Local residents at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya.[Photo by Xu Lin/China Daily]

Besides watching elephants shower and feeding them, tourists can also buy notebooks and postcards made from elephant dung.

About two hours' drive from there is Sigiriya, or lion rock, one of the finest examples of ancient urban planning.

It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

The fortress complex, built by King Kashyapa during the 5th century, includes the ruins of an ancient palace on the flat-topped summit of an enormous rock about 200 meters high.

After the king's death, the site was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.

There, I am fascinated by the gardens and ponds and their symmetry.