FENGHUANG memories from my ARMCHAIR

FENGHUANG BY NIGHT is as colourful as this East Asian mythological bird with feathers of black, white, red, blue and yellow. The males are called Feng and the females Huang and they reigned over all other birds.  Scriptures describe the fenghuang as a fusion of many birds with a rooster’s beak, swallow’s face, the forehead of a fowl, snake’s neck, goose’s goose, tortoise’s back, stag's hindquarters and a fish's tail.

Our Movement Control Order has been extended till March 4^th. Presently, we cannot travel out of state unless it is in sickness or death (not our own obviously!). As I rearrange files in my external drives, all these holiday pixs pop up. 

Covid-19 passports may be our only answer to international travel again, but for the moment it is only armchair holidays. 

We arrived at Fenghuang, an ancient country town in Southwest Hunan at night fall on 6^th November 2019. 

It was cold and way past dinner time so I wasn’t exactly in a very excitable mood to land in “the most beautiful town” in China. 

Luckily the rooms were beautiful. But before I could snuggle into the hanging chair, …chop chop we were summoned to do the night walk. 

Oh mann, it was 9.30pm already, my extremities were frozen even with cap, thermal socks and gloves. I get real cranky when I am cold!

But, the crankiness ebbed away 

along the corridors 

as the peace and colours of Fenghuang flowed into my veins. 

Fenghuang straddles along 

the pulsating Tuo Jiang River 

which reflects the colours and its architecture

   so clearly.  

It is looking at mirror images of buildings 

and pagodas 

and lights joined together like identical twins. Look hard to tell when a structure stops and its reflection begins, it's not easy.   Her people were still awake, 

carving their ancient scripts,

 drumming the distant beats

and remembering the bird that that this ancient town was named for.

GANBEI, the night is forever young in Fenghuang.