province of Guangxi. All four of us spent 2 days in that area, visiting the city of Guilin and the smaller
town or Yangshao. Both of these places are on the legendary Li River (pronounced Lee) are as beautiful as
the tourist information promises.
A popular Chinese saying says, "Guilin's scenery is best among all under heaven," and I am forced
to agree. We had a 4-hour cruise down the Li River and the sights have never been surpassed for beauty.
This area forms the basis for most of Chinese landscape painting. We were literally part of an artistic
Chinese painting and were lucky that the day was clear for the first time in many weeks.
The landscape is the result of karst topography, which is formed from a geological process that dissolves layers of
soluble bedrock. (We need Uncle Bruce Bullock to really explain this) Karstification can result in small caves
like the cenotes in Mexico, or the large haystack hills and towers that you see along the Li River. For me, I just
learned to say "karst" correctly.
China rates its tourist sites and AAAAA is the highest rating. The Great Wall is AAAAA. So is the Li River cruise and the
nearby Reed Flute Cave.
In 1981, 4 cities that needed protection were named because of historical, cultural and/or scenic worth. Guilin was
one along with Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou.
Along with the river and karsts, Guilin chili sauce is famous, but it was much too hot for us.
We had a great visit. Yangshao felt like Banff with many tourists, shops that charged too much and fun.
It has a wonderful evening performance produced by the man who directed the Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics.
The background was the Li River and the performance was mostly on water. I have never seen anything so artistically appealing
and creative and colourful with hundreds of yards of red silk.
Thank you Alisa and Maria for planning this visit.
One of these scenes, I think the bottom one, is on the back of the 20 yuan bill.
1 comment:
wow, it would be amazing to be able to see that.
Post a Comment