Travel China: Qi Xing Yan in Guangdong Province

We woke up at 6am, climbed on a bus packed with people, and traveled to the border of Guangdong province to find a place somewhere between the spectral karsts of Guangxi and the. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect: Ms. Yue and the interns eyes brightened every time they mentioned the place. I knew that Guangdong was located in the western part of the province and was famous for its beauty and for its supposed healing properties of the mind and soul. I had to check it out.

Located in the western area of Guangdong, Qi Xing Yan 七星岩 (known in English as the “Seven Star Peaks”), the park was only recently established, though the place has a history hundreds of years old. Despite its notoriety among the Chinese, there is relatively little literature about the place in English. However, it was enjoyable to just take in the beauty of the place. In fact, the lack of information made it more possible for me to feel the calming, reassuring presence here. Akin the sense of eerie mystery that I had felt in Guangxi, Qi Xing Yan seemed to have some kind of strange power.

As we continued on the trip, I could see Miss Yue’s attitude transform. In the morning, as we had first arrived and got lost making our way there–like any good journey in China, you have to get completely lost at least once–Ms. Yue was understandably upset. She hadn’t slept well the night before, and the taxi driver seemed to have difficulty understanding where we wanted to go, despite Ms. Yue’s explanations in both sharp Mandarin and cutting Cantonese. But as we walked around the bridges and trees, Ms. Yue’s manner changed. She shifted from grumpy to pleasantly amused by the young children to a sense of wonderment as we saw a duck on the lake startle and fly away.

I didn’t fully understand Qi Xing Yan until I met Buddha pictured here. Carved from three large pieces of limestone several hundred years ago, this Buddha may not be the biggest stone sitting Buddha in the world, but it is a happy Buddha, and seemed to have the power to share its mirth with anyone who took time to watch him for a moment.