Guilin travel story: the story about a field snail girl

Shipping through Xingping, the Majing Ferry is straight ahead. From this ferry you can see two separated hills on the right bank of theLi River. The tall one has a small and rounded peak just like an exquisitely crafted head portrait. The backside of this portrait is covered by green plants with numerous branches, which seems like a girl’s hair; the front of the portrait is very smooth, rosy, like a girl’s face with light make-up. The whole mountain is just like a dignified and virtuous lady sitting aside the river, so people named it the Beauty Peak (Meinu Feng). In front of the Beauty Peak, there is a small hill with smooth cliffs, as a "bronze mirror" placed in front of the beautiful girl. These two peaks have made a scene called "Beauty Dressing". Many tourists in Guilin travel have come to this place and appreciate this fabulous landscape.
Down from this scene about 300 meters, there is an isolate hill whose height is above a hundred meters by the side of the Li River. There’s a huge, thick coil print on this hill which made it look like a big field snail, therefore it is called the Snail Hill (Luoshi Hill). And the Carp Hill (Liyu Hill) is about 200 meters down away the Snail Hill. There’s a story about these two hills.
It was said that when the dragon king of the south ocean Aoqin was about to be 36,900 years old, he invited all the immortals in the heaven, in the hell and in the oceans to celebrate his birthday. Everyone came with presents and the party was so lively. But the Moon Fairy---- Chang E used to quiet life, so she went to the dragon king’s garden to get relaxed.
When Chang E was leisurely wandering in the garden, suddenly she heard the sound of crying came from the back of a jade rockery. Chang E went to see what happened, and she found a snail girl weeping on the gem platform. Certainly Chang E asked this snail girl what she was crying for. And the snail girl told her that a carp in the ocean forced her to marry him since he was related to the king. She disagreed and was beaten by the crab seriously. She could not bear being treated like this, so she wanted to kill herself with a robe.
Chang E said: "You're still so young, and should not commit suicide. Let me try to help you escape from the ocean."
After saying this, Chang E pointed at the snail girl and turned her into a pearl on her used gold hairpin. And after the party ended, she left leisurely and went to Guilin with the snail girl. She turned the snail girl back to her original appearance and suggested her to start a new life at the beautiful place. Then she went back to the Moon palace.
Since then, the snail girl lived in the Li River and was happy and free. Many days later, she found that there were only two ferry boats at the Majing ferry. The large one belonged to a big rich Liu in Xingping. Although it was very fast and could carry many people in one time, the fare for ferry was very expensive. The small one belonged to a young man named Chunsheng who was very kind and never cared about how much money people paid. Though people would like to take the young man’s boat, but it was very small and could only carry a few people one time. So many people had no choice but board the big boat.
The snail girl gradually fell in love with Chunsheng. And every time he was ferrying, she stuck herself under his boat and push it to move. Since then, the small boat was so fast like flying. And no one went to board the big boat any more. Of course Liu was very angry with this so he sent people to smite Chunsheng and burn his boat. Chunsheng lost his boat and had to cut wood to sell for life.
One day, Chunsheng came home from selling firewood and he went to wash his face with the water in the Li River. At this time he saw a large, light snail swimming towards him. Chunsheng liked it very much and then he brought it home and stocked it in the water vat.
One night, Chun-sheng was reading by the light of the oil lamp. Suddenly the lid of the water vat fell on the ground and a beautiful girl came out of the vat. Chunsheng was scared and asked who she was. The snail girl told him her story and apologized for his boat and injuries. Then she told Chunsheng that she like him and would like to spend the rest life with him. Chunsheng thought the snail girl was kind-hearted, so he agreed balmily.
After the two married, their life was very happy. Chunsheng went to chop wood every day and the snail girl turned her snail shell and snail lid into a wheelbarrow and a hob, which made Chunsheng’s job finished easily.
But soon, Liu knew about this and sent people to rob the wheelbarrow and the hob. However, these two treasures always flew home by themselves every night. Liu’s assistant thought that the snail girl must be a demon, so he hired several people in the town and tried to driver her out. But these people didn’t succeed, instead, they were teased by the snail girl. At this time, a man appeared and said that he was very good at dealing with demons. So Liu asked his assistant to show Chunsheng’s house to this man. When he came to Chunsheng’s home, the snail girl recognized that he was just the crab. She was so scared and the carp threatened her to go back with him or he would kill her. But the snail girl said that she would rather die than to be his concubine. The carp was so angry that he threw the wheelbarrow and the hob out, then these two things turned into rocks immediately. The snail girl knew that she was impossible to escape the carp’s doom, so she said goodbye to Chunsheng and butted into the rock then turned into a rock hill which is just the Snail hill.
Chunsheng was very furious, and other civilians were also very angry with the carp’s act, so they sieged the carp with all kinds of hoes and shovels. The carp was originally very fierce and cruel, so he killed most of the villages and then wanted to escape from the Li River.
While the carp was ready to jump into the river, Chang E just heard the crying from the village and arrived. She threw a sword towards the carp and the sword went through him which ended his life. Now you can still see the big hole on the Carp Hill which is just made by Chang E’s sword.

 

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