More sightseeing in Guizhou Province – Qingyan Ancient Town, Tianxingqiao Scenic Area and Huangguoshu Waterfall
We visited Qingyan Ancient Town in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou one afternoon and whilst it didn’t really take us that long to stroll through, it is really a lovely old town which is said to be one of the most famous historical and cultural towns in Guizhou. Lots of lanterns everywhere which I absolutely love.
The town was originally built in 1378 but now has many shops selling knick knacks, souvenirs and lots of shops selling silver jewellery. We went into several silver shops (guided by our friend Jo who has a great passion for all types of jewellery) and ended up buying ourselves some bracelets and necklaces. We also passed benches selling food and spices outside; with such vibrant colours.
Dating back to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Qingyan was built for military reasons. The first emperor established it as a station for transferring military messages and also to house an army. It was a nice visit at the end of the day especially walking through the brick walled corridors.
Our next stop in Guizhou was to Tianxingqiao Scenic Area which consists of limestone formations, caves, a stone garden, small waterfalls, lakes and a gorge.
We walked along the river on a winding stone path which zigzags through the rock formations and waterfalls. It was lovely to see 365 brass plates containing the day and month of every day in the year. So of course we were looking for our birthdays on the stone paths so we all could take photos; as you can see mine is 24 August.
Whilst walking along we walked past many of the locals selling their local wares including fruit, snacks and shoes. Another great sight in China!
We then visited Huangguoshu Waterfall which is located six kilometres upstream of Tianxingqiao. To reach the waterfall we had to walk through a garden of hundreds of Bonsai trees; truly beautiful.
We even saw the local gardeners moving one of the old trees; with great care of course.
Huangguoshu Waterfall is said to be the the largest waterfall in Asia as told by our guide, but I have been told by so many Chinese guides that a Chinese structure/building/park etc is the largest in Asia or the world so I don’t really know if this is true. Anyway, it is seventy-four meters high and eighty-one meters wide, so it is really beautiful but again not sure if it really is the largest in Asia.
To reach the waterfall we walked down many steps which were quite steep but clearly our Chinese female friends didn’t have any difficulty as we wore sensible shoes and our friends wore very different walking shoes.
I must say when we reached the waterfall it was absolutely beautiful and also the surrounding scenery. And..my two friends walked back up the hundreds of steps; I with the tour guide took the escalator (love China what a great idea – perhaps even our friends with the high shoes did the same!!).
