The line 桂林山水甲天下 — Guilin's landscape is the finest under heaven — is about eight hundred years old and has been doing the tourism board's job ever since. The geology under the slogan is limestone dissolved by water over tens of millions of years into isolated conical hills, which is why the scenery looks invented rather than eroded.
The classic stretch runs from Mopanshan or Zhujiang down to Yangshuo. The big boat is steady; a bamboo raft is close to the water. Close in you see cormorants and cattle on the bank. Xingping lights up at dusk and the silhouettes go to paper-cut.
West Street in Yangshuo is noisy. The actual countryside is the Yulong River and the Ten-Mile Gallery. Cycling is more right than driving. Moon Hill and Silver Cave are optional. Yangshuo has also become a climbing and cycling town in its own right, which is the argument for staying at the far end rather than turning round.
Summer rain turns the river cloudy and the hills greener. Autumn is clear and better for photographs. Winter is empty; a straw cape in the mist looks like a poem that has not quite left.
