RE: Chapter 4: The Giant Monkey of Wutong Shan---梧桐山的巨大的猴子
Great Story! That was my first time seeing a scarlet-backed flowerpecker (朱背啄花鸟) as well . There was a another flower pecker in OCT 华侨城。 I can not remember which one that was.
Wutong is big and the different sides have different features. I bet that monkey was a captive before and got so big. Four years ago walking in OCT and the same type of monkey ,rhesus macaque, was just sitting on the sidewalk. He was sitting and he was about to mid-thigh ( I am 5'10) I saw him and he saw that I saw him... and started walking toward me. I could see he was a previous street animal from someone because his wrist hair was worn where shackles use to be.
Once I saw him take interest in me, I darted the other way. They got some nasty teeth, I did not want to be the first foreigner in Shenzhen city to be attacked by a rhesus macaque.
8-12 years ago these "performance" monkeys would be in Louhu tied with a rope or some cruel shit. People would gather around and then a collector would come around to get payment to see the monkey. It was a hustle game , usually involving intimation. Also a great opportunity for pickpockets.
Those were the cowboy days, I do not see that anymore around here. Yet, when i travel to a 2nd tier city you can still see that type of thing.
Keep on Keepin on
Yep, saw it Kaiping last time. Disgustingly cruel treatment of the monkeys. I think the locals even there were sick of it since no one was giving any money and aside from a few onlookers, there really wasn't any kind of a crowd gathering. To keep a rescue monkey as a pet would be really hard too because they're so smart. You'd have to be on guard constantly and never leave them alone in the house unwatched.
I still miss those cowboy days sometimes....more sense of adventure back then.