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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter VI
The Bouncing Pandas
I spied a hawk
above one day,
It came from far away.
It brought me gifts, and said to me,
"Your heart is sad, but do not fear;
The one you loved is coming back,
Though you will not be here.
Guard well the gifts, and there will come
A day when justice will be done."
Harry
woke up the next morning to the loud ringing of a bell. He sat
up, and saw
Ron also sitting up in bed, bleary-eyed and half-asleep. A quick
look out the window
showed that the sun had just risen over the mountains.
Robert and Chee Chong were already up, but Fatty, almost invisible
under his blankets,
was still fast asleep and snoring. After several ineffectual pokes
and prods, Robert finally
took his wand out and pointed it at Fatty's inert form. A bright
spark of light shot out and
hit the round lump under the blankets. Fatty gave a loud grunt
of protest, and shot out
of bed, blankets and all, landing with a loud thump on the floor.
They hurried off to the Hall, joined by a crowd of students,
all dressed in green robes.
Yu-Lin and the Slytherins were already there, but seemed to be
ignoring the rest of them.
Breakfast consisted of steaming bowls of rice porridge. Harry
was fervently hoping no
one else was going to ask him for an autograph, but the minute
the gong sounded, another
flock of chattering first-years came over and surrounded him again.
Fatty fished the quill out of his lacquer box, and Harry, looking
things not lawful to be uttered,
started signing as fast as he could. He felt sure some of the
students were the same ones he'd
seen the previous evening.
"Hurry up, Harry," Hermione's voice came floating
over the wall of pink-cheeked little girls,
"we've got to go for Potions soon."
Harry scribbled his name on another three pieces of parchment,
then stood up and indicated
he was leaving.
The little girls all smiled and giggled at him, refusing to
make way. He was just going to
call Robert for assistance, when a large, dark figure approaching
from the teacher's table
caught his eye.
The first-years noticed it too. Uttering little squeaks of
fright, they turned and hurried out of
the Hall, still clutching their precious pieces of parchment,
like a flock of startled birds.
Harry looked at the dark figure. It was a wizard, whom he had
not noticed before. As Harry
looked at him, the first word that came to mind was 'warrior'.
He was broad-shouldered and very tall, and was dressed in sweeping
black robes with a long,
flowing black cloak. His long, black hair cascaded down onto his
shoulders, and his beard
partially hid a fierce, cruel face. A long sabre hung at his side,
and a black onyx tiger hung
on a chain around his neck.
He did not look at them, but strode swiftly past, vanishing
out the main entrance, his cloak
billowing behind him.
Ron looked startled.
"Who's that?" he asked Pixie, who was next to him.
She did not giggle as usual, but grinned rather nervously.
"That's Master Yang-Kang," she said. "He teaches Protection Against The Black Way."
Ron looked puzzled. Hermione, noticing this, said rather impatiently,
"That's the equivalent of
Defence Against The Dark Arts here, Ron."
"That means he'll be teaching us, won't he?" said
Harry, as they hurried off to the Potions
classroom.
Shan nodded.
"He's only been here for two weeks," she said. "The
previous master, Master Wei, left to
join Shao-Lin Academy - that's a school for Pugilists. It's a
pity, though, he was a very good
teacher."
Harry wanted to ask what sort of teacher Master Yang-Kang was,
but they had reached the
Potions classroom.
The room was a great deal more cheerful than the Potions dungeon
at Hogwarts. The morning
sun came in the open door, and the surrounding mountains could
be seen through the large windows.
Lady Han-Yin, in her dark blue robes and with crystal ball
hanging round her neck, was
already there. She looked less fierce now, and surveyed them as
they took their seats, a
smile playing about her lips.
"Good morning to all of you," she said briskly. "Lady
Wen-Li has informed me that this
exchange is to be more of a cultural one than anything, and so
we shall do something
less serious today."
She paused, and looked at them, her eyes twinkling, before continuing.
"First of all, I am going to split you up. No sticking
to people from the same school today.
I want each Hogwarts student to sit with a Tian-Long student."
Ron and Harry, who were sitting together, looked at each other.
Pixie hissed, "Over here!"
at Ron, and pointed at the empty seat beside her. Robert, who
was of course sitting next to
Shan, got up and went and sat with Goyle, who inched away from
him to the edge of his seat.
