A 6 AM breeze introduced this awakening ancient city to me in a gentle touch. We walked along the street, moving towards the river. While passing by an old stone made structure, I saw some movements. The glint of Chinese swords dancing on the stone structure implied a morning practice of martial arts. We climbed onto the structure, finding different groups of people engaged in a variety of activities. Except for Tai Ji sword, we have seen traditional drum practice and Tai Ji Kong Fu lessons. People’s concentration remained unaffected upon invasions by tourists.
Beneath the stone structure, we found winding allies, when we escape from tourism. The empty allies are filled with tranquility. The doors on both sides of the stone-paved path adopt the original style from probably hundreds or thousands of years ago. On the doors, two red posters with pictures of gods can be found. They are the guardians of the family. Legend says that one of the guardians can see things that are thousands of miles away. Together, they are powerful enough to keep danger away from houses.
Crossing the bridge, we saw a different appearance of the riverbank. Shops had already set up, ready to welcome a new day of tourists. A local “wax dye” shop caught my eyes with its contained beauty. Wax dye is one of the fabric dyeing techniques of the Miao minority. The shop keeper is an old lady. She showed us several pieces of her works as well as her studio. It may be the duty of a shopkeeper to introduce the products. I had felt the passion she has for the “wax dye” and the eagerness she bears to share her favorite art to foreigners. As the principal of the school in Jishou had said, the Miao minority group is friendly and enthusiastic.
Determined to use our time wisely, we quickly regroup with all the EGL members and lead them to a restaurant we found for breakfast. In front of the old east gate, we had local buns and noodles. Swiftly, we finished breakfast and started searching for the old phoenix town. Surprisingly, we went into the town before we realized it. We then toured the home of Mr. Shen, a famous Chinese writer, and the phoenix structures, which marked the ending of our Phoenix City visit.
On the bus ride, we watched a German movie called “Gloomy Sunday.” It is a movie that depicts an intricate love story and the influence of Nazis from Hungarians’ view. The whole movie is decorated by the song “Gloomy Sunday” and the meaning behind it. The movie carved layers of thoughts in my mind over the bus trip.
Fighting goats bounce into my mind that is filled with “Gloomy Sunday.” A herd of goats passed by the street, leaving two goats horn to horn in the middle of the street. They seem to be too obsessed with each other and completely ignored the gigantic bus and its strident sound. Another animal incident is a rooster wandering around the middle of the road. It seems to know when to stop and move, but still jammed the traffic for a few seconds.
Greatly disturbed by the five hour bus ride, which is supposed to be three hours, we flocked off the bus where it finally stopped. As expected, the bus station is in the middle of nowhere, so we didn’t suspect much until we found some people still in the station. To further confirm, I ran to the bus and stopped the bus at the last second. Fortunately, we managed to get back on the bus and continued the last one hour trip to our final bus stop. After a friendly chat with the bus driver, he agreed to take us straight to the hostel at a reasonably low price. Great deal! It saved us the trouble of finding a few taxis and bargaining for a better price.
Hospitality welcomed us into the neat hostel, ending our long day with a joyful delight.
-Eric
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