Xuanwu Lake 2: Electric Boogalo
- Riley Smith
- Sep 26, 2019
- 5 min read
I'm going to stop apologizing for breaking the 4th (3rd?) wall. I think you, my wonderful dear readers, are smart enough to understand that just because I'm writing something, it doesn't mean that thing is currently happening. There are two me's: me, the character in the blog who is living the blog, and me, the writer who is writing the blog. Remember how I said I should be able to get a lot of blogging done because I had nothing to do? Well, the opposite turned out to be true, (I'm trying not to spoil anything) so I didn't right as much as I would of liked. Also, do to those circumstances, I am now a little drunk and continuing to drink. So I am drunk while writing this, but I'm not drunk while actually living those circumstances. I was sober during at the lake, I'm drunk now. I hope that's not too confusing. I think you will get it. Anyway, on with the blog.
I arrive on the fourth island hungry, tired and desperate for a bathroom. I quickly find a portapotty, having successfully created a plug for myself I only need to urinate, and decide that food is the new number one priority and I won't look at anything until I eat. But this is by far the most beautiful island I have seen yet. And look! There's a cute little bamboo garden. And there are some bird houses. And there are lots of men carrying heavy pipes. I still continue to wander down every corner I can find, by take fewer photos because my phone is dying.
Finding no food on the fourth island, I travel on to the fifth. Man, these dogs are barking. (I've wanted to use this expression so many times while I'm out here, but I don't think anyone would get it). Delirious from exhaustion and hunger, I wandered on to the fifth time, this time determined to find food before I get sidetracked.
It was at this point I found the Xuanwu Lake Bonsai Museum. I love bonsai! So I walked straight in. According to this museum, the Chinese actually invented bonsai, not the Japanese (but if the Chinese invented it, why did they give it a Japanese name?) The Chinese also claim that bonsai was originally about making small trees, it was just putting rocks in a frame to create a visual poem. They say the frame is as much a part of the art as the rocks themselves.
I don't like the rock bonsai nearly as much as the little trees, but it's still sort of cool I guess. I also don't really get the poem element. Do they sand these rocks or do they just find them? Apparently, there are rock bonsai competitions in China every year, and some of the rocks in this museum had won first place before. So these are some pretty fancy rocks! Remembering I am dying of starvation, I headed back outside.
Outside, there were all the tree bonsai! Now tree bonsai I can get into. The trees are so small, how do they do it? Sometimes the trees bend in weird ways, do the artist's mold how they grow? How do they do it? I think making a bonsai tree is a good life goal. If a spider makes a web inside a bonsai tree, is the spider now a part of the art? I think it is. I geeked out over the bonsai for a bit, but I was really starving so soon headed back out in search for food.
And instead found an little insect museum. It was very small, so I looked through everything quickly but they had some pretty cool dung beetles and butterflies in little glass boxes and a giant book that showed worm trails in leaves. I didn't take any pictures though and soon left.
And found the cutest little Chinese bookstore. And inside the bookstore was a little cafe! My heart skipped a beat. This was exactly what I needed. I guess there was no real food, but there was a wall charger! I could sit and rest for a second, charge my phone, snack and sip on something. I was very pleased. I ordered a grapefruit tea and a matcha cake, which were very good but overpriced, (but really very good) and sat down to charge my phone and journal for a bit.
While eating a letting my phone charge, I get a text from Salma. "Sorry Riley, they just gave us a lot of homework and I don't think I can show you around tonight. Bu if you are still here tomorrow we can still go, I'm sorry my schedule is so full." I text her back "No worries, school is important. Yeah I should be here tomorrow, let me know when you get off." I'm not gonna lie, I was disappointed. I was really looking forward to talking to people (plus, I had created an unrealistic image of Salma as a possible love of my life in an attempt for humor for my blog that had absolutely nothing to do with the person she really is.) But I didn't let it get me down. At least we were still going to hang out tomorrow. Plus, I had a little cake and tea in me. I was in a cute book shop with an old study. So instead of pouting, I asked if they had any books in English I could look at while my phone charged.
They had one book in English (actually two, but the other one seemed like shit so I put it back right away.) It was a book of poetry called Gitanjali and it was written by Rabindranith Tagore, a Chinese poet who wrote this book in English in the early 20th century and won the Pulitzer. (I remember, when I worked in a book store, people would ask for Spanish books and my only suggestion would be Rumi because they would have Spanish and English translations side by side.) It's a lot of poems about loving God and talking to God and needing God, but he never calls God God, he just says my old friend. And he hates rich people and the church and loves the poor. I found a lot of it very beautiful. I ended up buying the book, like a chump. I doubt I will regret it, but I am very poor.
This book store also had Chinese translations of Bob Dylan albums sold as poetry books in what looked like chip bags. At first I thought they were selling Bob Dylan Chips, but know, it was poetry.
While leaving the bookstore and island 5 (by far, my favorite island), I can across an area where trees had been painted on. I found this one particularly breath taking. There was also another, smaller, abandoned children's theme park, that was for some reason blasting techno music.
Island 5 connected back to island 1, so I was right back where I had started just five hours earlier. My rest at the book shop had helped, but I still hadn't seen all of island 1 and I didn't do another section of the perimeter. The explorer in me started yelling. "Don't give up, don't head back to the train station and see something else. Keep looking at Xuanwu lake, that way you don't have to come back." Despite being exhausted, I went on to explore the rest of island 1. But man, these dogs are barking.
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