Adventure in FengHuang County

Did you have experience that heard a mysterious music not only in the still of the night but also in an abandoned castle? I met similar case personally, only the place is different. The scene was happened in a quiet and ancient town --- FengHuang County. 
I believe many travelers know FengHuang County in China for its beautiful. It is located in the southwest of Hunan Province; and the ancient town is placed at the foot of mountain and beside TuoJiang River. Fantastic landscape, well-preserved historic sites which have more than hundreds years history, and unique custom of Miao & Tujia Minorities, all of these absorbed many backpackers visit there.  

The adventure was happened in August 2005. As a part of my backpack travelling, I went there and stayed in an inn (see above photo) opened by local people. The standard room was simple and clean, small but comfortable. During check-in, I met Cong, my roommate; due to close background, we sooner knew each other quite well and chatting with gusto till the midnight. At a time when we prepared to sleep, we heard the instrumental music out of our windows; initially we thought it may from our neighbor’s TV, but quickly we changed our mind because the kind of melody was unlike the style that TV or broadcast station played, and the tune fluctuated wildly from high to low. Cong winked at me, and we bent over the windowsill to see what was happening outside. There was a crowd of people all in white dress across from the river but it was difficult to observe them clearly from our angle. Our curiosities drove us crawled across the bed and moved to balcony; in an instant, we were both dumb-struck. They were holding a funeral rite! I had already heard of local mystical funeral custom, but I had never thought I would meet it. We watched for a while and held our breath as we can for fear we might disturb them. A full moon hung high in the sky, everything was frozen. I tried to move back to the room, but my legs seemed useless. I looked at Cong while he looked at me; we found the expression on our faces was both quite strange…

In the breakfast of the second day morning, we asked other people whether knew what happened last night, but it was unbelieveable that nobody realized it. The ancient town covered in morning mist, mysterious and attractive.