Home Guilin trip story: the origin of the Apple Hill
Guilin trip story: the origin of the Apple Hill
Passed the Carp Beach by boat, you could see the “Boy worshiping the Goddess of Mercy” Landscape, and if you keep going down the Li River you will arrive at the Langshi Village. Look far into the distance at the Langshi Ferry, you will see a large platform among the mountains in front of you. On the platform there’s a circular rock hill shaping like a big apple on a plate. It is called the Apple Hill.
It was said that the Queen Mother of the West heard the words of Chang creating a garden in Guilin, which was a picturesque scenery and even better than her Jasper Lake. The Queen Mother felt very uncomfortable, so she told Chang E that she would like to have a Guilin trip. Chang E dared not to be a poor host so she got Guilin very early to greet Queen Mother’s coming. Chang E specially made a colorful boat with peacock's tail feathers and pheasant feathers to take Queen Mother start her trip to Yangshuo.
And Queen Mother actually had a good time in Guilin with those fabulous landscapes, so Chang E was happy too. Then she asked the Turtle Prime Minister in the river to add to the fun. She asked him to bear the colorful boat on his back and swim upstream steadily.
The Turtle prime minister did his best to serve the Queen Mother since this was a great chance that he could hardly get. The Queen Mother was very satisfied and promised to bring him back to the sky palace when she returned. The Turtle Prime Minister was so happy that he got a little eaten up by the pride. So when they met a fleet of business ship going downstream to sell apples in Guangzhou, he shouted at them quite rudely and asked them to get off the Queen Mother’s way.
The merchants were all northerners who were very forthright, so they shouted back to the turtle:” The Queen Mother what? Should be able to offend people no reason by rude remarks?"
The Queen Mother was used to live high on the hogs, how could she bear people to shout at her like this? So she asked the turtle to bear her on his back and went up to the sky. She waved her sleeve so that the fleet could not move any more no matter how hard they tried. All the merchants started to worry about their apples, and the leader said maybe they could turn to Chang E.
In fact, Chang E knew clearly what happened on the river. Although there was a reason, the Queen Mother actually did too far. She could not hold her hand to see the merchants being in distress, and an idea came up her mind, so she went directly to the Jasper Lake by riding the cloud.
The Queen Mother returned the sky palace and was just in a bad mood. At this time Chang E came with a bottle of sweet osmanthus wine which was exactly after the Queen Mother’s heart. Since Chang E had put some sleeping pills into the wine, after the Queen Mother finished it, she fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake up for three whole days.
After the Queen Mother fell asleep, Chang E stole a bottle of the celestial water from the Jasper Lake and spread it to the fleet of business ships, and then she waved her sleeve towards south, those ships were able to move again.
Those merchants picked out the largest apple, and dedicated it to Chang E for gratitude.
It is said that the Apple Hill was just turned from this apple.
