Li River Cruise Through China's Karst Mountains
Li River Cruise Through China's Karst Mountains
I originally posted this article on the Discovery Group at least 6 years ago, but I have now added to it, and did a better job of editing the photos. One of the most interesting trips you can take in China is to start at the city of Guilin in Guanxi Autonomous Region (province) and take a river cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo through the Karst Mountains. These are the types of mountains that you see in many paintings of Chinese scenery, standing very steep and vertical.
1. We arrived the day before, giving us time to tour the famous Reed Flute Cave, the first time I was ever inside one and I was quite taken with how colourfully it was lit up inside.
2. Although this may resemble a city skyline, it is simply stalagmites behind an underground pool.
3. These towering twin pagodas are known as the "Copper Pagodas", most likely due to their colour, although they are actually covered with ceramic tiles.
4. It is now early the next morning, still a little dark, and this is the start of the cruise, wherein you can already see mountains. The atmosphere is somewhat misty, but there is usually sufficient visibility.
The cruise takes more than half a day, so a fish and seafood buffet is provided at lunch time, but for the many universal tastes that exist, it consists of both Chinese and western dishes. The buffet lunch was served with fish that was fresh, having been taken from the river, and there were small shrimp fried in their shells but the shells were so soft they did not have to be peeled. I did pull the heads, tails and legs off, though. We (okay, this was before I found my wife, and I did have a guest with me) sat across from a couple from Europe who ordered special dishes that cost considerably extra, but they ended up hardly eating any of it. Unfortunately they remained at the table because if they had left we would have eaten their food too. I always did get hungry on a boat.
As you cruise down the river, you can look to your right and see many backpackers travelling the riverside trail.
5. The cruise ships return up-river usually empty as it takes longer and the engines have to work harder and are noisier.
6. Ours was one of the biggest of the cruise ships, passing others.
7. Looking to either side of the river, little more than hills and mountains are to be seen.
8. I think this one may have been a house boat, although it could also have been a small tour boat that charges much less money for the trip.
9. Starting to look more like Karst mountains.
10. Other cruise ships seen astern.
11. More cruise ships, and more mountains
12. Try mountain climbing the side of THIS one.
13. Looking more like the ones in Chinese paintings.
14. The cruise ends at Yangshuo, a town frequented by many westerners, so many that the main street is called West Street, having souvenir shops and various types of restaurants.
Down at the river landing there were fishermen on rafts that resembled this one (below), that had cormorants on leashes with rings on their necks so when they caught the fish they would not swallow them. I'm sorry I never got photos of them and there was a hill that was shaped like an elephant with its trunk down into the water as if it were drinking. It had the original name of Elephant Hill.
15. Bamboo raft.
I had arranged this trip through a tour company, buying the best trip they offered, so we were to have first class accommodations. They gave us a small room that had a window that overlooked another wing of the hotel about 10 feet away. I went and complained to the manager and told them I would tell the tour company about the crappy room they gave us when we had paid for the best. They capitulated and gave us a suite that had a huge picture window overlooking the mountains. Advice: Dont let yourself be cheated. Speak up and threaten.
16. On a side trip to the outskirts of Yangshou I took this photo of mountains in the mist.
17. This photo is of an unusual and somewhat famous mountain in the area, with a hole through the top, and it is called Moon Hill.
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I might want to take that cruise again, with my wife. It's been more than 10 years since I did it. Although it could be easier to do the Yangtze River cruise, to the Three Gorges Dam.
That second photo reminds me of what I see with my new glasses. I complained to the VA and the doctor said it would take a couple of weeks for my brain to adjust. Funny, my brain adjusted to my last pair as soon as I put them on. Wearing the old ones now. My brain is set in its ways.
Looks like a wonderful way to spend a day Buzz.
Thanks for sharing.
Great photos Buzz. There sure is a lot of tour boats on the river. Seems like it is the thing to do and from your photo's one can see why.
The last photo of Moon Hill is quite unique...
Once again a great morning on the river for me.
