The landscape, formally
Geomorphologists separate two karst forms that tourists usually lump together. In fengcong, cone karst, peaks rise joined at the base into ridges and massifs. In fenglin, tower karst, isolated towers with near-vertical sides stand on a flat eroded plain, separated from one another by soil and water. Guilin has both, and it is the fenglin that made the place what it is: the isolated tower on a plain is the form the world recognises, and it is the form the region is the global reference for.
In June 2014 the karst of Guilin was inscribed on the World Heritage list as part of the second phase of South China Karst, jointly with Shibing in Guizhou, Jinfoshan in Chongqing and Huanjiang in Guangxi. The Guilin nomination covers 253.84 square kilometres with 446.8 square kilometres of buffer, in two sections: the Lijiang fengcong section, 22,544 hectares, and the Putao fenglin section, 2,840 hectares. Chinese National Geography put the Putao towers first among China's three finest karst peak forests, and karst research circles describe the same area as the world's largest dissolution plain of isolated peaks. A 2004 encyclopedia of cave and karst science, published in London and Paris, already listed the Guilin-Yangshuo fenglin as one of the four world type examples of the form.
The walk
We walk the plain itself. The route starts from Qifeng Town, southeast of the city along the Li, whose name simply means 'wonderful peaks', and crosses flat farmland between the towers: narrow concrete lanes, field bunds, irrigation ditches, and small villages sitting against the base of the rock. It is a walk with almost no ascent and no technical ground, and it is the flatness that makes it remarkable - you are standing on the same erosion surface as the peaks, and they are rising out of it on all sides.
The route is on working farmland. Rice, vegetables and fruit are grown between the towers, and the walk goes past people doing it. Guests who live in cities find this part of it more interesting than the scenery: how much land there is, how small the plots, how the water is managed, and how completely the villages are located to their fields.
Lunch
Lunch in a village or back towards the city, depending on the route taken.
Afternoon - completing the circuit
The second half of the day moves towards the river and along the base of the towers, on lanes and bunds, finishing with the option of a short climb for a view back over the plain - twenty minutes up and down, on steps, and worth it, because the plain is only legible from above. From there you can see the pattern the geologists are describing: towers standing separately, each with its own skirt of soil, on essentially flat ground. This is what the World Heritage citation is about.
The walking is easy - perhaps nine to twelve kilometres over the day, on flat ground, and it can be shortened substantially for anyone who prefers. Bring a sun hat. There is almost no shade on the plain and none of it is steep enough to be tiring, which is exactly the way people underestimate it.
Meals
Lunch
Accommodation
Day programme - no hotel night included.
