Guilin wine museum

The ticket for the Elephant Trunk Hill also included the admission to a "wine" museum in the park. Chinese sometimes refer to their traditional hard alcohol has wine, but don't be tricked. Chinese alcohol is called 白酒 (baijiu) and, as many a friend has told me, will "destroy your soul." (More because of the taste and aftertaste rather than Satan being involved) Somehow Chinese men love this drink and will sip it during lunch (which we affectionately refer to as baijiu lunches (after which the pink faced Chinese men stumble back to work)) and dinner. Anyhow, the museum showed how the production process developed and was a large part of the city's history.



The picture above shows the development of the character for alcohol (酒）and different ways it has been written. The evolution of Chinese characters is pretty interesting. The following picture shows a giant vat of traditional Chinese medicinal alcohol. This particular one contains a snake, fetal lamb, along with some other animals and spices.



The final food I tried at the park is a traditional food called zongzi (粽子) (I think). It is glutinous rice mixed with chestnuts (or something like that) and spices, wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. I have tried it before, but this one was pretty bad (and a mess).