Yu-Lin was sitting with Malfoy. Shan came over and sat with
Harry, while Chee Chong
moved over to Hermione. Fatty placidly went over to sit with Crabbe.
As he took his seat,
a loud ringing sound suddenly emerged from the depths of his robes.
Lady Han-Yin's eyes flashed.
"Wing-Fatt!" she said sharply, "Did I not tell you to switch that thing off in my class?"
Fatty, his face going red, hurriedly brought his lacquer box
out, and took the crystal globe,
which was ringing shrilly, out of it. He tapped it with his wand,
and the ringing stopped abruptly.
Lady Han-Yin snapped her fingers.
"Bring it here," she said. "You can have it back at the end of the class."
"But I'm waiting for an important call!" Fatty protested.
She made a quick movement with her hand, and the globe sailed into the air and over to her desk.
"It can be put on hold, for now," she said, tapping
it with her wand. The light in the globe
dimmed, and went out. "You can make your calls later."
Fatty looked rather sulky, but sat down without saying anything further.
Lady Han-Yin then announced that they would prepare what was
called a Token of Friendship
Potion that day, and proceeded to identify the various ingredients
they would be using, which
were already lying in a small pile at each of their tables. Harry
looked at them with interest.
Most of them were unfamiliar to him.
"All right, you may start work," Lady Han-Yin clapped
her hands smartly. She then proceeded
from table to table, checking that they were preparing the ingredients
properly.
"Cut the ganoderma into pieces of equal size, Mr Potter,"
she said to Harry. She looked at
Shan, who was trying to break deer antler into small pieces. "Those
are to be ground, Li-Shan;
use the mortar and pestle."
Shan went pink, but grinned at Harry, and began pounding the deer antler with her pestle.
Pixie was looking serious for once, frowning and clumsily chopping
her piece of ginseng into
small, irregular slices.
"I like Lady Han-Yin, but I hate Potions," she whispered to Ron.
Lady Han-Yin came over and stopped in front of her.
"Yes, Miss Xiao-Yan!" she said with mock severity,
hands on her hips, her eyes flashing
with good humour. "Are you in my class again? Do not tell
me that you are going to ask me
for an anti-Love Potion again, today!"
Pixie dimpled at her, and cast a sidelong glance at Ron through her long eyelashes.
"No ma'am," she said demurely, "Certainly, not anti-Love, this time."
Ron went beet red, and his knife slipped, almost cutting his fingers.
Lady Han-Yin looked amused.
"So she has attached herself to you, Mr Weasley,"
she said. "Well, I need not tell you :
do not take any nonsense from her!"
She then told Pixie to stop cutting the ginseng, because it
could be stewed, whole, and
went off to check on Malfoy and Yu-Lin.
Pixie, muttering to herself, dropped the ginseng into her cauldron
with a splash. "I'm
horrible at this. All that cutting for nothing."
When everyone's solution was ready, Lady Han-Yin told each
student to obtain a
piece of something, like a hair, from the student next to him
or her.
Harry jerked one of his unruly hairs out and gave it to Shan,
who did likewise. He could
hear Pixie giggling from behind, but decided not to see what she
and Ron were doing.
"All right," said Lady Han-Yin, smiling, "Now,
as you have all met each other for the
first time yesterday, you are going to seal your new friendship
by giving something to
the person next to you. Drop the hair into your solution, and
it will change into an object
that your partner would like to receive, as a gift."
Harry dropped Shan's hair into his cauldron. The solution bubbled
and fizzed, and then
began to glow. The liquid seemed to transform into little sparkling
lights, swirling and
shimmering inside the cauldron. The lights gradually arranged
themselves into a curved,
irregular shape, and Harry saw something dark and green forming
within the sparkles.
Eventually the lights disappeared altogether, and the green object
was left lying in the
cauldron. Harry fished it out and looked at it. It was a paperweight
in the shape of
a small dragon, made of dark green jade.
He turned to Shan, and saw that she was holding a book, entitled,
"The Most
Exciting Quidditch Events of the Century."
They grinned at each other, and exchanged the gifts. Harry
turned around to look at
Ron and Pixie. Ron had a Chudley Cannons' poster, while Pixie
was looking at a
small golden pendant, in the shape of a swallow, on a gold chain.
Shan saw Harry looking at the pendant.
