Our September trip took us through the karst country of southwestern Guangxi, a region built out of limestone peaks, waterfalls, and river valleys that spend most of the morning hidden in mist. On September 10th we hiked Tongling Grand Canyon in Jingxi. The trail drops down into a gorge cut by old rivers, and the sunlight only reaches the bottom in patches, coming through gaps between the cliffs. At the back of the canyon there's a waterfall that you don't really see until you're almost on top of it. The forest around it is dense in the way subtropical forests are dense. The next day we went to Detian Waterfall, on the China–Vietnam border. It's the largest cross-border waterfall in Asia: roughly 200 meters wide, a 70-meter drop, three tiers. The Guichun River comes down it in wide sheets. We took a bamboo raft out toward the base and got completely soaked by the spray, which honestly was the point. Karst peaks on both sides of the border, which is an unusual thing to be looking at. On September 12th we ended at Mingshi Tianyuan, which some people call "Little Guilin." Everything slows down here. We drifted down the Mingshi River on a bamboo raft past rice paddies, bamboo, and small villages where water buffalo were lying around near the bank. The water was still enough that you could see the peaks reflected in it almost perfectly. It's the kind of scenery you've seen a hundred times in paintings and then you're surprised when it actually looks like that in person. Three days of Guangxi: a tight gorge, a loud border, and a very slow river.