Buzz, these images are very picturesque.
Where was the raft, picture 15 taken? That looks like a large body of water.
It's a part of a photo (I only wanted to show the raft) that I took at the riverside of an ancient village. I will eventually do a photo essay of that day.
Thank you.
I am sure that will be a fascinating essay as well.
I'm sure there is not a lot of mountain climbing on those, though the adrenaline junkines might be up for it. Looks like a very nice cruise with great scenery.
I was thinking the same thing, I like to hike in areas like that but, now that I have COPD I don't think I could make it a quarter of the way, still.....
Looking at those pictures, I can't help but think glacial melt may have played a role in some of the shaping.
If you google it you will find that there is a scientific explanation for Karst mountains.
I did a little research on the composition of Karst mountains.
They are basically limestone formations, which in all likelihood, is a result of dead sea life falling to an ancient sea bed over geologic time periods. Learning about these mountains is timely relative to some other areas I have been studying.
Interestingly enough, the first recollection which occurred to me upon learning the Karts mountains are composed of lime stone, was of a novel I read to my daughter when her lime disease depleted her energy to the point where even reading was taxing (she wasn't slow, as she had been invited to intern at CERN Large Hadron Particle Accelerator for a summer even at this point and as a 9th grader).
Anyhow, some alien bad guys were in the process of reforming earth to suit their atmospheric requirements by converting limestone deposits around the earth. The unlikely hero of the story used knowledge gain from the study of ancient Mayan discoveries to battle these aliens.
Now I am trying to recall is Karst mountains were mentioned in the book.
BTW, the Sci Fi novel was Domain by Steve Alten. There is another Domain which is completely different.
I love those crazy looking mountains and climbing them seems like it would be more like climbing a tree as they're so overgrown with vegetation even on near vertical slopes.
What's amazing about the Guilin area is that pretty much every one of those karst features is riddled with caves.
Your comment will become more meaningful to those who read it when they know that you're an experienced and accomplished cave explorer. It's true that the environmental developments over the millenia create the caves as part of and contemporaneously with the formation of the mountains.
thanks for showing this trip to us
Hélène and I visited China in 2003. We took the boat trip. The scenery was just like classic paintings, including mist:
... and many more... The mist and the reflections... a photographer's paradise!
I was hoping for and expecting you to post your photos - you did when I posted my original article as well. I had contemplated asking you to add yours if you hadn't.
I'm using a tablet at the moment, so posting images isn't simple. I'll post a bunch more tomorrow.
Please do. However, perhaps because you're using a tablet, your photos are not posting properly, coming out too huge, and the text is not locating properly. With your permission I can fix that.
As well, your Terra Cotta Warrior photos are better than mine. Will you add them to my Xi'an article?
I'd love to canoe down that river and camp on those beaches.
I hope these show better. They are 512 px wide, and will stretch if the viewing window is larger than that. I tried going smaller, but the loss of detail is pretty bad.
Want more?
A lot of them don't fit on the screen - have to scroll through for vertical viewing, not sure about horizontal. I'll ask again. Do you want me to fit them to the window? I can also frame them - makes the presentation better. If you don't want me to edit them to fit the screen, don't bother sending any more.
These are two examples of what I can do:
By the way, the 512 pixel setting does not determine the size of the photo that goes on the page. If the photo comes out too big or too small on the page you still have to adjust the size.
Bob,
With your permission, I can resize these to better fit the comment boxes … no cropping nor changes in the images themselves would occur.
Please let me know.
You need not. I already asked him and he said to do what I wish. Then I did resize and even frame the photos for better presentation, posted it, and now my whole posted comment has disappeared. I have the redone photos in my picture library, and will post them again, after I've made and eaten my banana blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
Very nice!!!
A little delay, but here are Bob Nelson's photos resized to fit the page, and framed as well. Combined with the two I already resized and framed above these are all the rest. Where there were duplicates, I just posted one of them.
This one is NOT upside down, it's a reflection in the river.
what a beautiful place