First Sight of the Valley

    I yearned to see how a Francois’s leaf monkey shakes the white hair on the cheeks when it’s eating the unripe green pomelos.
    The sky over the valley of the Wujiang River looks like an azure river.
    In the middle of September, holding on to the steep rocks and facing the hot wind, we advanced with difficulty between the tranquil Mayanghe River and the torrential Wujiang River.
   On reaching the precipice, something bright came into our view: Four or five hundred meters below, a green river from the sluice gate gradually joined in the rapids of the Wujiang River quietly and unhurriedly.
    This made me think of a master of the traditional Chinese painting who gently rendered a magic touch, and that single touch instantly changed the whole picture into one overflowing with warmth and tranquility.
    To our right, the valley was within 100 meters! And to the bottom of the valley was only 20 meters or so.    
    At long last, we arrived at the protection zone. The green river in the valley proved to be the Mayanghe River!
    I shuddered to think: Was the kingdom of Francois’s leaf monkeys in this deep valley?
    There are various kinds of leaf monkeys in the world, such as Presbytis entellus, Pygathrix nemaeus, Trachypithecus geei and Presbytis melalophus. In China, there live such species as Presbytis leucocephalus, Francois’s leaf monkeys, Presbytis phayrei and Trachypithecus pileatus. Francois’s leaf monkeys are only found in Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. According to the survey conducted in 1993, in the Mayanghe River Protection Zone which covered only 42 square kilometers, there existed 38 groups of Francois’s leaf monkeys which totaled 400 or so.
    Thanks to all the meticulous protective work over those years, the population of Francois’s leaf monkeys had increased to 500 according to the 1998 survey.
Within an area as small as the protection zone, there was such a dense concentration of Francois’s leaf monkeys. And the kingdom was founded in a very special territory. The mystery and enigma about Francois’s leaf monkeys radiated infinite temptation and glamour.
    It was laborious and dangerous to go upstream along the Mayanghe River. Worse still, we frequently lost sight of the river down at the bottom of the valley.     There were times that we could see the river, but it was no more than a green strip in our eyes. And at other times we could only see through the dense woods patches of green light. Yet we never felt unsure. And we closely watched the bamboo groves and bushes, in the hope that Francois’s leaf monkeys would emerge. Unfortunately, they were not so hospitable.