劉三姐 Liu Shanjia

10:43AM On the way to see Cormorant Bird catching fish. 16 of us divided into 2 bamboo rafts and enjoy a 5 minutes short ride on the bamboo raft. But before we can see the fisherman fishing, we first "MUST" sing the local folk songs 'against ' three 'Scholars' - (Siew Chai). This part of the tour programme is designed only for Chinese who knows the story of Shanjia Liu. Non Chinese may see this is a meaningless activity.

There, at distant of the Li River, are the 3 scholars on another bamboo raft waiting to challenge us with the local folk songs.

24 October 2010 3rd Day Tour in China  10:15am - 11:00am

The few eldest in my age group enjoyed singing 劉三姐 Liu Sanjie's folk songs with the three 秀才SiewChai. But the few other young one swallowed their laughers and wondering what is the matter at all to come all the way from Malaysia to yelling songs on the bamboo raft on this Guilin River. If at all singing does matter, why can't just sing a few reputable Michael Jackson's songs.

The first part of the ride was this folk song singing session with the 3 siew chai and the second part was the watching their fisherman special way of catching fish which I wrote in a separate bog.

The river we are rafting on is "遇龍河Yu-Long He," literally meaning "River of Meeting a Dragon"
The boat men (the raft men) are strong. They "drive"  the raft boat using a big long bamboo. Slowly he swing the bamboo until the end reached the river bed and pushed the raft forward. The part of the river is not deep.

遇龍河Yulong River is the biggest branch of the Li River in 陽朔YangShuo County. 陽朔YangShuo is an hour drive from 桂林Guilin City. This town is descript as Heaven on Earth by too many visitors. Google 陽朔 YangShuo and you shell know why.

The clear water runs smoothly past fields, farmhouses, trees and mountains.  And this bamboo rafting on the 遇龍河Yulong Rivers feel relaxed and happy in the serenity of the green mountains. Bamboo raft ride is an excellent relaxing way to views of the amazing Yu Long River and watch the countryside just drift on by.
Hundred of tourists come for rafting on the water in this area and there are several jetty starting points at different locations along the rivers.

The jetty point our tour bus brought us to has no name no sign board and no noisy tourists.  The tour guide said this jetty point was newly completed. From the look of  new jetty and the arrangement of singing folksongs with imitating the scene of the 1960s film "劉三姐Liu Sanjie", I guess this new jetty is located specially to cater for Malaysian tourist specially elderly Malaysia Chinese tourist. Because Liu Shanjie of the 40 years old film still remain fresh and dear to the heart of the elderly Malaysian Chinese and that "桂林Guilin" and "劉三姐Liu Shanjia" are synonym to them. Coming to Guiling means coming to the home town of Liew Sanjie.

But who is 劉三姐Liu Sanjia ? Despite I repeatedly mentioning the name of Liu Shanjia to them during the tour, my son and daughter never asked this question to me. They are not interested to know. If at all they are to meet some one in China,  Jacky Chan is the one they are expecting.
The bamboo drift is slow floating gently down the course of the rivers then back again. The ride lasted for half hour. A tranquility half hour.

The excellent composition of water, bridge and mountains along this waterway is one of the favorite choices of photographers  coming to the area. I return home with few GB of images of  Guilin - the home town of  劉三姐 Liu Shanjie.

Here is the film 劉三姐 Liu Sanjie in YouTube Uploaded on Mar 18, 2011 by cctv7military

Who is the real 劉三姐 Liu Sanjie? Here is the Chinese Wiki about her:  http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/