The Captivating City of Guilin

The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region sprawls in the southernmost part of China. Its capital, Nanning, is about 2,000 kilometers from Beijing by air and only a three-hour drive from Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. In the territory of the autonomous region, there is a captivating city that lies on the shore of a mesmerizing river. Its fame is even greater than Nanning's, and last year, foreign visitors to the city topped 1.5 million.

The city is Guilin, and the river passing through it is the Lijiang River.

In 214 B.C., Qinshihuang, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), ordered the construction of a canal connecting the Xiangjiang and Lijiang Rivers and the establishment of the Guilin, Xiangjun, and Nanhai Prefectures around the canal. Hence, the origin of Guilin, which boasts a long history.

A Chinese saying goes, 'A scene in one's ears is more beautiful than it is in one's eyes.' In other words, people sometimes find that the scenery they view with their own eyes is less beautiful than the one they've heard about. In the case of Guilin and the Lijiang River, the opposite is true. Their beauty and glamor are indeed beyond any description.

Guilin is at its best from April through October, and during the rainy season, the city is imbued with a special charm.

As I drove my car to Guilin in the light drizzle, a towering hill or two on either side of the road caught my eye from time to time.

Some people say that Guilin is a mountain city. But compared to the rising and falling landform of the mountainous city of Chongqing, the streets in Guilin are flat. It is a modern city, although hills can be found in the spaces between buildings. The hills in the city rise abruptly, and the river flows casually and silently through it, contributing to the city's special character. It is said that water adds vitality to a city and that hills give it a majestic demeanor. Guilin, fortunately, has been bestowed with both of these qualities.

Traveling through the city, I could only see the tops of the hills because their remaining parts were hidden behind buildings. As I turned to the back of a building, I found an isolated hill. Such a scene repeats itself in the city. As I was walking, I suddenly realized there were barely any tall buildings in the city. So I asked some of the local residents to explain. "Because the hills are low," they explained, "we don't construct tall buildings for fear that high-rises will block the beauty of the hills. " With no structure to compete with them in height, the hills in Guilin pride themselves on being the highest under heaven. Yuan Mu, an eminent poet of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), wrote the following sentences in one of his poems: Blue hills are magnified with Guilin's small sky as a backdrop, and each of the hills reaches out of the clouds.

The Mesmerizing River of Lijiang

As our car went along Binhu Road next to the Lijiang River, the amazing scenery of the river captivated my eyes. In the mist of the light drizzle, peaks and buildings on both banks of the river were partly hidden, and thin fog was rising from the surface of the river. I found it overwhelming that I could be in the company of mountains and a river on a city tour.

Legend has it that in remote antiquity, Yangshuo, an area to the south of Guilin, was crowded with mountains, bringing inconvenience to people's life. In order to alter the unfortunate fate of his fellow villagers, a young man of the Zhuang ethnic group climbed up a mountain and reached heaven in a single night. After returning with a magic whip stolen from heaven, he waved the whip with great effort towards the mountains. Immediately, the mountains turned into different animals and ran in the direction of the East China Sea. As the animals were arriving in Guilin, day broke, and they immediately became odd-shaped mountains, while the whip dropped from the man's hands, becoming a meandering river known today as the Lijiang River. The section of the river between Guilin and Yangshuo, together with the mountains on both its banks, presents a beautiful landscape that is praised, and said to be unmatched under heaven.

I believe this to be a true story rather than a legend because only this section of the entire Lijiang River, which originates in Maoer Mountain in northern Guangxi, winds southward towards the Xijiang River, and finally empties into the Zhujiang (Pearl) River, possesses an ethereal and breathtaking beauty. That can only be attributed to a magical power.

Xingping Town on the eastern bank of the Lijiang River is 63 kilometers from Guilin and 27 kilometers from Yangshuo County. During ancient times, it used to be the largest town along the river. Lying at the foot of a mountain and facing the water, the town gathers together the most beautiful scenes of the Lijiang River. The section of the river that passes by this town forms a bend, known as the Sickle Bend, where peaks rise, one higher than another, and water zigzags, contributing to one of the top scenic attractions of the river.

In addition, Majing (Horse's Neck) Hill, which is shaped like a horse's neck, and Wuzhi (Five Fingers) Hill, which looks like five fingers stretching out, face each other across the river in the Xingping Scenic Zone. Another hill, which is shaped like a girl admiring herself, is called A Beauty Looking into the Mirror. The scenery of Xingping has been chosen as the background of the new-edition of China's 20-yuan banknote. Viewed from any angle, the Xingping section of the Lijiang River is nothing else but amazing. Traveling on a boat along the river, you may find yourself in the middle of a landscape painting.

With odd-shaped hills lining its banks and crystal water, the Lijiang River is a wonder of nature. Stunned by the bewildering integration of the river and the city of Guilin, I doubt that anywhere else in the world has such beauty.

(China Pictorial June 17, 2003)