Beautiful Kweilin [antikvár]

Foreword KWEILIN, a city with a long history in the northeastern part of south China's Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region, has since ancient times captivated people's imagination with its breath-taking scenery. Early in the Chin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.), the Lingchu, a 33-kilometre canal, was dug north of Kweilin to link the Hsiangkiang, a tributary of the Yangtze, and the Likiang, a Pearl River branch. This connecting of the two main waterways of China not only made water transport easier between the south and the north. It was instrumental in disseminating the ancient Chinese culture of the central region to the south as well as in promoting social exchanges airiong China's nationalities. Typical of China's karst lands, Kweilin owes its fanie mainly to this peculiar topography, which can be traced back somé 300 millión years when the region was a sea bed with a thick overlay of limestones. Through crustal movement, the sea bed thrust up, and the layers of limestone, eroded by acidic water and wind, förmed an expanse of land marked by majestic hills and caverns in weird shapes. Many of these hills seem to jut straight out of the open plain. Somé tower singly, such as Tu Hsiu Feng (Solitary Beauty Peak), Fu Po Shan (Underground Water Hill) and Ta Shan (Pagoda Hill). Hills with suggestive shapes have taken their names accordingly, and are known for example as Hsiang Pi Shan (Elephant Trunk Hill), Tieh Tsai Shan (Földed Brocade Hill) and Lo To Shan (Camel Hill). Kweilirfs hills are perforated with caves of various sizes, the entrances being on the hill slopes or at their foot. Somé caves interlink; somé are spacious enough for 10,000 people to gather inside without excessive crowd-