Elephant Trunk Hill and Brush Painting



Ally, Jerri, and Amanda in front of Elephant Trunk Hill. (World's Largest Chia Pet.)



We were able to sleep in this morning until 8:00…a real treat. We started the day by visiting Elephant Trunk Hill, a large stone hill that, due to erosion, has been worn away and resembles an elephant whose trunk is in the Li River. This is a popular park with Chinese nationals. The total park area is quite large and includes several small islands. On one of the islands is a small area with stone elephants in the water for children to play on. In another area there is a large banyan tree with a dragon around its base and red decorations hanging from the branches. Wendy explained that the red decorations are part of a tradition where girls sing questions to boys on the opposite side of the tree. If the girl likes the answer she hears, she throws a decorative ball trailing a ribbon toward the boy. If he is lucky, he catches it, and her favor. I’m not sure what happens if the ball gets stuck in the tree, but there were lots of them up there in the branches. The final place we stopped was a display where they were carving items from water buffalo horns. The girls each picked out something either for personal use or as a gift for a friend back home.



The girls pose in front of the banyan tree. No singing this time.



Jerri learning from a Chinese master.

After leaving Elephant Trunk Hill we visited a school where brush painting and calligraphy are taught. One of the masters, a professor from a local university, gave a short lecture and demonstration of Chinese style brush painting. He created a beautiful landscape ink painting, explaining each step as he put the brush to the rice paper canvas. When he was done he asked if one of the girls would like to try and paint a mountain. Both Amanda and Ally were quite shy and begged off, but Jerri gave it a go. He showed her where to paint the outlines and how to brush from there to create the mountain image. She did really well, and when we were done we out into the lobby area and, you guessed it, did a little shopping. While Jerri was picking out a brush painting, Amanda and Ally were trying to entice a kitten to come out and play. Amanda managed to get it out enough that she could pet it. It was really cute, somewhat resembling Fiona’s calico markings.

More Pictures from our day...





Kittens are waaay more interesting than brushed paintings....



Jerri explains the legend of the elephant trunk hill.





Elephant Trunk Hill without too many tourists