Guilin on my mind
The first stop on our tour of Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China included a 4-hour detour to the Detian Falls which straddle Vietnam and China. As it was the dry season, the falls were rather sparse, but worth the trip.
We spent the next day travelling to Guilin City, with various stops on the Two Rivers (Li and Taohua) and Four Lakes (两江四湖) that provided water and transport to the city before population explosion and silting rendered the system inadequate. Almost everything is illuminated at night, including the Sun and Moon Towers on the Shanhu Lake, and various buildings and bridges.
Leaving the city, we travelled into the mountains to a village of the Zhuang people, there to literally sing for our supper: the Zhuang are accomplished singers whose voices must carry across their hill settlements and terrace farms.
The Zhuang, and other autonomous people in the Guangxi Region, are featured in Impressions of Liu San Jie(印象刘三姐), which has nothing to do with the eponymous folk heroine, being a sound-and-lights show (originally directed by Zhang Yimou) with traditional performances against the natural mountainous backdrop.
Passing from mountains to rivers, we took a raft trip down the part of the Li River that flows through the city of Yangshuo, which with its undulating mountains, is more scenic than its counterpart in Guilin. Both stretches of river have their unique fauna: a camel in Yangshuo, and an elephant in Guilin. Along the Yangshuo side, we were able to see cormorant fishing, now practiced by local fishermen and their helpers for tourist yuan.
Our last major stop, and the highlight of the trip, was the Silver Cave (银子岩), a karst cave near Yangshuo. The cave was illuminated by coloured lights, with walkways at various levels and reflections in a clear pool of groundwater. Along the 2.3 km walkway are formations with fanciful names such as The Heavenly Music Screen, The Solitary Sky-Supporting Pillar, General Li's Divine Umbrella, the Husband and Wife Pillars, as well as lovely representations of nature like a garden and a waterfall in winter, and more earthy specimens.