Mountains of Guilin

What is it that makes the Kardst mountains of Guilin so spectacular?  It is the fact that they rise from flat ground, sudden and unprecedented, in stark contrast with the land around them. It's an unusual landscape.


How did they form?  You have to go back to the Triassic period, the time of the dinosaurs, when Guilin was under water.  The plates of the earth are moving, and at what turns out to be a very fast pace--15 cm per year between the plates of Asia and the plates of India.

The Himalayas are one of the spectacular results of these two plates coming together, but another is that the plains of Guilin are being pushed up as well.  The mountains are made of limestone, which is soft and easily sculpted by water and wind, leaving us with these improbable looking peaks that are recapitulated on the back of the 20 Yuan bank note and in any number of rice paper paintings of mountains found throughout the country.  They are a national icon, and well worth visiting (despite the oppressive humidity, even in May).