Bridging the Gap
By Prof. Henry Funtecha

Zhuhai, China's residential haven

(Note: The writer was n China during the second week of April 2005)

A favorite choice of the rich and the retirees in southern China for their place of residence is Zhuhai. Facing the South China Sea, it is considered as a peaceful and healthful place because there is no pollution due to the absence of factories. It is not crowded because, with roughly the same size as that of Shenzen whose population is a whooping 7 million, Zhuhai has less than 2 million.

Zhuhai is also known as the 'Garden City of China' because of its beautiful, colorful and well-manicured gardens and the 'Islands City of China' because of its 146 islets of various sizes. It is further given the title, 'Seafood Capital of Southern China' due to its wide fishponds and booming fishing industry. Being a seafood capital, one finds a lot of restaurant offering the bounty of the sea in Zhuhai. Moreover, it is also known as the 'Sea of Pearl' because of its South China pearls, famous the world over. In fact, experts are saying that there are only three countries in the world known for pearls and these are: China, Japan and Italy.

Zhuhai is indeed a beautiful city with wide boulevards pockmark by flowering and ornamental plants, and by sculptured trees. The lovers' boulevard is especially interestng because of its abstract sculptures of man and woman in intimate huddles. Also, there are not so many high-rise buildings around but there are beautiful villas owned by the rich.

One ubiquitous feature of Zhuhai is the presence of many fishing boats in a section of its harbor. These are owned by the Tan-tan or the boat people who spend most of their time on water fishing and staying in their boat houses.

At the entrance of Zhuhai is its artistic statue serving as the symbol of the city. This is the statue of Xingjiang, a beautiful fisherwoman. According to Zhuhai folklore, Xingjiang was the second of five daugthers of a dragon living in an underwater palace in the East China Sea. Xingjiang, however, became bored of her life under the sea and she ran away. Making use of her magical jade ring, she transformed herself into a beautiful maiden and went to Zhuhai. She told the residents that she was washed away to the shores of Zhuhai when the boat she was riding on capsized in deep water.

Xingjiang led a life of an ordinary young woman in Zhuhai. She was known to be kind-hearted, always willing to help. She eventually got married to Ding-ding, a strong, handsome young man. However, Dong-dong, Ding-ding's bossom friend, was secretly in love with Xingjiang and he plotted an evil scheme to separate the two. By closely observing Xingjiang, he discovered that every time she removed her jade ring, she can turn herself back into a dragon. He told Ding-ding about this but the latter will not believe him. So, he dared Ding-ding to remove the ring of Xingjiang while the latter was asleep at night to find out the truth. Ding-ding at first cannot make himself agree to the scheme but eventually consented after a while.

When Ding-ding removed Xingjiang's jade ring, she immediately turned into a dragon and due to his shocking discovery, he lost consciousness as if already dead. The following morning, when Xingjiang woke up and turned into a human being again, she discovered her husband to be almost dead. She bought Ding-ding to all the known doctors in the area but to no avail. She became so desperate that she wanted to kill herself, but fortunately she learned that there was an old medicine man living in the forest that could possibly bring back to life Ding-ding agan. So, she set to find the old man and after much hardships she found him. The medicine man, however, said that he will only give her the magic herbal tea that will cure Ding-ding if she can pay him well. She promised to pay him the largest and most beautiful pearls in the world. He scoffed at this because he said how can an ordinary woman like her do this.

Anyway, Xingjiang promised to return and after a short while she came back with the pearls given to her by her dragon father, who, despite what his daughter did, still loved her. It turned out that the old medicine man was just testing her love for Ding-ding because he did not accept the pearls. Readily, he gave the medicinal herb to Xingjiang who promptly went home and administered the medicine to Ding-ding. And, lo and behold, Ding-ding breathed life again, opened his eyes and looked at his beloved wife who, because of her great love for Ding-ding, had now become truly human. Xingjiang and Ding-ding trekked back to the mountain to thank the old medicine man but they never saw any trace of him.

Xingjiang and Ding-ding lived happily and had many children who were instrumental in the development of Zhuhai. Dong-dong, on his part, left the place and was never heard of since then. The story of Xingjiang, in a sense, is the story of Zhuhai.