Cormorant Birds, Scroll Paintings, and a Celebrity in the Antique Market
China | Guilin + Shanghai | March 2005
Flying into Guilin, I understood for the first time why Chinese landscape painting looks the way it does. Those mountains aren't stylized or romanticized. They're real. Flying in and seeing them rise up from every direction, green and craggy and half-wrapped in mist, was like being lowered into a Chinese scroll painting. We had been waiting for this version of China the whole trip.
Our first evening we took an optional trip to see a demonstration of Cormorant fishing, a practice that has been going on for hundreds of years. The birds' lifespans can reach 25 to 30 years, and they typically work with the same family their entire lives. A string is tied loosely around their necks so they can dive and catch fish but cannot fully swallow them. The fish are collected into a bucket and the birds go back in. Fishing traditionally happens at night, and we were freezing watching it, but I loved every minute. There's something about the relationship between these fishermen and their birds, the way the fishermen talked to them while they worked, that felt like watching something ancient and precise and quietly extraordinary.
The next day was our boat tour of the Li River, four hours through scenery that our photos genuinely cannot do justice to. The mountains kept appearing and disappearing and reappearing in different configurations as we moved, like they were showing off. We stopped at a small village at the end for shopping, which is always my portion of any itinerary to look forward to. At a stall there we found beautiful handmade scroll artwork from local artists. An elderly man invited Matt to come see more pieces behind his shop and we followed him through to his home, where he had a whole collection of things he wanted to show us. He wanted Matt to take a picture of the two of us together, and then of course how could we possibly not buy something after that.
We also visited a cave nearby and then a saltwater pearl factory, which sounds like a strange pairing and it was, but the pearl factory had the most beautiful baby I have ever seen in my life. You'll have to trust me on that until you see the pictures.
Guilin was our exhale. After Beijing and Xi'an, it was the softer, more painterly side of China that let us slow down and just look.
Shanghai was a different kind of surprise: it felt European. The architecture along the Bund, the general energy of the city, the way it carried itself, all felt more Paris or London than anything we'd experienced in the previous two weeks. If it weren't for the absolutely extraordinary numbers of bicycles everywhere you looked, you might briefly forget where you were.
We decided to break from the tour group on our last day and go fully solo, which turned out to be completely the right call. We started at the Bund, watching ballroom dancers and people doing Tai Chi along the river in the morning. Then we visited the Chinese Gardens, which are exactly as beautiful as their reputation suggests: classical, precise, peaceful.
Then came our great antique market adventure. We had the hotel write down the address for a local antique market and took a taxi. The driver dropped us on a street corner and pointed. No market visible. We walked around. Still no market. I flagged down a couple of passersby with a smile and my piece of paper. They pointed in the same direction as the driver. So we committed: down a narrow alley with laundry hanging overhead and bicycles leaning against every wall. Then we turned a corner and there it was, stalls on both sides of a neighborhood street, completely tucked away, completely wonderful. We found some beautiful old Chinese carved wood pieces and I was very happy.
Then Matt grabbed my arm. "That's Katie Couric." I looked. It was absolutely Katie Couric, standing in the middle of an antique market stall in Shanghai. Matt said "no way." I was positive. We became complete groupies immediately. We hovered near her stall, struck up a conversation with one of the women she was with, and asked if Katie would mind taking a photo with us. The woman said she hadn't been recognized all day and wouldn't mind at all. Her husband worked with Katie and they lived in Shanghai. We spent several minutes talking about our China experiences and she suggested other places to see. Then Katie came out and was genuinely lovely. She had someone take two pictures just in case one didn't turn out. She chatted with us and shook our hands before getting into a van. In an antique market. In Shanghai. The world is a very small and occasionally very surprising place.
The rest of the afternoon was serious shopping at a multi-level market that sold everything imaginable: purses, luggage, jewelry, sunglasses, DVDs for a dollar. Everyone coming at you saying "Ello, Ello, Ello!" as they followed you from stall to stall with their photo albums of merchandise. We bargained for everything, which takes real time and patience but is its own kind of fun when you get the hang of it. We bought enough that we had to purchase an additional suitcase just to get it all home.
We met up with the tour group for a final dinner and river cruise through the illuminated city at night, which was a beautiful way to close out what had been one of the most significant trips of our lives. China itches at you long after you leave. There's so much more to see. We've talked about going back ever since.