Qianling Park: Badminton, exercise, and monkeys

We've been in Guiyang for five days. The majority of our time has been spent at the school, at our hotel, or on the road between the two places. Today Natalie and I decided to venture a bit farther. We walked about 10 minutes from our hotel to Qianling Park, which is an enormous park in the city with a great deal of cultural history. The park is a popular place for people to visit to walk, exercise, play games, and have fun. Because the park is so large, we were only able to see a small area today, but we plan to go back and explore more.

We walked to the park and purchased entrance tickets for 5.00CNY per person, which is about $0.80USD. The majority of the park is forested mountains with paved paths, but there's a lot more there. We walked past a few temples and a waterway with stepping stones and paddle boats. The people in Guiyang are unbelievably friendly and kind. We stopped to watch two elderly gentlemen playing badminton and they invited us to join them. Natalie stepped in and played a short game with one of the men. 

Natalie playing badminton in Qianling Park, Guiyang

We continued our walk up the mountain and found a long tunnel through the mountain. We will return another day to find out what's on the other side. Near the badminton area we witnessed the Chinese equivalent of "air guitar," which appeared to involve some type of small stringed instrument played in the lap accompanying music played through a stereo. I will find out more about Chinese instruments, because I know my mother is very curious. More on Chinese music later. In the park people practice their Chinese calligraphy with long brushes and water. They write on the smooth stone walkways and then the water just evaporates.

Chinese calligraphy written with water.
The character on the left means "pen" and the character on the right means "dream."

As we explored the park we were again invited by different people to participate in activities. Natalie graciously tried a type of stick juggling. Way to go, Natalie!

Natalie learning a Chinese stick juggling trick

Farther into the park we saw a beautiful, historic temple and peacocks. We couldn't read any of the interpretive placards, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Door of a temple

Pathways within a temple

View of the area around a temple

Lizzy in the doorway of the temple grounds

At exactly 5:45pm the peacock sounded the alarm and all of a sudden a hundred or more monkeys dropped out of the trees and started climbing on everything around us. They sat on the temple roof, drank from the pond, walked down the pathways, and chased each other. They were everywhere, but the monkeys didn't bother us at all. The clearly knew the location of each trash bin and foraged for uneaten food.

Monkeys eating leftover food in Qianling Park, Guiyang

Monkeys sitting on a temple in Qianling Park, Guiyang. Can you spot the monkey in mid-flight?

After we left the park, Natalie and successfully ordered dinner at a local restaurant with the help of a few middle school girls who spoke some English. It was a good day!

Lizzy