Advertisement
Published: June 25th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Gui (龟)
I'm at the hostel with my feet in a bowl of water. I'm exhausted – I thought it would be a normal day – it’s only 10.30am.
Zao Shang, I kept my promise with the ladies in the park and went to play shuttle cock footy with them before 7am, backed out gracefully through inability to play after about 5 minutes, watched for an hour, then went home, showered, ate, then decided I would go to Ding Hui Zi Xiang and sit in the temple but on the way, whilst crossing Gan Jie at the entrance to Ping Jiang Lu, I saw a man selling a Wu Gui. It’s the third I’ve seen in as many days. All being sold in the streets, all in sad conditions.
…
I ask him how much he wants – 800 kwai - about 90.00 English pounds but I can’t pay that. Another huge crowd is gathering whilst I figure out what to do - it is terrible to see, he yanks it by its tail, its legs are gashed and it looks broken but magnificent.
So, I
walk away – I’m thinking this is what I should do right? - but my pace slows and I then turn back. I offer him 200 he says no – 300. My heart is pounding – it’s within a price range I can afford – another crowd is gathering - I'm trying to ignore them and concentrate on what I’m doing but ask them - kan shenma kan? - what are you staring at? but they don’t move - waiting for a result so I agree the price but I can’t pick the big tortoise up - have no knowledge of how to pick it up so I ask him for a bag or box. He yanks it by the leg again - I’m yelling at him to stop hurting it. He walks behind a tree for a bag. I agree to pay the money if he helps me carry it - to where for god’s sake?? The only people I know who are able to help me in this situation are shu shu and jie jie – they have tortoises though they are only a tenth of the size of this one so we head over the road and
down a little, my hands are shaking and I have no idea what I have bought – a bag of trouble. All the time, I’m figuring a way forward with this.
I say to him "stop" – I give him the money and say “gai wo” – give it to me.
He won’t hand it over and asks for another 300 - I say I’ve given him 300 then it dawns on me that there is another in the bag already, which of course he has mentioned but I didn’t understand. So now a second conversation begins. He argues for another 300, but I don’t want two. I already have to explain one away. He asks 500 for both and I say no. I say only one. He yanks mine out, I take the bag and put the poor thing in. I carry the bag dangling for a while then cradle it. The tortoise does not go into its shell and I think it is dying so I start silently crying. I’m in a busy street with hundreds of people, cars, bikes, buses pushing and shoving with a big black bag holding an enormous tortoise that I can
hardly pick up - crying all the long way to shu shu's house.
It starts to rain, I think about a taxi but keep walking, opening the bag to give it air, it rains harder.
I get to Pi Shi Jie hou mian - the lane with Shu Shu’s house and think I’ll take a chance and stop by because jie jie could be cleaning it after endless renovations. Thankfully, she is here with a worker. I am still crying and she has no idea what’s happened so helps me get the Wu Gui out of the bag. She has a little cry too. I'm sure the workman only thinks of dinner. The Wu Gui lies silently in the wet yard. It won’t move, so, eventually, we leave it to take a breath and gain its life back.
We both go to Jie Jie and Shu Shu’s house (they have two, one they live in and one they don’t) – she rides on the back of the work man’s bike – I walk and stay for a while and then go back to look at the wu gui - pronounced wooo
gway. It's a large hard backed tortoise. I’m happy to see it has found its way to the corner of the garden and started to dig into the soil behind a thin bamboo cane.
Now, I think it is nearly dead but I’ve tried - I’ve really tried to rescue something and I’ve also landed Shu Shu and Jie Jie with a bit of a problem.
At dinner, when youngest son returns home, he is told about the Wu Gui and his response is “we already have 4” so his mother gives him a small but sharp punch in the back.
So, this is my present for anyone who expects a gift when I return to England - a part-share in a big mistreated Wu Gui and it isn’t soup.
Gui (龟)
Chinese pictographic character.
The tortoise can live a long life, with some living for over 300 years. So the tortoise is used to describe longevity in Chinese, such as phrases like “guishou” (meaning “long life”), “guihu” (meaning “a tortoise and a swan”, both of which are symbols
of longevity), “guiling”(meaning “a tortoise’ age”, a metaphor for “a venerable age”) and “guiling heshou” (meaning “a tortoise’ age and a crane’s life”, another phrase describing someone’s long life”).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.218s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 19; qc: 102; dbt: 0.1418s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Sharon
non-member comment
Wow, it's amazing seeing the streets so empty. Think I only saw it like that at night time.