Near Yangshuo

[tsap seui]

Randy, the above is a photo of the Glasshouse Mountains in SE Queensland, Australia. I didn't take this one but it's just like many I have taken from the exact same spot on Mountain Road just outside Maleny, Queensland. Just behind where this photo was taken is a nice rich tropical rainforest park filled with trees like the one in like in your earlier photo up above. Just off to the left of the photo is the ocean, not sure if it is the Coral Sea or the South Pacific Ocean with Australia's Sunshine Coast fronting it. From the spot where the photo was taken it is only a 15 minute trip down off of the mountains of the Black Hall Range to reach the beaches of Caloundra, there on the Sunshine Coast. Their English name was given them by Captain Cook as he traveled north, spotted them just onshore, was intrigued, dropped anchor, and sent a party out to find out what they were. To him they reminded him of the glass furnaces in his home in England.

 

Here is the description of what took place to form this magical spot that just looks like gigantic rocks thrown about willy nilly that you see as you drive up the Bruce highway from Brisbane..........

 

Geology[edit]

The range was formed as molten lava cooled to form hard rock in the cores of volcanoes between 26-27 million years ago. The source of the lava was from the East Australia hotspot. The cores of the mountains contain columns of comendite from lava which cools quickly into a hard rock.^[3] The surrounding softer rocks have been eroded in the subsequent time, forming the spectacular volcanic plugs that remain today.^[2] The peaks location relative to each other exhibits an alignment that is believed to have occurred due to fracturing.^[4]

Peaks[edit]

Each of the peaks is protected within the Glass House Mountains National Park. Some of the peaks display vertical columns, particularly Mount Coonowrin, Mount Ngungun and Mount Beerwah at the Organ Pipes.^[4] These columns are the result of lava contraction. Scattered throughout the mountains are shallow caves which have been formed by wind erosion on rocks that were softened by groundwater.^[4] The names of each mountain in the range are:

• Mount Beerburrum, 278 m
• Mount Beerwah, 556 m
• Mount Coochin, 235 m
• Mount Coonowrin or Crookneck, 377 m
• Mount Elimbah or The Saddleback, 129 m

• Mount Ngungun, 253 m
• Mount Tibberoowuccum, 220 m
• Mount Tibrogargan, 364 m
• Mount Tunbubudla or the Twins, 312 and 293 m
• Wild Horse Mountain or Round Mountain, 123 m
• Mount Miketeebumulgrai: 199m

http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.24wmf8/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png

Glass House Mountains viewed from Mary Cairncross Reserve

The peaks are culturally significant to the traditional owners, the Gubbi Gubbi people. Under a native title claim, access to the peaks could be restricted as they are considered spiritual places.^[2] To the south east of the Glass House Mountains township is an Aboriginal bora ring.^[4]

In the land between the peaks, pineapple and poultry farming, as well as commercial forestry and quarrying are the main land uses.^[4]

Aboriginal legend[edit]

The Glass House Mountains are located in the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people.^[5] In the Aboriginal legend the mountains are members of a family with the father being Mount Tibrogargan and the mother Mount Beerwah. All of the other mountains are sons and daughters with the eldest being Mount Coonowrin.

Tibrogargan, the father, observes that the sea is rising and asks that Coonowrin the eldest son help their pregnant mother to safety. Terrified, Coonowrin instead flees. Infuriated by his son's cowardliness, Tibrogargan pursues him and strikes him with his nulla nulla so hard that he dislocates Coonowrin's neck.

Once the danger passes Coonowrin feels tremendous guilt for his actions and asks his father, brothers and sisters for forgiveness but they all weep with shame. This is said to explain the many small streams that flow through the area. Tibrogargan turns his back on Coonowrin and gazes out to sea refusing to look at his son Coonowrin who continues to hang his head in shame and weeps.

 

I have spent many an hour sitting and communing (maybe hard to believe from a guy like me.....LOL) with these spiritual rocks. I don't know what it is about this area that affected me so much. It is a highly spiritual setting for the Aboriginals. Somehow it put its spell on me also. I swear, when I sit along Mountain Road and gaze out upon Coonowrin (the fearful and disgraced son), Tibrogargan (his mourning father who gazes forever out to sea) and Beerwah (Coonowrin's deceased mom) I can feel some sort of distinct hummmm in my body.....the magical ancient spirit of this place has its hold on me. Funny, I don't tell many folks about me communing and feeling so in touch somehow with the Aboriginals about the GlassHouse Mountains...they'd think I was crazy...you guys already know I'm nuts.