" 'Pixie' is actually just a nickname," she explained
to him. "Her real name means
'Little Swallow' - 'Xiao' means 'small', and 'yan'
means 'swallow'."
She turned back to look at the paperweight. There was a curious
expression on her
face, as she fingered it.
"I guess that suits you, because you're in Green Dragon House," said Harry, looking at it.
Shan hesitated, before replying.
"Partly," she said, and stroked the dragon with her
finger again. She stared at it for a
few seconds, then said in a rather odd voice, "It has another
meaning as well. When I
was small, my father had a nickname for mehe used to call
me 'Little Jade Dragon'
because my favourite colour was green, and because I liked dragons."
Harry was interested. That made the paperweight doubly relevant, he thought, as a gift for her.
"Does he still call you that?" he asked.
Shan's face was expressionless.
"No," she said flatly. "Everything is different now."
Harry had a feeling he'd said the wrong thing, but Lady Han-Yin
was now dismissing
the class, and the others were leaving.
Shan abruptly gathered up her things, and went to look for
Robert. Ron and Pixie came
up to Harry. The Chudley Cannons were flying around the poster
as usual, but something
seemed a bit odd about their clothing. Instead of orange, their
Quidditch garments were
almost red.
"I guess my solution wasn't a very good one," said
Pixie mournfully, looking at the red
figures zooming around. "Sorry, Ronniekins."
Harry was startled.
"Ronniekins?" he said, looking at Ron, who was blushing even redder than his hair.
Pixie giggled.
"Isn't that a nice name?" she said. "He told me his mother used to call him that."
Harry was saved from replying by Hermione, who was coming up
with Shan and
the others. She was holding a book entitled, "The Tao
of Chinese Internal Magic."
"That was a good Potions lesson, wasn't it?" she
said, looking pleased, and not
really noticing Pixie and Ron together, for a change. "If
only our Potions classes
at Hogwarts could be as pleasant."
"Lady Han-Yin is only standing in as Potions Mistress,
though," said Shan. She
seemed to have recovered from her strange mood, and was looking
her usual
cheerful self. "She is actually the Transfiguration Mistress.
Our Potions teacher,
Master Liu Pei, mysteriously disappeared two weeks ago."
The Hogwarts students looked curiously at her when they heard
this. Pixie giggled
again.
"We think that Master Liu Pei has run away, because of
Master Yang-Kang," she
said, her dimples showing. "From what we have heard, there
is an old family feud
between the two of them, and Master Yang-Kang has been trying
to gain access
to Tian-Long for a long time, in order to confront Master Liu
Pei."
Ron looked intrigued.
"But then, how come Master Yang-Kang isn't trying to track him down?" he asked.
Shan looked amused.
"We think Master Yang-Kang is waiting for Master Liu Pei
to return," she said.
"You see, the onyx tiger that Yang-Kang is wearing looks
just like one that Liu Pei
always used to wear. We think that it is an old family heirloom,
and that Yang-Kang
must have confronted Liu Pei, and managed to steal it from him,
although Liu Pei
got away. But the heirloom is so precious that he will definitely
try to get it back."
"All those are only rumours, Shan," remarked Fatty,
from behind. He had taken his
crystal globe back, and had just finished making all his business
calls. "We don't
know if they are true. For all we know, Yang Kang could have killed
Liu Pei already."
"I don't think so," said Shan. "When he goes
into one of his fits he still talks about
'finishing off the scoundrel, Liu Pei'. I'm also positive that
the onyx tiger is a Devil's Curse.
He has been talking about nothing except that during our lessons,
and fingering the tiger
all the while."
"What's a Devil's Curse?" asked Harry.
Shan chuckled.
"You'll find out," she said. "Master Yang-Kang
is sure to bring it up during our Black
Way class." She turned, and started going off with Robert.
"We have Geomancy now,"
she called back, "We'll see you during lunch."
-------* * *-------
Lunch was in the Hall of Dragons, as usual, after which the others
had to wait for
Harry again as he tried to fend off another crowd of autograph-hungry
students.
They then proceeded outdoors for Care of Magical Creatures. Shan
and the other
Tian-Long students led them through the grounds to the Caverns,
some distance
from the school, where the dragons were housed.
