Anshun, Guizhou
(安順, Ānshùn, 貴州 Guìzhōu)
1.8.2013
Spent seven hours in the bus today, starting from Chongqing, and travelling through Guiyang to Anshun. We mostly drove through a mountain area and the scenery was beautiful. On our month long visit in China in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong and Chongqing (municipality) we saw mountains everywhere. Based on this you'd think China is just mountains, but then again large areas of land are taken over by agriculture and cities, even ghost cities.
On our visits to China we've speculated the reasons behind the development boom of these thousands of empty new buildings, located even in the smallest places. From what I gathered, China planned to move up to 300 million citizens living in rural areas into urban locations, but also the structure of property values in China played a role on development. Many new cities were built each year, which turned into ghost cities because people couldn't afford to live in them. This Chinese property bubble lasted from 2005 to 2011. You can watch a documentary called Chinese Dreamland (David Borenstein) on YouTube about this. These areas are surreal and make great places for photography.
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| Mountain views from the bus |
We also passed by an area, where two - most likely manmade - dinosaur skeletons were on display on the side of the road, probably guiding to a dinosaur museum. Many dinosaur fossils have been found in China in many provinces. Dinosaurs thrived in the Sichuan basin 200 million years ago and one of the dinosaur museums of China can be found in Zigong (Sichuan Province), an area where dinosaurs have also been found.
Other dinosaur museums in China are;
- Shandong Tianyu Nature Museum (Shandong Province). The Guinness Book of World Records ranked Shandong Tianyu as the world's largest dinosaur museum on the planet. Its hundreds of Jurassic feathered dinosaurs collected here are the most impressive of any Chinese museum.
- Liaoning Paleontology Museum (Shenyang, Liaoning Province), with collection of over 10,000 paleontological fossils and remains, including the Liaoningotitan. A replica of the 12 meter long and 6 meter high Liaoningotitan is now on display until April 2019 at THE SQUAIRE at Frankfurt Airport, Germany. The herbivorous dinosaur has never been shown outside of China.
- Dalian Natural History Museum (Dalian, Liaoning Province). Has the first five dinosaur eggs ever discovered in China. Also holds the Psittacosaurus assemblage and specimens Endotherium niinomii and Teilhardosaurus carbonarius, which were thought to be lost forever.
- Beijing Museum of Natural History. Has one of the best collections of Jehol Biota fossils (all the living organisms – the ecosystem – of northeastern China between 133 and 120 million years ago, the early Cretaceous period). Highlights include the Lufengosaurus huenei (first dinosaur found in China), the 25 m long Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis, pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs (aquatic reptiles that dominated the oceans).
- Paleozoological Museum of China (Beijing). Includes Mamenchisaurus, the world’s longest-necked and Asia’s largest dinosaur, Confuciousornis, the world’s earliest beaked bird, and the best-preserved skeleton of Stegodon.
- The Geological Museum of China (Beijing). With more than 200,000 geological specimen, the museum covers all fields of earth science. Among the exhibits are dinosaur fossils such as Shantungosaurus giganteus and Sinosauropteryx.
- Beipiao Pterosaur Museum (Liaoning Province). The world’s only pterosaur - a flying reptile - museum.
- Sino-German Paleontology Museum (Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province).
- Henan Geological Museum (Zhengzhou, Henan Province). Highlights include the world’s largest nest of dinosaur egg fossils, the world earliest ginkgo fossils, dozens of feathered dinosaurs and the Ruyangosaurus; Asia’s largest sauropod dinosaur and one of the biggest sauropods in the world.
HOT LIVER MANNER
As always on a bus trip we stopped at a checkpoint. Sometimes the people on the bus are counted for keeping track about things. The busses also have recording cameras. We also stopped for a break, and now found the worst toilet on this trip in China, the pee smell was so strong that it felt like it burnt the eyes! You didn't want to breathe in the toilet.
The parking lot was full of cars and one bus, which all had been in accidents. The roof of the bus was totally crushed and the fronts of the cars. This sight is pretty common in China. Earlier we saw another bus that had crashed with a truck. The truck had completely destroyed the front of the bus. Warning signs of accidents are common by the road here. Some of the roads have a few uphill sideroads in case of an accident, like loosing the breaks. You just have to try and steer your way to those areas. Luckily - with our bus number being 666 - we didn't get into an accident.
