Guilin trip story: “The Twin Lotus Flowers”

By the side of the Li River there’s a large ridge with a special hill named “Hebao” on it. This hill shaped like two lotus buds growing together. People called this landscape the "twin lotus flowers" (two lotus on one stalk). Many tourists in Guilin trip have come and seen this hill, and also heard of the story of it.
A long time ago, there was not yet the Hebao Hill on the ridge. And by the side of the Li River there was a girl called Lian (lotus) who lived on ferry. Lian was extremely beautiful, and also highly intelligent. She was very good at singing and matching antithetical couplets. Whoever wanted to marry her needed to pass her singing and couplets test first, which made many people give up. One day, a young man named Zao (jujube) who was on the way to the capital to attend the imperial examination came to the Li River and called boat to get the other side of the river. Lian heard him and wanted to test his knowledge, so she sang towards the opposite bank to see if this young man could respond her with song too. As expected, Zao answered her quickly with a lovely song and beautiful voice. Lian was very happy to hear this, so she poled the boat across the river to see if this man was good looking. When she saw him, she found Zao was quite handsome, so she said:” If you can match my couplet, I will ferry you cross the river, otherwise you’d better go home and study for another several years.” Zao accepted the challenge, and of course passed easily, which made Lian like him more. When the boat arrived at the other side of the river, Lian and Zao had already fallen in love with each other. Even though Lian would not let Zao leave, he still had to finish the exam. He promised her that he would come back no matter he got ranking or not. And at last Lian sang a song to send him off, in the song, she also promised that she would be with Zao together all her life and even after died they would become a twin lotus without separation.
But three years passed and Zao didn’t come back. Lian came to the mountain where she saw Zao off three years ago and waited for him there every day.
Zao went to the capital and attended the imperial examination. The test was so easy to him and he thought that his name would be definitely on the scholar list. But it didn’t happen because he was too poor to send bribe to the claims examiner. When he knew the result he was so angry that he got sick seriously. Since he had no money to see the doctor, he only got a little better after three years. He immediately went back to Guilin to meet Lian. When Lian saw her lover she had not eat or drink for a long time. She lied in Zao’s arms and said:” Zao, I can’t be with you when I am alive, I wish we could become the twin lotus after we die.” Then she passed away. Zao was extremely grieved, and cried for three days. He was already very weak being sick for so long, and crying so hard made him unable to keep alive either. So at last he died beside Lian. 
Later, Zao and Lian’s bodies disappeared, instead, two big lotus buds appeared on the ridge, which turned into a rock hill gradually, and this hill is called the Hebao Hill, just the landscape “The Twin Lotus Flowers” we see nowadays.

 

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