Travel in China: Guangxi SAR
This is a photo taken by Jacco Bax, who is also this week’s China Photo Contest winner.
Guangxi SAR is an autonomous region located in the southern region of China, populated and administered predominantly by the Zhuang ethnic group. In Guangxi, “xi” is the character for West, linking this province to to nearby Guangdong province (”dong” means “east”). Other nearby provinces include Yunnan, its neighbor to the west; Guizhou, which lies to the north; and Hunan in the northeast. Guangdong borders its southeast region.
Vietnam is southwest and the Gulf of Tonkin is south of Guangxi. The largest city in the Guangxi SAR is also its capital, Nanning, located near the Yong River. Nanning is referred to as the “Green City” due to the vast tropical foliage there, with more than 3,000 plants finding a home in Nanning. Nanning is also key to China’s involvement in ASEAN, and the city recently hosted the China-ASEAN Expo. Nanning continues to be a key city for directing China’s involvement and commitment to ASEAN and its member nations.
The subtropical climate found in Guangxi, with its hot summers, rainy weather and pleasant autumns, is excellent for growing rice, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts and wheat, as well as many types of tropical fruit. Guangxi is China’s top producer of tin, manganese and indium, and has large stores of lime. The area, most notably near the seaport of Beihai, also produces some of the most beautiful pearls found.
This autonomous region is heavily populated by the Zhuang, the largest minority ethnicity in China with approximately 15 million individuals (roughly the population of Australia). Other ethnic groups that live in Guangxi include the Dong, Miao, Yao, Hui, Yi, Shui, and Gin people groups. As you might expect, there is also a great deal of linguistic diversity. You will hear languages such as Zhuang, Pinghua, and Cantonese spoken in addition to the standard Mandarin taught in schools. Because of the diversity of cultures living in Guangxi SAR, there is also a rich cultural heritage among the people groups. The Dong people hold a yearly firecracker festival, while the Miao celebrate with a reed flute festival.
Zhuang people have three red-letter days: a Devil Festival, a Cattle Soul Festival and a Feasting Festival. The Devil Festival, which falls on 14 July on the lunar calendar and usually in August on the Western calendar, is second only to Spring Festival in importance. In celebration, families prepare chicken, duck and five-colored glutinous as sacrifices to ancestors and ghosts.
Usually following the spring ploughing, The Cattle Soul Festival is a time that every family carries a basketful of glutinous rice and a bundle of fresh grass to the cattle pen. After a short ceremony, the cattle are fed the grass and half the rice. They traditional explanation holds that the cattle have lost their souls because of the whipping during the spring ploughing and this process calls back the lost souls.
The Feasting Festival, celebrated only by people who live near the Sino-Vietnamese border, carries a legend: a group of Zhuang soldiers, having repulsed the French invaders in the late 19th century, returned in late January and missed the Spring Festival. To pay tribute and celebrate the victory, their neighbors prepared a sumptuous feast that is celebrated on this day.
Mountains will play an important part in your itinerary schedule when you visit Guangxi SAR. Here you will see stunning karst landforms, which are made from water moving against limestone over time. Made famous by early writings of Chinese poets and featured in early Chinese paintings and landscapes, these soft waves of rock make up the mountains that surround Guilin, a beautiful city in Guangxi located on the west side of the Li River. Local guides in Guilin and Yangshuo are quick to point out that the back of the 20 yuan bill features the river and karst peaks of the region.
(photo courtesy of Sophie Nye)
Guilin is also home to the historic Jingjiang Princes City. Featuring beautiful walls, its construction began in 1372 AD, and twelve generations of Jingjiang princes lived within its inner city. Along the Li River you will also find the Reed-Flute Rock, a cave with stalactites, stalagmites, and cave corals; the oldest existing canal in the world, the Lingqu Canal; as well as Elephant-Trunk Hill, which resembles a giant elephant drinking water and is the symbol of Guilin. Yangshuo, another fabulous mountain city, is a favorite hiking and backpacking destination and home to Chun Li and her Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. Yangshuo is also home to the Yangshuo Volunteer English Program, a team of teachers dedicated to empowering underprivileged students learn English and improve their standing in life.
(photo from jackfrench)
Other historic cultural destinations include the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces in Longsheng, reputed to be some of the steepest rice terraces to be found anywhere in the world; and the Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, located in Sangiang. A close examination of the trees and forests surrounding the trails in Longsheng will reveal old love charms carved into the trees and stone shrines decorated with red ribbons and built to honor ancestors.
I have traveled to Guangxi several times and will post some of my photos and adventures on the blog in a follow-up soon.
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