"You'll be looking at a number of different species throughout
your stay here," said
Shan, looking enthusiastic. "Today it's supposed to be the
Imperial Flamethrowers."
The Caverns were a series of large caves, hewn into the side
of a huge cliff. Each
dragon had its own cave. The Tian-Long students brought them to
the Keeper of
the Dragons, a wizard by the name of Chen-Kang. He was a handsome,
muscular
young man in coarse brown robes, with long, black hair that was
tied back. He
spoke very little English, so Shan did the translating.
"The Flamethrowers occupy the caves near the top of the
cliff," she said, as
Chen-Kang brought them around. "The Fireballs occupy the
next level. The
Diamondbacks live in the third level, and the Common Bronzebacks
- we have
twenty of those - stay near the ground."
There were only three Imperial Flamethrowers. Chen-Kang explained,
through
Shan, that they were five-clawed, while the other Chinese species
only had four,
and that in olden times only royalty had been allowed to keep
them.
"Don't you chain them up?" asked Ron, looking nervously
at the Flamethrowers.
Each was sitting at the mouth of its cave, golden scales glittering
in the afternoon
sun, surveying their surroundings with a regal air.
Shan looked surprised.
"Chain them up?" she said, sounding rather shocked,
"Of course not! The poor
thingsthey'd be miserable if we did. They're free to go,
if they want to, but most
of them are so tame, and we give them a good home, and feed them
here, that
they usually stay."
"I was thinking more in terms of, chain them up, so they
won't get near us and
burn us to a crisp," Ron muttered to Harry, as Shan went
over to talk to Chen-Kang.
Yu-Lin and the Slytherins were looking rather jumpy, and were
keeping a safe
distance from the dragons. Pixie and Fatty didn't seem as keen
as Shan about
the Flamethrowers, either. Shan and Chen-Kang, however, surprised
them by
walking right up to one of the Flamethrowers, and examining its
hide.
"Won't the dragons harm them?" asked Harry, looking at Chee Chong.
Chee Chong shook his head.
"No," he said. "Chen-Kang can talk to the dragons.
They treat him rike one of their
own kind. Some people say that he used to be a dragon, himself."
Shan and Chen-Kang came back.
"Imperial Flamethrowers like being pampered," said
Shan, "so we are going to oil
their hides."
"Are you joking?" said Ron, looking a bit
wild-eyed. "You mean, walk right up to
them and rub them on the back?"
"No, no," she said, smiling. "Chen-Kang will do a Twinning spell for you."
Chen-Kang had taken a large piece of rough jade out of his
pocket. He placed
it on a large, flat rock nearby, covered it with his hands, and
muttered something.
When he took his hands away, the jade had become a miniature model
of a
Flamethrower, and there was a small scrap of cloth next to it.
"This is a miniature of the first Flamethrower,"
said Shan. "A larger twin of this
small scrap of cloth has been created next to the actual dragon.
Watch."
She picked up the scrap of cloth, added some fragrant oil from
a bottle to it, and
began applying it to the model. The larger cloth that had appeared
next to the real
dragon also became soaked with oil, and it also jumped up and
began applying
itself to the Flamethrower.
"See?" said Shan. "You don't need to go near the real dragon at all."
She beckoned to the Slytherins to take the scrap of cloth,
while Chen-Kang
transformed another piece of jade into a second Flamethrower for
Ron, Harry
and Hermione. Instead of transforming a third piece of jade, however,
Chen-Kang
went over to the third Flamethrower and began to oil its hide,
himself. Shan
watched him for a few seconds, then went over to join him.
Harry looked at Robert, who was still with them, watching.
"They don't hurt her either, do they?" he asked.
Robert gave a small smile, and shook his head.
"Shan has always been able to get along with dragons,"
he said quietly, before
lapsing into silence again.
It took some time to oil the Flamethrowers, because they were
so large. Harry,
Ron and Hermione took turns rubbing at their miniature, replenishing
the oil when
it ran out. When they had finished, the lesson was over, and Chen-Kang
transformed
the miniatures back into jade again. The Slytherins disappeared
with Yu-Lin, while
Fatty and Chee Chong had to rush off for another class. Shan suggested
that the
rest of them have a look around the grounds.
"We can take a look at the Pandas," she said. "There
are two who live in the
bamboo grove nearby."
