Hope everyone's enjoying their holidays!
Went back to the Sheraton on another shift and managed to meet the receptionist manager; He told me that production kept very much to themselves, referring to everything they did as a "commercial secret". He did talk to one of the locals in charge though, and although he (the guy in charge) was a Beijinger, he did work for a travel consultancy based in
Shanghai. Does this mean anything?
The Sun & Moon Towers are on Shan Lake, and although the ticket counter people told me there wasn't any filming at the towers last month, they pointed me across the lake to
Zhiyin Tai (loosely translatable as Soulmate Pier). It's just a pretty stone platform jutting out into the lake, where boats leave to cruise the lakes and rivers of Guilin.
There was a ticket counter there for boat cruises, and the guy there (in a very suspicious manner) told me he didn't know anything, and that he worked on alternate days, so maybe he missed whatever was going on. Refused to admit to anything regarding filming, unlike the other people I asked. Checked back the next day and there he was in the booth. Not a really good liar, eh?
A lady there with a photo shop told me she remembers a huge crowd of people rushing onto the platform from the street (Binjiang Lu, or Waterside Rd), did a little bit of filming, and rushed off again. She said she didn't see any activity with regards to the boats. She thinks it was in the early afternoon.
Also met this bunch of really lovely cleaning ladies, who told me they heard of filming being done in the morning. (They told me they were working in the afternoon shift, and therefore didn't see the racers.) Was in the morning though when I met them, so maybe they changed their working schedule?
But they gave me another lead, that not only was filming done at Zhiyin Pier, but also across town at the
Old South Gate!
Coming back soon with a little bit more, on the Old South Gate (not much info from there really), the dates and times, and of course the perfect spot for a Pit Stop!
PS: Puddin, any way I could add the photos I took to your photo albums? Don't want to overload this page...