We found our hotel in Anshun quite fast, it was close to the bus station. The hotel staff spoke only a few words of English. Our room didn't smell the nicest, although this was supposed to be quite a new hotel. While checking the room I found a booger on the wall and the room had a yucky full carpet, which are germ and dust ridden and cause allergic reactions. The carpet hadn't been vacuumed, it had feathers and some toe nail clippings on it! Did someone plug a chicken here, and maybe cut its nails while at it? The bed was something we'd never seen before; it had a round area in the middle that was lower than the rest of the matress. Didn't understand its purpose at all. We had some laughs about the room, but the best laughs came from the hotel information booklet, which had hysterical translations. One of the hotel services was called "hot liver manner". What on earth that means, we can only guess.
ANSHUN
Anshun is a "little" city in the Guizhou province with a population of 2,297,339, among which ethnic groups, including the Buyi, Miao, Hui and Gelao, account for 39 percent. The city is at an altitude of 1,300 meters and features abundant rivers, waterfalls, gorges, caves, stone forests, lakes and underground rivers. It is home to over 100 waterfalls and around 1,200 caves. The Long Gong Dragon Caves, Wulong Temple, Wenmiao Temple, the mysterious writings Red Cliff Relics (红崖天书, Hóng yá tiānshū), Hongshan Park and The Getu River are some of its attractions, and the Chuandong Paleolithic Site in Puding county is reputed as "the civilization light of Asia". 80 kilometers from Anshun is the more than 80 kilometer long Huajiang Grand Canyon Scenic Area by the Huajiang River (花江大峡谷风景名胜区, Huājiāng dà xiágǔ fēngjǐng míngshèngqū), which has a spectacular cave and the valley has ancient iron bridges, ancient rock paintings, cliff stone carvings and paleontological fossils too. But surprisingly, Anshun is best known for its aerospace industry and has rich mineral resources.
Another attraction, the stone village of Tun Bu, built during the reign of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), is highly valued by experts as a living fossil of Han culture and as the last Ming Dynasty village in the world. A former military post, some of the villagers still live in forts and follow a simple and peculiar army lifestyle, retaining traditional Ming clothing and hair styles. Dixi Drama is an exclusive ritual dance of Tunpu people, involving elements of drama, sacrifice and entertainment. It is performed during Chinese New Year, at festivals and celebrations, and in the months after harvest.
We took an evening walk in the city, where people were playing all sorts of games everywhere, mostly shooting games, where you win stuffed animals etc. Everywhere in China you see people practising Tai Chi or dancing in the parks. People even sing there or play instruments.
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| Stuffed animals for the winner |
Some of the well-known local snacks include broiled mini xiang pig, buckwheat cool bean jelly and fried egg cake (made from choice rice and soy beans, stuffed with meat). Genuine Anshun food can usually be found at local night markets. We ended up eating pizza at a local restaurant, because we didn't find other restaurants serving vegetarian food. At the restaurant the waitress was so excited about us that she pushed her coworker aside so she could serve us! That felt weird, and to top that, everybody stared at us while we were eating. The whole time we were in Anshun we didn't see other western people, and eventhough Anshun has a lot to offer for travelers, the city still seems more like a stop-over place.
HUANGGUOSHU WATERFALL NATIONAL PARK
Last night a Chinese group were fighting in our hotel. Don't know what was going on, but at times it sounded as if someone was getting a beating. The hotel guard came to calm things down, but it took a while to get things settled. We didn't sleep much because of this and woke up early to get early to the Huangguoshu Waterfall, which is why we travelled to Anshun for. We also planned to see a certain cave, but missed that one, because the waterfall area took many hours to walk. It was kinda crazy to arrange all the busses and tickets yourself in a country where hardly no one speaks English, so mostly we played a guessing game if things go smoothly or not. Sometimes we just followed people. This is what we did today and things went well.
China's tallest waterfall, Huangguoshu Waterfall (黃果樹瀑布, Huáng Guǒshù Pùbù), is 45 km (28 mi) southwest of Anshun City. It is 77.8 m (255 ft) high and 101 m (331 ft) wide. It lies at Huangguoshu Waterfall National Park, which first applied for UNESCO World Heritage status in the 90's and another application was left in 2017, waiting to be nominated in 2020. The application in the 90's was rejected because of the parks low forest cover rate, poor ecological environment and (now relocated) an unattractive artificial Banbian Street. With a focus on sustainable tourism, the forest cover rate has since been boosted from less than 15% to 43.5%. At key scenic sites the coverage has increased from 20% to 73% in 2015.
