First expedition outside of GXNU: The Cave and Elephant Hill

Students loaded onto a bus and rode through town to the first site of the trip. The rain had subsided and Guilin’s summer heat was steaming the windows of the bus. The first site was situated within several small mountains and featured a huge cave. As the students wound their way through formations illuminated with colored neon lights, the cave became more and more cavernous. When students felt there was no chance for coming across a wider expanse, they turned a corner and found themselves smaller and smaller than before. The cave was illuminated in pinks, greens, yellows and blues for effect. The lights cast shadows and intensified the incredible internal formations of the mountain. A guide led the way, at times singing songs relating to the cave, at times telling stories from mythology to spark students’ imaginations and to plant a seed of fancy in their minds. Students were encouraged to look into the formations in search of animals, people, plants and anything else that might appear to them.

Some rocks were slick with dripping water from the ceiling of the cave. To the touch, these slippery rocks were filmy and the water felt full of sediment. The guide informed students that even now, the cave is continuing to grow and shape itself, the water being the source of this slow and patient growth.

The zenith of the cave tour came at the middle when students found themselves in a huge underground room, with a large stalactite for a central chandelier. The floor had been cleared of formations and circular lights were placed approximately two feet apart, flush with the floor. Once the area had filled up with a number of visitors, music began to play, and a light show danced across the cave formations. The finale included a strobe-like lighting of the floor lights and the Stalactite chandelier, with colorful bubbles billowing out of machines behind two larger formations directly below an especially theatrical formation. Many students noted a stark difference between this cave and caves visited in the United States, where the emphasis is often on maintaining a natural approach to viewing the formations. Theatricality is certainly a staple of many Chinese tourist sites.

Right before the exit to the cave, a ticket stand was set up at what looked like a narrow entryway cut into the walls. The tour guide informed the group that a new cave had been recently opened to the public and that housed in this cave was an ancient tortoise. Given the extreme uniqueness of such an animal, persons wishing to see the tortoise were asked to pay an additional ten kuai (approximately $1.50) in order to enter the new cave. The UW group declined the opportunity and left the neon-lit, cool insides of the mountain. The group then snapped several photos outside of the cave, returning to the bus for the second adventure of the day.

After another thirty to forty minute bus ride, the students were deposited at the entrance to Xiang Bi Shan or “Elephant Trunk Mountain”. Students walked through a small park, crossed a narrow damn over a fast-moving stream and walked toward a larger river. The mountain rose from this river and facing the water a large hole in the rock formed what looked like an elephant’s trunk dipping down to drink the water in. Students took photos together and separately in front of this famous Guilin site and were then given thirty minutes of free time to climb the mountain, purchase souvenirs, talk with locals or simply enjoy the flavor of the park. Though it was late afternoon, the site was teeming with Chinese tourists who were curious and eager to talk with students when given the chance. A climb of the mountain afforded a 360-degree view of the city and its curious sloping mountains.

Once the students returned to the bus, they were taken to an older neighborhood in Guilin, which sat next to a large, newer shopping district. The bus let the students out in front of an old music conservatory where dozens of ping-pong tables were set up in the twilight-laden street. Locals played ping-pong as students disembarked and an older, 76 yr old man offered a paddle to a UW student, smiling and beckoning for a game. Several students tried their hand at playing the man and then the group continued on to the shopping district. GXNU paid for the students to eat at a buffet-style restaurant. These types of restaurants are extremely common in China and are often found in the tops of department stores. A customer is given a receipt and goes around to various cooking stations where foods of all kinds are being prepared. The customer orders a dish and the cook stamps the receipt. At the end of the meal the receipts are collected and paid for at a cashier. The students were overly hungry after the day’s activities and tried almost all of the varieties of food offered. After dinner the students perused a night market, which was set up along the streets below the restaurant. Around ten the students returned to the dorm and were told that the following morning’s cultural lecture would be on Calligraphy.