My Favourite Story Teller: Sat 14 June 2014, by Ian Neuss

Commercial activities in the new old fort at Jiayuguan are mostly serious and entail a lot of souvenir rocks, 'jade', wood carvings and lollies, but one item caught my attention. An ancient picture show with silk screens in a box and a story teller who literally and metaphorically pulled the strings. She gave a wonderful rendition, even though it was in mandarin, her tones inflections and efforts made it worth the 80cents for 4 short stories. I'm sure she pulled the strings to suit the audience as one was about a couple caught in bed by someone who was very stern and wielding a sword. I think she was great and paid for Bill to see if he was as thrilled.