Guilin / Yangshuo
Karst on the Li River
Portrait
The karst here formed from a seabed uplifted and dissolved by rain over 300 million years, leaving isolated towers along the Li river — the stretch between Guilin and Yangshuo appears on the twenty-yuan note and has been painted in Chinese ink for a thousand years. Take the bamboo raft rather than the cruise boat, and cycle the Yulong river valley, which is quieter and better.
If you like this city