside the gates.
The Seven Stars Cave
Into the park a little further we walked up a path towards the Cave. There are lots of caves all through the Guilin and Yangshuo area that have formed naturally within the huge cast mountains. They are a wonder of geography that the Chinese have made the most of by adding beautiful lights and names. We couldn't always quite get the names they'd given them, perhaps were not as creative, or perhaps the people naming the rock formations were a little over enthusiastic with theirs :)
We tried a few of our own, like 'the sticky up thumb' rock, and 'the broken bone' rock. Maybe I'll send them in to the Chinese Government for approval, yup, you guessed it, they own and manage this tourist attraction as well.
The Seven Stars Zoo
The park also had a small zoo where we went to see the Pandas and a few other animals they had like emus and wallabies. We then came across a show area, similar to the undercover areas you find at them parks in the UK but with a large round cage. Their was some loud music playing and we could vaguely se something was going on inside the cage so we sat down to have a closer look. The next thing we saw were a couple of monkeys riding bicycles round and round! They were put away and out came a goat with a monkey on his back. The goat then climbed up some ladders and across a tight rope. On the way back, the goat stood on a wooden pedestal that had been attached to the tight rope and the monkey did a one handed hand stand on the goats head!
No sooner was the goat away, two dressed bears were brought out, both walking upright by the side of their trainers. They had them laid on their backs, on tables, spinning large poles with weights on each end to start with and then progressed them on to riding bicycles, just like the monkeys. We both agreed this was one of the most horrible things we've seen and had to leave. The UK RSPCA would have had a field day with these people. For me, I just saw it as unnecessary and degrading for the animals involved.
Yue Ya Hill
This was a Karst mountain with steps all the way to the top. It took us about 20 minutes to climb to the top and I reckon over 300 steps winding back and forth on themselves. Near the top we met with a colony of wild Monkeys. They were chasing each other around and scrapping with one another.
All over the park are signs saying 'keep distance from wild monkeys, dangerous'. We had already met some earlier in the forest and whilst trying to take a photo of one, he'd growled and advanced on me so I was now taking full notice of these signs! Unfortunately, these critters were sat in the path, in our way, providing a barrier between us and the summit! Fortunately, we had caught up with a young chinese couple who had been ahead of us. Gingerly, we all walked forward together. As a group, we provided a security in numbers, traversing the language barrier between us without needing to say a word we walked on and the wild monkeys moved off the path and we made it through to the top of the mountain. At the peak, a marble pagoda provided a place to rest and a wonderful platform from which to see the River Li and the city below us. It was worth every step!