American World Traveler Summer 2019

For centuries, artists and poets have been
fascinated by the sheer splendour of the
panorama, giving them the inspiration to
produce excellent works of art therefore
transforming Guilin into a cultural city.
According to a Chinese saying, Guilin’s
atmosphere and scenery are the ‘first
under heaven’.
One gentle autumn day I found myself in
the midst of this amazing landscape when
the Sweet Osmanthus were in bloom and
their fragrance saturated the air. It seemed
that these perfume-defusing shrubs were
everywhere. They were so numerous that
they have given their name to the city
(Guilin mean forest of Sweet Osmanthus).
After an hour’s drive south of Guilin, our
WT Photo Library
group of eleven climbed aboard a riverboat,
docked with many others on the 437
km (271 mi) Lijiang River, for a cruise. The
usual cruise offered is usually for 83 km
(52 mi), but we had come in late autumn
and the water in the river was very shallow.
Hence, we had to take a bus to Yang-Ti, a
village overshadowed by the Karst-shaped
hills. The spot is considered to be the most
breathtaking sight on the Lijiang River -
called by the Chinese a ‘blue ribbon of silk’
and the dominating hills ‘hair pins of jade’.
Now as our boat began to move down
stream through a natural art gallery, I
looked around me. It was truly an awesome
sight. The forest of green upsidedown
cone-like shaped hills with their
peaks hidden by mist created a magical
landscape that had an eerie appeal.
Between this forest of rocks, we made our
way until we came to a wide section of the
river beyond which a shallow part barred
our way. We anchored in this pleasant spot,
overshadowed by a sheer cliff rising
abruptly above the water. On its face were
extraordinary likenesses of horses in different
positions: one bending to drink, another
lying down, while still another one galloping.
Soon, one after another, the cruise boats
anchored around us until we were surrounded
by some 60 boats, all serving
lunch at the same time. Every spot on this
section of the river appeared to be taken -
the waters totally covered by tourist boats.
Munching away on a dozen dishes of
Chinese food prepared on the boat, I
looked up, “Want snake wine? Very good!
Very good for health!” I could not believe
my eyes; the man had a gallon of wine with
a snake inside filling up about half the bottle.
“It’s horrible! Take it away!” One the
women in our group seemed upset.
The man left but, undaunted, returned a
few moments later with another bottle.
“Penis wine! Very tasty penis wine! Penis of
animals in wine, very good for men!’ I
almost choked on my food. Everyone
appeared stunned. Seeing that there
was no interest, the man departed.
However, after he left, jokes were bantered
around then two of our group followed the
man and bought bottles. Sure enough, the
labels indicated that penises of animals
were among the ingredients. “This penis
wine will make a great conversation piece
at one of my parties”, the young lady who
had bought one of the bottles grinned.
Sailing upstream, as the sun began to slip
on the horizon, the forest of stone hills,
overshadowing us, began to appear like
ghosts at times or as men, while at other
times as beasts. It was a scene that kept us
company until we disembarked at Yang-Ti.
The next morning, after a 20-minute bus
ride, we were walking through the Ludi
(Reed Flute) Cave - one of the 3,000 caves
in the region. An awesome cavern, made
tourist-friendly, with a dazzling variety of
stalagmites and stalactites, it is the most
spectacular of the caves.
We walked through this largest cave in the
area along a zigzagging path through a
fantastic world of rock formations bearing
a striking resemblance to animals and
other natural works of nature. Under
coloured lighting, they appeared like a
wonderful wonderland of gardens,
orchards or whatever else one could imagine.
At the end of a 500 m (1640 ft) manmade
trail, as we walked out from a world
of strange shapes and eerie shadows, a
rock, formed by nature, in the shape of a
lion, with even a white fang, bade us adieu.
On the way back, reflecting on our river
trip and the Ludi Cave, I thought of the
wonderful few days that we had spent in
Guilin amid its forests of stone. It was an
incredible interlude during our trip to
China. After our explorations, it became
apparent to me that the travelers who had
labelled Guilin, the ‘Pearl of Southern
China’ had a point.
www.tourismchina.org
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American World Traveler Summer 2019