 

My ex-wife and I had a firm contract with the New South Wales owners of a home just down the road from where this photo was taken, to buy their house that had the same view as in this photo. I was ready to give up my business and live out my life there. We knew it was a long shot but our Caloundra solicitor said he had gotten 9 other homes sold to foreigners and that maybe we could be the tenth lucky couple.....we were turned down 3 times by the Australian government...LOL...Australia is tough on selling homes to foreigners.

 

Anyhow, my question to you is....do you know how the many peaks in the area of your photos taken off the river were formed? I have always said that many of the worlds most beautiful "scenic" photos were taken in China, and your photos of your travels are living proof of that.

 

Mountains intrigue me to me to no end. I have been choppered up to stand on the snowfield peak, just above the glacier on Mount Tasman in the Southern Alps on New Zealand's south island....sat in a boat with a deer friend, fishing in a lake while the reflection of a perfect snow cone on an extinct volcano (not 10 miles from where we sat) shown on the flat water right to our boat on Nzed's north island....but nothing took me away like the overpowering magic and awe of what happens to me when I am around the Glass House Mountains.

 

I'd really like to know what forms the majestic mountain peaks in your photos. I have seen those views in so many photos of that area of China. Do you know anything about them, how they were formed?

 

I look at your photos and man do they make me want to get back to Maleny, Queensland...as well, to take a trip and cover the path you and others have taken in China to see those sights. Unfortunately, my dadgum wife will NEVER tour China with me. God I love the woman but she is a city girl and while she has gotten used to life in the mountains here, I'd never be able to travel the countryside in China with her. Oh, she will go with me when we go to Australia and Nzed next year.

 

I'll have to live China's magical mountains through the eyes of your camera. Thanks for the photos of those incredible views.

 

tsap seui

 

With a digital camera this next time down under, I've gotta learn how to post pitchers like the pros here.

 

 

Edit: If I knew where to pinpoint it in the photo, the Aussie fella , Steve Irwin, who was so famous before the stingray killed him, his zoo is actually in the mid-foreground of the photo somewhere. The field you see in the near foreground is the end of a farmers field with his home and water barrel beside it. I stood in the very spot on the road, right across the track from the Mary Cairncross rainforest park, that this photo was taken and taken many of the same photos.

Edited June 17, 2014 by tsap seui (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Well, I'm no geologist, but the formations in our area are all limestone/karst. No earthquakes or volcanic activity. I've been amazed at all the water than comes down from these mountains. One cave we went through was halfway up the side of a mountain, and still had a fairly good river flowing through it. One of the places we visited was called Shibashui (Eighteen waters), which had waterfalls flowing in just about every different direction. One of them was even diverted to flow through the latrine, and then kept in a channel away from the main stream until it flowed into it past the main swimming area. The Guposhan National Forest has a waterfall about 1 km away in just about any direction you walk off in. I guess it's all ground water - like I said, I'm no geologist. More later

[tsap seui]

Yangshuo Karst Formation

http://www.yangshuocountrysidehotel.com/images/karst.jpg

With over 70,000 karst peaks, Yangshuo is a paradise for climbers. Here is some more information on the formation of the karsts, before you start exploring them. It may excite you to know a little more before you head out:

Karst topography and formation:

Karst topography is a three-dimensional landscape shaped by the dissolution of a soluble layer or layers of bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. These landscapes display distinctive surface features and underground drainages, and in some examples there may be little or no surface drainage. The karstification of a landscape may result in a variety of large or small scale features both on the surface and beneath the ground. On exposed surfaces, small features may include flutes, runnels, clints and grikes, collectively called karren or lapiez. Medium-sized surface features may include sinkholes or dolines, vertical shafts, disappearing streams, and reappearing springs. Mature karst landscapes, where more bedrock has been removed than remains, may result in karst towers or haystack/eggbox landscapes. Beneath the surface, complex underground drainage systems and extensive caves and cavern systems may form. A karst river may disappear underground a number of times and spring up again in different places, usually bearing a different name.

Yangshuo karst formation:

The entire region is surrounded by mountains, while the central part is covered with hills and plains. The karst geomorphy around Yangshuo is an area of irregular limestone formations in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns. This is wide-spread in the region, creating numerous natural scenic spots.

Two crustal movements of the earth took place about 200 and 180 million years ago, thrusting the limestone sediments out of the sea from its seabed, more than 200 meters below the surface to form a large expanse of land. The karst formation became the hills and rocks with the unusual shapes through many years of erosion by the wind and rain. There are many complete karsts, which are of high scientific and tourist value.

