5 May, Yangshuo
Mi Lou Hostel 180CNY

We spent our morning in a Chinese landscape painting*. From a boat on the Li river, and from a small village tucked between karst outcrops, we tried to imbibe the astonishing beauty around us...

geotimes.org: “Guilin’s most renowned feature is its dramatic karst terrain. Rising sharply at odd angles, limestone peaks look like giant teeth growing out of the green plain ... more than 5,180 square kilometers of karst landscape is the result of a perfect alchemy of geological conditions ... The specific conditions for forming the magnificent topography of Guilin “are fourfold,” according to Ray Beiersdorfer ... “First, you need hard, compact carbonate rock. In Guilin, it’s Devonian limestone. Secondly, you need strong uplift, in this case provided by the collision of India with Asia to form the Himalaya. Third, you need a Monsoon climate of high moisture during the warmest season. Finally, the area must not have been scoured by glaciers, which this region wasn’t ... Two types of karst landscapes predominate in Guilin: fenglin or peak forest (isolated towers) and fengcong or peak cluster (linked-base towers) ... Beiersdorfer described this landscape, which he saw during a recent visit to China: “China in general and the Guilin area specifically boasts some of the most spectacular karst topography in the world.”

* britishmueum.org: “Landscape painting is traditionally at the top of the hierarchy of Chinese painting styles. It is very popular and is associated with refined scholarly taste. The Chinese term for 'landscape' is made up of two characters meaning 'mountains and water'. It is linked with the philosophy of Daoism, which emphasizes harmony with the natural world. Chinese artists do not usually paint real places but imaginary, idealized landscapes. The Chinese phrase woyou expresses this idea of 'wandering while lying down'. In China, mountains are associated with religion because they reach up towards the heavens. People therefore believe that looking at paintings of mountains is good for the soul. Chinese painting in general is seen as an extension of calligraphy and uses the same brushstrokes. The colours are restrained and subtle and the paintings are usually created in ink on paper, with a small amount of watercolour. They are not framed or glazed but mounted on silk in different formats such as hanging scrolls, handscrolls, album leaves and fan paintings.”