Behind the Baihe Nature Reserve, the mountains are higher and the forests thicker, which stopthus stopping any vehicles from going further. Half-wayHalfway up the hillside, there is situated a protection station, where lives the stationmaster and several researchers live. The station master, Mr. Zhang, the stationmaster, is a fifty-odd sturdy man, who is often referred to as "Monkey King".

Having lived here with these monkeys for nearly ten years, Mr. Zhang has become very skilled at getting along with monkeys. His oneHe can draw all the monkeys out through a call. More over, different calls can call forth different monkey groups:, male and female, old and small…quite remarkable!

With a call by Mr. Zhang, the monkeys gradually appeared, led by several beautiful male monkeys, who walked out from the empty land of the forest valorously bravely and spiritedly,. Iimmediately followed bybehind is the giant and good-looking monkey king, who weighsweighing as much as 70-80 kilograms. Far behind are the crowds of his wives and children.

These monkeys move in quick stepsquickly even when on the ground, reaching a speed of 40-50 kilometers per hour. When In the chasinge with a group of monkeys, if Zhang or one of the researchersthe man goes out of breath and starts huffing and puffing, the monkeys usuallyare most likely to turn around and make faces at him. When a monkey has neglected his duties in caring for the old and the weak, the monkey king will not spare his slappunish the perpetrator with a slap and the punished cannot resistmake any resistance.

Gold monkeys are fond of living in groups, each lead by an adult female monkey with the number of monkeys ranging from several score to several hundred. Though living quite close to each othernear, these monkey groups are very independent, usually having no contacts with each other. Within athe group, a senior and experienced male monkey usually acts as the monkey king, who is also in charge of the activities of picking and migration.

Living in a forest rich in wild flowers, fruits, twigs and barks and tender sprouts, twigs and barks, these golden monkeys can easily eat their fillfeed their stomachs full. After that, they will stay perch on branches, picking hair off each other or scratching each other's itches one moment, andclearing up the hair or scratch the itches for each other at one time, bouncing and climbing the next. Sounds of breaking branches can be heard now and then.

The agile golden monkeys can are really be hailed as the long-jump champions. At one momentOne minute, they are usually clinching to a branch, swinging it back and forth with all their strength before leaping forward with the elastic force from the treetop. The next, they are holding on tight to a tree scores many of meters away, sketching out a huge arch in the air.

By noon, all the bustle and hustle had faded away gradually, as all the monkeys are yawning and getting ready to takefor an afternoon nap. Their sleeping gestures are extremely interesting and in a large varietyvary greatly. Some monkeys sleep in small groups of three or five, and some, each shutting their eyes and resting on tree branches, look much like Buddhas;, and the mothers and their children oftenmay sleep together. The napir sleep may last as long as four hours, after which the quiet mountain forest will resume its vibrancy and vitality.

While the golden monkeys are the pets of the wooden hills, the real masters here areis the ancient Baima Tibetans, which haves their own language but no characters. Ever since the ancient times, they have been living here under the unit ofas a village. They plow ugh and did do other labor work together until they finish plowughing all of the village's arable land of the whole village, regardless of poverty or wealth. They even pasture together, with the villagers herding the whole village's cattle in turn, regardless of the number of each family. All the firewood hills, the grasslands, the waste landswastelands and even the divine mountains are public properties, which can be used by the entire village.

All year long, the Baima Tibetans to begin work at sunrise and return home at sunset. However, when one family gets runs into trouble, the village's other families in the village, even the grudging ones, will come over toand give a helpful hand no matter how busy they are, and they have kept this rustic and simple tradition up to today.

Baima Tibetans are especially good at dancing and singing, which are indispensable parts of their life. All the villagers, men and women, old and young, are capable of can singing and danceing, and they dance and sing on various occasions and for various reasons: for labor, festivals, marriages, love, funerals, sacrificial ceremonies, and daily life and so on, etc. Their songs are what they want to express, and the dances show their emotions.

When night falls and the moon rises, people will pile up the firewood and light the a bonfire on the open and spacious courtyards and grasslands, singing and dancing to their hearts' content around the bonfire and the white feathers over their heads waving in the wind. Their rustic songs, together with the gurgling Baima river,River, reverberates in the valley, likely to bringing the travelers to an ancient fairyland.

Author: Jessie

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