Guangxi
Guangxi
is located in the southern part of the country. It has an area
of 240,100 square kilometers and is bordered by the provinces
of Yunnan on the west, Guizhou on the north, Hunan on the northeast,
and Guangdong on the southeast; the Gulf of Tonkin on the south;
and Vietnam on the southwest. Guangxi is fruitful for travel resources
and Guilin is one of the most celebrated scenic cities in China.
Guangxi's
best known attraction is Guilin, perhaps the most eulogised of
all Chinese sightseeing areas. While most travellers spend some
time in the nearby town of Yangshuo, few make it to other parts
of Guangxi. For the adventurous, there are minority regions in
the northern areas bordering Guizhou, as well as less touristed
karst rock formations like those in Guilin on the Zuo River, not
far from Nanning.
Guangxi
also has a border crossing with Vietnam near the town of Pingxiang.
Open to Chinese for years, this route has now been made much more
accessible to western travelers.
Guangxi
first came under Chinese sovereignty when a Qin Dynasty army was
sent southwards in 214 BC to conquer what is now Guangdong Province
and eastern Guangxi; two earlier attempts by Emperor Qin Shi Huang
had wrested little effective control from the Zhuang people. Like
the rest of the southwest, the region had never been firmly under
Chinese control - the eastern and southern parts of Guangxi were
occupied by the Chinese, while a system of indirect rule through
chieftains of the aboriginal Zhuang prevailed in the west.
The
situation was complicated in the northern regions by the Yao (Mien)
and Miao (Hmong) tribespeople, who had been driven there from
their homelands in Hunan and Jiangxi by the advance of the Han
Chinese settlers. Unlike the Zhuang, who easily assimilated Chinese
customs, the Yao and Miao remained in the hill regions, often
cruelly oppressed by the Han. There was continuous conflict with
the tribes, with uprisings in the 1830s and again during the Taiping
Rebellion, which began in Guangxi.
Today
the Zhuang are China's largest minority, with well over 15 million
people (according to a 1990 census) concentrated in Guangxi. Although
they are virtually indistinguishable from the Han Chinese (the
last outward vestige of their original identity being their linguistic
links with the Thai people), in 1955 Guangxi Province was reconstituted
as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Besides the Zhuang, Miao
and Yao minorities, Guangxi is home to smaller numbers of Dong,
Maonan, Mulao, Jing (Vietnamese Gin) and Yi peoples. Until recently,
more than 75% of Guangxi's population was non-Han.
China's
first canal was built in Guangxi after the emperor gained a foothold
in the Qin Dynasty, but the scattered Han had little ability to
use it to much economic advantage and the province remained comparatively
poor until the present century. The first attempts at modernising
Guangxi were made during 1926-27 when the 'Guangxi Clique' (the
main opposition to Chiang Kaishek within the Kuomintang) controlled
much of Guangdong, Hunan, Guangxi and Hubei. After the outbreak
of war with Japan, the province was the scene of major battles
and substantial destruction.
Just
1 1/2 hours from Guilin by bus, Yangshuo has, along with Dali in
Yunnan, become one of those legendary backpacker destinations that
most travelers have heard about long before they even set foot in
China. Set amid limestone pinnacles, it's a small town growing bigger
on the back of its popularity. Although not as quaint as it once
was, Yangshuo is still a great laidback base from which to explore
other small villages in the nearby countryside. 
Guilin's
most famous peak lies at the junction of the Li and Yang rivers.
The rock hill with an arched hole (known as the water-moon arch)
is named after its striking resemblance to an elephant sipping water.