The grove was an extensive one, almost a small forest, the
bamboos making a
pleasant rustling noise in the wind. They were tall, reaching
to the sky, some
several storeys high. Harry was just going to ask where the Pandas
were,
when he heard Ron give a sharp exclamation from behind, followed
by a
burst of giggles from Pixie, and a sound like someone bouncing
a basketball
on the ground.
He turned around, and saw Ron rubbing his head, looking rather
startled.
Next to him was what looked like a furry black and white ball,
about the
size of a watermelon. It was bouncing up and down, and finally
came to
rest on the grass nearby.
"What happened?" asked Harry, peering at the ball with interest.
"That thing fell out of the trees and hit me on the head!" said Ron, indignantly.
He was about to nudge the ball with his foot, when it suddenly
moved and
uncurled, revealing itself to be a small, sad-faced black and
white bear, with
a pink collar around its neck.
There was another bouncing sound from behind, and looking around,
they
saw another black and white ball rolling on the grass. It presently
came to
a stop, and uncurled into another little Panda, wearing a pale
blue collar.
Hermione was delighted.
"Aren't they sweet," she said, kneeling down and
stroking the pink-collared
one, who surveyed her sadly for a moment, then began to burrow
itself
into her robes.
"The pink-collared one is the female, called Ping-Ping,"
said Shan, grinning,
"and the male is Pong-Pong. But we just call them Ping and
Pong, for short."
Pixie picked Pong up, and he immediately curled into a ball
again. Squealing
happily, she began throwing him up in the air and catching him,
as a child
might play with a ball.
"Xiao-Yan, stop it," said Shan, taking Pong away, "you'll make him dizzy."
She placed Pong on the ground, next to Ping, who was still
trying to bulldoze
her way into Hermione.
"She's looking for edibles," explained Shan. "Here,"
- she took a small jar
of honey from inside her robes - "give them this. They absolutely
adore it."
Sure enough, both Pandas immediately went crazy over the honey,
jostling
with each other to get near the jar, dipping their noses into
it and giving
little snorts of pleasure.
Hermione cuddled the Pandas for a while, then allowed Harry
and Ron
to take the jar of honey. Harry put Ping on his knee. She looked
gravely
at him for a moment, licking some honey from her front paws, and
then
Harry suddenly thought he heard her say something - at least,
it sounded
like a furry, little voice, speaking Chinese, in his head.
He looked at her, startled, and almost knocked the jar of honey over.
"She said something!" he exclaimed.
Ron and Hermione stared at him in astonishment. Pixie giggled.
Shan and
Robert, who had been standing a short distance away, discussing
something,
heard him and came over.
"Are you sure, Harry?" said Ron, looking doubtful. "I didn't hear anything."
"What's happening?" asked Shan, looking interested.
"Ping-Ping said something!" said Harry, looking at
Ping who had just pushed
Pong aside and was now licking the last bits of honey from the
jar. "I heard
her say it in my head!"
They watched Ping for a while. She examined the jar a while
longer, to make
sure there wasn't any honey left, then sat back and stared gravely
back at them.
"Well, what did she say?" asked Hermione, looking curious.
Harry tried to remember what the Chinese words had sounded like, but couldn't.
"I'm not sure," he said. "It was something in Chinese."
Pong was now looking rather bored. He curled himself into a
ball, and then began
rolling forward, stopping at the foot of a tall bamboo. He then
uncurled, and
began climbing up the bamboo, until he had reached the leaves,
and began
nibbling some of them.
Pixie leaned forward, and patted Ping on the head.
"Talk to us, Pingsy," she cooed. Ping merely ignored
her, and clambered off
Harry's knee onto the grass. She then curled herself into a ball,
and rolled
over to Shan.
Shan bent down and picked Ping up, and looked at her fondly.
LeafSong,
her pet snake, peeked out of her pocket and gave a rather jealous
little hiss.
"She's never said anything to me, and I've known
her for years," she said,
smiling. She turned to them.
"Robert wants to visit Sang Nila, his pet Merlion,"
she said. "Would you
like to come along and have a look at him?"
The others got up, Harry still looking at Ping, hoping she'd
say something
again; but she didn't.
"What's a Merlion?" asked Hermione, as they started
following Robert,
who was making his way down a path through the bamboo grove.
