I visited the People's Republic of China in July 1999 to adopt my third daughter. What an amazing place.
I managed to stumble upon one of the most fun "roadside attractions" that I have ever seen while I was in Nanning on July 8th.
Nanning is not one of the great tourist destinations in China. It is mainly used by westerners as a stopping point before taking a train into Vietnam.
The biggest tourist attraction in town is a fort on the top of a hill in the People's Park. The fort was built by one of the warlords that controlled that part of China in the early part of the 1900’s. After paying half a yuan to get into the fort (about 6 cents) one just wanders about through a few rooms that have fun house mirrors. The BIG thing to do is climb to the top of the fort to view the Krupp gun that was meant to keep invaders from the Vietnam area away. That is the main thing you will find described in tourist books like Fodor’s and Lonely Planet.
I got closer and noticed that it was not a zoo building, but some sort of walk through attraction. Music blared from somewhere inside and a mannequin of a Chinese heroine could be seen through an opening in the "rock" . The characters proclaim it "The Cave of Wonders".
The proprietor saw me standing there staring and motioned for me to come on in. He indicated to me that admission was 8 yuan ($1 U.S.). I paid it and proceeded down the path behind him. I was a bit apprehensive to go into this dark place with a two-year-old, but she seemed interested as well. The path led past a scene of a Buddhist shrine with a mannequin in front. The figure was dressed in elaborate robes and almost blocked the path. He was holding a cup filled with sticks.
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I quickly came to a set of very steep stairs going a long way down
INTO the hill. The way down was lit with white "Christmas" light strings
attached to the ceiling. More music was coming from the bottom. I realized
that I was in a series of storerooms that had been built for the fort on
the hill directly above.
There was an alcove at the bottom. Two figures of men in Chinese gowns
were frozen in time playing a Go (Qi). In the next alcove was a crudely
animated mannequin of a Buddhist monk hitting a wooden clapper.
AHA! – This was sort of a wax museum of Chinese stories. |
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My guides motioned for me to stop in front of another darkened alcove. One of them moved past the alcove to trigger a motion sensor, which activated the scene in front of us. I beheld a black light wonder almost as weird as Rock City in Chattanooga. A large lotus flower bloomed and an embracing couple from Chinese folklore rose slowly out of the flower. The lights came on and the mannequins danced briefly and spiraled back into their flower. It did not photograph well, though. The music was so loud, Mary, my two year old, was startled and started to cry.
Scene after scene like that followed. Various episodes from Chinese stories I did not recognize unfolded before my eyes.
Passing a motion sensor caused a palanquin to jiggle up and down while
held by bearers walking in place.
Another figure started turning a grindstone as we walked by.
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(Sun Wukong (far right) isn't going very far without
legs, is he?) From the left we have Pigsy, The Tang Priest, Friar
Sand and the Monkey King - Sun Wukong.
I recognized the story in a couple of the tableaux. I pointed to a
figure and exclaimed "Sun Wukong!" My guides were so excited that I recognized
the character. "Sun Wukong!" they nodded. Sun Wukong is also known
as the Monkey King. I recognized him from a children's video my first two
daughters love to watch - "Big Bird in China".
BOO!!! – I jump out at you from the dark when you walk by. I
even have scary music.
Several of the scenes had extra animation that could be activated by dropping PAPER money into a box on the front of the scene. You just dropped it into the box where a sensor noted that you had dropped SOMETHING in. If you wanted to drop a large bill in, fine. If you wanted to fool the system and drop a blank piece of paper in, that would have worked too. The boxes of money were transparent and I saw only real bills in them. My guides seemed to be putting in anything from 1 and 2 jiao notes to 1 yuan. (8 yuan to a dollar, 1 jiao is one-tenth a yuan).
At the far end of the catacombs was the final scene. A large seated
Buddha in a shrine. Drop money into a box to activate some chanting. The
little boy started hitting his drum as well.
The inscriptions tell of the kindness of the Buddha but asks for good
behavior: "Even the rain from heaven is plenty, it is not enough for
limitless land or craving (character cannot be seen); Even the door
for
Buddhism is wide, it is not wide enough to let in those who are not
kind.
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There was one final goody, though, that I would have missed if it were not for my guides. They stopped in front of that figure that was sitting by the shrine at the top of the stairs. When a yuan note was deposited, the figure started shaking the cup he had in his hand and chanting. When he stopped moving, one of my escorts extracted a stick from the cup and handed it to the proprietor of the attraction. The proprietor peered at it and extracted a piece of paper from a nearby rack that contained dozens of categorized sayings. I did it myself. Maybe it is my fortune or perhaps a just a nice poem - I don't know, as I cannot read it. |
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| The one on the left is number 6: "High position is your heavenly given fortune; Your mid age and later years are just as good. All four direstions are open for you; Changing name or moving places may even bring you better luck." | The one at right is number 30.: "The time has come and your luck is in so everything is good; Wealth and silk from four (many) countries are plenty. You are quickly to be on the list of accepted in your test.; Such a big success you have you make you family proud." |
Outside I thanked my guides ("Xie Xie" – pronounced "shay shay") and
took their picture. It was one of the best times I have ever had at a tourist
attraction.
I took my wife and another family back later that afternoon. The proprietor
recognized me but after we had descended into the cave we noticed nothing
was operational. We must have entered after the normal closing time but
were allowed in because we were all interested and in a group. We almost
sent the 13 year old that was with us to complain (isn’t that what 13 year
olds are – gofers?), when suddenly everything sprang to cacophonous life
(the proprietor realized we were in silence down there). I made sure to
get a second fortune.
Kirby Bartlett-Sloan
Email Kirby - wukong@bellsouth.net
