Gillick's World Explores China: Hunan, Guangdong and Guanxi | Page 30

Scenery through a curtain of bamboo

Danxia Mountain, a UNESCO World Heritage site is about 3
hours north of Guangzhou. Danxia refers to landforms of red
sandstone that have eroded over the years and now appear
as sculpted rocks and sheer cliffs. Our first stop, the Yang
Yuan Mountain (also known as the Male Rock), is one of the
more popular attractions. At 28 meters high and 7 meters
around, this rock formation resembles a phallus. While
tourists position themselves for group photos and
provocative selfies in front of the rock, some locals kneel
before an alter, to light incense and pray for fertility, for
themselves and family members.
A lakeside lunch featured home cooking: fried chicken (with
the head of the bird staring at us), mushroom and bamboo
soup, steamed asparagus, fiddleheads, red peppers and
bok choy, fat rice noodles on a bed of mountain greens
drizzled in oyster sauce, and small fried river fish. It was
very tasty and quite typical of the delicious food on which the
province prides itself. For a digestif, we tasted 50 proof ‘Shi
Hu Jiu’ a local rice wine that added some ‘zing’ to an
already wonderful day.

The Yang Yuan Mountain a.k.a. Male Rock