Fairy Lake, called Xian Nu Hu, is a lake in Jian Xi province, the province east of Hunan. It is a lake with over 100 islands dotting its curving shores. Last weekend I had the fun of traveling there with many other teachers from the English department of our university. At first the whole family was going to go; however, Taalan and Tariqa had a sports meet on Saturday, so they chose to stay home. Since Tim was tired after an 18 hour teaching week, it was agreed that he would stay home and relax and I would go on my own.
We climbed into a large, new university bus at 7:30 Saturday morning. The plan was that we would arrive around lunchtime, stay the night on an island, tour some nearby island the next morning, and be home around suppertime. Only three children came along, all about 3 years old, because all the elementary-age children were at the sports meet. For many parents, myself included, this was the first time in a long while to go somewhere without the children along. Leaving our spouses behind, we enjoyed the unexpected opportunity to be free from childcare for a few days!
We traveled on decent roads to Jian Xi and arrived in a city near the lake around noon and were met by a very handsome gentleman. He was the father of a student who attended our university and was responsible for organizing our whole weekend. We ate a lovely lunch and then had a brief tour of the city. It is a very new city. In 1984 the government encouraged expansion of its steel industry and the city began to grow rapidly. Almost all the residents of the city either work in the steel plant or in related service industries. Because it is a young planned city, the streets are wide and the sidewalks neatly paved and very clean. The people are very proud that it is the cleanest city in Jiang Xi province.
After a pleasant ride of half an hour we arrived at the lake and left the bus to climb aboard a small tour boat. Most of us stayed on deck to enjoy the cool breeze. The weather couldn't have been nicer, clear and sunny, but not hot. The island was only a 10 minute boat ride from the wharf, but it seemed like we had entered a different world. It was covered with trees and very quiet. We found our rooms and lay down for the typical rest that the Chinese people enjoy so much each day. We were distributed three to a room. I shared a room with Alfa, one of the other foreign teachers, and our old waiban, Ruihong. Before dinner we decided to go for a walk and found a small gravel trail leading away from the lodge. It took about twenty minutes to circle our part of the island. Then it was time for dinner. Most of the dishes were fish, caught fresh from the lake. The teachers decided that the cooks in Jiang Xi used even more hot peppers than in Hunan.
The following morning we rose early, breakfasted, and then boarded the boat. Less than five minutes after starting, the boat sputtered and the engine died. The driver asked some people to move aside. He then opened a hatch and climbed down. After several seconds of pumping a valve on the engine he asked his mate to try the motor. It coughed to life, everyone clapped, and the trip continued. The first island's attraction was a transvestite. Everyone was talking about how they had never met anyone who had had a sex change, and how interesting it was. As we waited a person passed up and entered a side room. He emerged several minutes later wearing a low- cut sequined dress, with an elaborate hair ornament. He sang a fashionable song in a high false soprano voice. When he was finished he started to talk, introducing himself in halting English, and Mandarin, and fluent Cantonese. His voice hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been unhappy about the whole thing before, but after hearing him talk, seeing large masculine hands matched with a very voluptuous feminine body, I couldn't stay. Apparently it is not unusual for young boys to be sold to people, if you can call them that, in Thailand. While under the influence of drugs so they cannot resist, the boys are pumped full of hormones, causing them to develop female characteristics, such as a high voice and large breasts. The young man on exhibition was sold by his parents, who were very poor, when he was in his early teens. Other boys are kidnapped or lured away by promise of a lot of money. They have no chance to return to society, because they no longer have a place in it, so they usually spend the remainder of their lives treated as freaks and stared at by others. No one recognizes them as human beings, having souls and needing happiness. When they get older, who knows what happens to them? Needless to say, when we boarded the boat again, people commented on my getting upset and wanted to know why I was in tears. How do you explain something like that to people who don't recognize the existence of the soul and who consider man to be simply a smart animal, at best.
We made landfall at the next island after several more stalls of the engine. Here they showed a dance by one of the ethnic minority groups of China. Then three men came onstage, holding torches in each hand. They had on very loose trousers, and no shirts. They proceeded to pass the torches up and down their bare chests, and then into their trouser waist, and out the legs. Many people thought this very exciting. After the act was over, they came back on stage and played some classical song on blades of grass, accompanied by drums. It was amazing how well they could blow the grass blades and the tunes they achieved. We then went outside and watched as the youngest man climbed up a ladder in bare feet. The ladder was made of swords tied sidewise up the length of two 40-foot poles. The man stood on each blade as he climbed the ladder. People examined the ladder before the act and paper was cut on the swords, so they were definitely sharp.
Back into the boat we went and headed to another island. This time the performances were based on the local minority's marriage ceremony. The first part included being doused with several bowls of water at the end of a lovely dance. They then played some traditional instruments and went through a ceremony of binding wrists together and exchanging bowls of rice wine.
Incomplete... to be finished some day...
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