A conclusion to Plan Guilin: Shenhua is dead.

December 15, 2011. Written in Hong Kong

A conclusion to Plan Guilin: Shenhua is dead.

                      The killer in front of his new territory.

As mentioned at the beginning of my arrival in Guilin, I had a certain task to my visit. It was my goal to find spots related to the video-game "Shenmue", of wich a major part takes place in Guilin.

Shenhua, a girl from the small village of Bailu, Guilin, was a pure hearted, strong minded girl. The typical heroin of a video-game, I would say.
Until she meets Ryo; the main character of the game, she has never before had any connection with a foreigner, and knows nothing about the world outside of Guilin. She also seems to have some special powers, but what these powers are about remains a mystery since the Shenmue series end at a cliffhanger. As a kid, Guilin inside the video-game felt like such a magical and beautifull world, and I knew that I would have to go there one day for myself.

The real Guilin, while still having some rural parts were no tourists come, has for the most become a largely visited tourist spot. However, in the mountains and along the river far away from civilization, there are still many mysteries to be discovered, and it was a fantastic place to visit indeed. But no matter how much I searched, Shenhua was nowhere to be found.
 Whenever I found a mystic spot, I would scream her name out loud, but never was she there to answer me.

After two weeks of hard searching, I simply had to believe that she was not there anymore. I gave my last effort by looking out for her from the rooftop of my guesthouse, but after that I decided to make an end on my search for her.

Ronald McDonald put lights on those beautifull mountains...

With an empty feeling I wandered along the streets. I had myself some pineapple-buns to feel a little better. Then, I headed into the claypott-place. I head there every evening with my fellow researchers for dinner. It was nice as always, but I still couldn't help myself searching for a clue of Shenhua somewhere inside my dish.

Where are you Shenhua?

But as always, there was no clue to be found. I had really lost all my hope now and decided to go back to the hostel to sleep. I went into the bathroom and took one of the free little toothbrush tubes they give away here. And while brushing my teeth, I suddenly noticed it. How could I have not noticed all the time? How could I have been so stupid!? My only clue to Shenhua was lying here, right in the bathroom!

I now had myself thinking harder than ever before in my life about what this could possibly mean. Once I finally understood what had happened, I felt very sad, but at the same time satisfied to finally know what had happened to her.

When Shenhua was brushing her teeth at the toillet, Ronald McDonald came in to kill her. Ryo followed after him to rescue Shenhua, but got flushed into the toillet. Shenhua did not know what to do, but before Ronald McDonald flushed her into the toillet as well, she managed to write her name on the toothpaste, hoping that someone would one day find it and take revenge on Ronald McDonald.

I felt very honored that I was the person to find this note (or toothpaste) from her, but at the same time, I now finally realised why we never got a sequel to Shenmue and why we will never get one. The two main characters got flushed by Ronald McDonald!

...That being said, allow me to now make an end to Plan Guilin and move on to a different location.
All I can do is devote my life to the battle against Ronald McDonald, the killer of Shenhua and Ryo!