Karst caves and stone forests are a key feature of the natural environment of Yangshuo. The altitude of the region is 140-160 metres. Yangshuo is located within the subtropical/monsoon zone, meaning it has a warm and moist climate.

Pretty cool stuff. I am no geologist eider, jes interested in how stuff came about. The Glasshouse Mtns. are caps of volcanoes and the whole region around them is practically at sea level. I was amazed to see waterfalls spouting out the sides of the mountains both above and below the glacier top edges forming off of the snowpack in the Southern Alps. We landed up on the pack and I walked around in shorts and sandals...LOL

Looks like the karsts got pushed up from the sea bed and being limestone eroded into the shapes they are today. Cool stuff. Anybody getting to see those dramatic karsts are indeed lucky folks.

[dnoblett]

My wife think of a couple old movies.

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUyNDIyNzg4.html

[Randy W]

 

 

We took a trip to Xingping, where they have a little spot on the shore where you can stand and take the picture. From there, you can take one of the little motor-on-a-stick rafts (not quite up to the big-block-Chevy-V8-on-a-stick things I was used to in Thailand) to another little ancient village, which is marked simply as "fishing village". I was surprised to see that someone else had gone there first.

 

 

 

 

 

i just double-checked with the wife the name of the town that the Clintons and we visited is actually "Fishing Village" - 渔村 (Yucun) in Chinese - slightly to the south of where it says XingPing town on the map.

 

We drove up to XingPing, and then took a raft down to Fishing Village, which is where the Clintons stopped on their riverboat ride down the Lijiang.

 

[Randy W]

This map shows the other places we visited (ellipses). The blue star was our hotel - Vienna Hotel - current room rates were only ¥280, down from over 1000. The roads I highlighted in green are heavy bicycle rental areas, but they can be rented in other places also. Bicycling, I'm sure, is very nice, since the roads are generally level (no large elevation changes).

 

The hotel had several restaurants nearby, and easy bus access to the West Street tourist area. Some of the city buses were actually large 9 passenger golf carts.

 

What they call Shang Ri-La is similar to several villages that we have seen in a number of places, but this is a cut above the typical tourist trap, since it features a boat ride through a cave and nice gardens. The larger ellipse in the north center of this map is Tea Mountain, which is developing their own little motel. That and Jiuxian are inaccessible to anything larger than a car.

 

The Yulong River is on the upper west side, and has several ancient bridges, and Jiuxian, an ancient village with a couple of accommodations.

 

The red highlighting is a tunnel that was closed for repairs, routing all traffic through town.

 

[Randy W]

Some more around Yangshuo

 

an ancient village

 

 

flowers

 

 

 

and West Street

 

 

These girls looked like they were ready to take on the Japs all by themselves

 

[Mick]

As always, great photos Randy. Thanks for sharing them.

[Randy W]

The view of "Fishing Village"

 

 

This was at Shang Ri-La

 

 

The roads got a little bit narrow for us here

 

 

. . . but we made it to the Secret Garden Hotel and Cafe on foot

 

[Dennis143]

My wife think of a couple old movies.

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUyNDIyNzg4.html

I started playing this movie and at the opening sound my Leiqin knew it was "Guilin". She says this movie was banned by Mao Zedong, but after his death and in 1977 everyone clamored to watch it. She seems to be able to quote the dialog word for word and she knows every word of every song. It's quite a special piece of my wife's life.

 

Thanks, Dan.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Dennis143 (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Some more around Yangshuo

 

 

 

flowers

 

 

 

 

 

The view from up there in this month's National Geographic

 

 

 

Empire of Rock - China Caves

Edited May 20, 2019 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

There's always plenty more photos - I decided to add a few more here, from our trip in 2014. It's on our list to go back after her building is complete.

 

the view of the Li River from Xingping

 

 

West St. in Yangshuo

 

 

. . . and these from Jiuxian, neighbors of the Secret Garden

 

[Randy W]

The Secret Garden Hotel looks like a pretty nice place now - http://www.yangshuosecretgarden.com/

[Greg.D.]

Looks awesome. We talk about travelling to different parts of China but, practically speaking, with our short vacation time, we would probably have to visit family in the far west for most of our trips there.

 

Glad I had already gotten around quite a bit but I see from your Guilin and Yangshuo pics I've still missed a lot of iconic Chona.

[Randy W]

. . . and from Beautiful Guangxi on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/beautifulguangxi/posts/1554320548032376

Beautiful Guangxi is at 陽朔遇龍河.

2 hrs ·

Quote

Yulong River bamboo raft drifting,sit on the raft and enjoy the picturesque landscape,how beautiful it is!

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)