The park has many rock formations and 18 waterfalls, including Dripping Shoal Waterfall (composed of 3 waterfalls, with the height of 316 meters), the 105-meter wide Doupotang Waterfall (陡坡塘瀑布, Dǒupō táng pùbù), Luositan Waterfall, Dishuitan Waterfall and the hypnotical yet small Yinlianzhuitan Waterfall (银链坠潭瀑布, Yín liàn zhuì tán pùbù, Silver Chain Waterfall), which is only over 10 meters high with the upper part shaped like a funnel, and the pond in the bottom like a trough.
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| Yinlianzhuitan Waterfall |
The Huangguoshu waterfall, also known as the Baishuihe Waterfall, is very beautiful. It took 100,000 to 500,000 years for such awe-inspiring scenery to develop! At right conditions and somewhere between 9 and 11 o’clock in the morning, majestic rainbows can appear in its mist above the Rhinoceros Pond in front of Huangguoshu. Huangguoshu can be viewed from above, below, front, back, left and right.
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| Huangguoshu waterfall viewed from far |
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| Rhinoceros Pond below Huangguoshu waterfall |
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| Huangguoshu waterfall |
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| View to surrounding areas |
The Water Curtain Cave (水簾洞, Shuǐ lián dòng) is a 134-meter-long naturally formed corridor behind the waterfall. We queued to get inside the cave and were walking amongst what felt like hundreds of Chinese, the mass felt impermeable! Some people would get hysterical about being sucked inside such a mass of crowd, but we just moved with the mass. Good thing we had earlier experiences about masses from our earlier trips to China. It was actually so crowded that I didn't see my feet at all! The Chinese always seem to be in a hurry and the crowd was also pushing you forward. Many people were even taking risky routes to get past other people and some were even stepping on peoples heads, using them like paths, and I'm not kidding!
Inside the waterfall we were able to walk by ourselves (not pushed by others) and got a foggy view through the waterfall to the surrounding area. It was a wet and noisy experience, because the fog was everywhere and the waterfall was very loud inside. If you wanted to talk to someone inside, you had to yell. It was an interesting walk overall, we've never seen anything like it, although have been inside a waterfall earlier, but just a small one with natural rocks behind it. Huangguoshu has a manmade path inside.
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| Inside the Water Curtain Cave |
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| On another side of the Huangguoshu waterfall |
Afterwards we took an escalator in the middle of the forest! Who on earth came up with the idea of building escalators in the middle of nowhere?! I wondered, if monkeys like to use them as well. It was a weird experience, because your mind sets on going to a shopping mall, but you end up in the middle of a forest instead of a mall! Chinese are sometimes gloriously mad with their inventions. The escalators are about 76.8 meters long and in two parts.
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| Forest escalators |
TIANXINGQIAO SCENIC AREA
The Tianxingqiao Scenic Area (天星桥景区, Tiānxīngqiáo jǐngqū) is close to the waterfall park. We visited this too. The scenic area is quite large and has beautiful mountain views with a lot of ponds, bridges, stone formations and paths, beautiful forests and rivers.
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| The beautiful rock formations and ponds in the area |
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| Tianxing lake |
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| You find beautiful plants next to the path |
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| Chain bridge |
The Tian Xing cave with its mild and cool temperature was a refreshing place to visit after the Chongqing heat. The cave was formed by an underground river and features stalactites, stalagmites, dripstones, grapefruit like formations, stone disks and plates and the largest hall is more than 50 meters tall with a diameter of 150 meters. The hall has four stone columns over 20 meters tall. Visiting caves is exciting, because each cave is unique and in China most caves have coloured lights to highlight the caves features.
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| Tian Xing cave |
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| Tian Xing caves spectacular lights bring out the caves special features |
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| The huge stalagnites (dripstone columns) of Tian Xing cave |
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| An underground river at the cave |
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| A huge column stands a few meters tall |
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| Beautiful "curtains" |
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| The largest hall is more than 50 meters tall with a diameter of 150 meters |
From the cave a path leads along the river bank, where one can find a stone bridge over the river, a pond and waterfalls, before reaching the cableway, which offers beautiful views over the park during its short ride.
It's easy to understand why parks are so popular among Chinese. Like everywhere else in the world, they serve a great relaxing contrast to the busy city life, and eventhough some parks aren't too close to the city, it's not a big effort to take the bus there and forget all your worries for a while in a paradise like this. Unfortunately we had to return to the city and continue our journey the next day towards Guilin.
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| Walking next to the river bank, with the stone bridge on upper right side |
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| Tianxingqiao Scenic Area |
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| Tianxingqiao Scenic Area |
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| Leaving on a ropeway with beautiful views |