"It's a sort of half-lion, half-fish," said Shan,
cuddling Ping. "Robert found it
stranded on the beach when it was a cub. He tried to return it
to the sea, but
it followed him home, and he's kept it, ever since."
"It's a vicious brute!" exclaimed Pixie, shuddering.
"The last time I went near
it, it almost took my hand off!"
Shan was looking at Ping, while walking, and began talking
softly and
affectionately to her. Ping sat quietly in her arms, and looked
at her, as if
listening.
Ron looked as though he thought Shan was slightly mad, and
Pixie, as usual,
giggled, but Hermione seemed amused. Harry, looking at Shan, thought
there
was something childlike about her, like a little girl holding
her doll, and talking
to it.
Robert turned around, and, seeing Harry's expression, gave
a small smile.
He took his glasses off, and started cleaning them on his shabby
robes.
Harry saw that his eyes were large and dark, making him look like
a
wide-eyed little boy.
"Shan likes doing that," he said quietly, to Harry.
"If she meets an animal
she feels comfortable with, she'll talk to it for hours, without
stopping."
Harry looked at Shan, who was now planting a kiss on Ping's
head,
before continuing her monologue.
"What does she tell them?" he asked.
"All kinds of things," said Robert. "How her
day was, what she's planning
to do, whether anyone has upset her."
He paused, looking at the others, who were now in front.
"It's a kind of outlet for her," he said. "Shan
has lots of friends, but she never
tells them anything personal. She keeps a lot of things to herself."
He put his glasses on again, and lapsed back into silence.
Harry was unable
to get another word out of him, after that.
The path they were following presently left the bamboo grove,
and they came
to a swiftly-running river, which was tumbling over a cliff into
a waterfall,
feeding into a lake. Steep stone steps led them down the side
of the cliff,
and down to the shore of the lake.
Robert went to the water's edge and whistled. Presently, a
series of ripples
was seen, and a large animal emerged from the water. It had a
tawny lion's
head, with a shaggy mane, and the powerful front legs of a lion;
but the rest
of its body was fishlike, and covered with silvery-blue scales.
Pixie was keeping as far from the water's edge as she could.
"Don't go near it," she whispered, "unless you want your leg or arm amputated."
The Merlion swam over to Robert, and hoisted itself onto the
shore with its
front legs. It growled when it saw Harry and the others, but stopped
when
Robert spoke to it. It then settled itself on the ground, at Robert's
feet. Robert
took a book out of his bag, sat down next to the Merlion, and
leaning his back
against it, began to read.
Shan, still cuddling Ping, turned to them.
"Robert and I will stay here for a while," she said.
"He normally likes to
keep Sang Nila company for an hour or so, every day. You can stay,
too, if you want."
Hermione looked at the others.
"I think we should go back," she said, rather regretfully,
"We still have
a lot of assignments, from Hogwarts, that we haven't finished."
Pixie started leading them back up the cliff. Before they entered
the
bamboo grove, Harry turned back to look down at the lake.
He could see Robert far below, still leaning against the Merlion
and
reading his book. Shan was sitting next to him, still talking
to Ping-Ping.
Harry looked at them for a few moments, then turned and entered
the
dim twilight world of the bamboo grove. The lake was lost from
sight,
and soon the restless murmur of the river faded away as well.
All he
could hear was the musical creak of the bamboos in the wind, above
him, and the rustling of hundreds of leaves, high up, like the
patter of
raindrops, or the flutter of a thousand tiny dragons' wings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Notes :
There are four spiritual creatures of Chinese myth:
The Dragon, bringer of good fortune, was the
symbol of power of the Emperor.
Dragons ruled the water: seas, rivers and rain-clouds.
The Phoenix, symbol of the Empress, was a bird
with radiant feathers and an
enchanting song.
The Tortoise was a symbol of long life and
righteousness. When it was a
thousand years old it was able to speak the human language.
The kylin, or qi-lin, a Chinese unicorn,
appeared only before the birth or
death of a great man.
According to legend, Sang Nila Utama was an Indonesian prince
who first
discovered the island that later became known as Singapore. "Sang"
is a Malay
title, meaning "Lord". "Sang Nila" (pronounced
"Sarng Neela") may thus be
interpreted as "Lord Nila".
To the ancient Chinese, jade was the most precious of stones,
whose magical
qualities made it more valuable than gold or silver.
The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore.
-