The gu zheng

Someone who has gone away on holiday kindly leant me their gǔ zhēng (古筝) while they are away. Initially, when I first saw it, I wanted to try playing it but.. before doing so reflected on it and realised that I was more interested in learning a western instrument. That the gǔ zhēng was too Chinese for me, and something I couldn't identify with. Anyway, here it is in my apartment. It's a pretty big instrument, you need the table leg props for it because you wouldn't want it on your knees.

And this is a picture of a book I bought on playing it. The girl in the book store told me that it was supposed to be a book for beginners, but I can't even read a word! :-) For that matter, she wasn't speaking English so who knows what she actually told me..