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The Li River or Li Jiang () is the name for the upper reaches of the Gui River in northwestern Guangxi, China. It is part of the
Xijiang River The Xi River (; ) or Si-Kiang is the western tributary of the Pearl River in southern China. It is formed by the confluence of the Gui and Xun Rivers in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It originates from the eastern foot of the Maxiong Mountain in Qujing C ...
system in the
Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...
Basin. The river flows from Xing'an County to
Pingle County Pingle County (; za, Bingzloz Yen) is a county in the northeast of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northea ...
, where the karst mountains and river sights highlight the famous Li River cruise.


Background

The Li River originates in the Mao'er Mountains in Xing'an County and flows in the general southern direction through
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
,
Yangshuo Yangshuo County () is a county under the jurisdiction of Guilin City, in the northeast of Guangxi, China. Its seat is located in Yangshuo Town. Surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one side by the Li River it is easily accessible by bus or by ...
and Pingle. In Pingle the Li River merges with the
Lipu River Lipu River (), also known as Changtan River () and Xiuren River (), is a tributary of the Li River in northern Guangxi, China. It is long and drains an area of . The river rises in Mount Dayao in Zhongliang Township, Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, ...
and the Gongcheng River and continues south as the Gui River, which falls into the Xi Jiang, the western
tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the
Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...
, in
Wuzhou Wuzhou (, postal: Wuchow; za, Ngouzcouh / Ŋouƨcouƅ), formerly Ngchow, is a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Geography and climate Wuzhou is located in eastern Guangxi borde ...
. The upper course of the Li River is connected by the ancient Lingqu Canal with the
Xiang River The Xiang River is the chief river of the Dongting Lake, Lake Dongting Drainage basin, drainage system of the middle Yangtze, the largest river in Hunan, Hunan Province, China. It is the 2nd largest tributary (after Min River (Sichuan), Min River ...
, which flows north into the
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
; this in the past made the Li and Gui Rivers part of a highly important waterway connecting the Yangtze Valley with the Pearl River Delta. The course of the Li and Gui Rivers is flanked by green hills.
Cormorant fishing Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing technique in which fishermen use trained cormorants to catch fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in Japan and China, as well as Greece, North Macedonia, and briefly, England an ...
is often associated with the Lijiang (see
bird intelligence The difficulty of defining or measuring intelligence in non-human animals makes the subject difficult to study scientifically in birds. In general, birds have relatively large brains compared to their head size. The visual and auditory senses are ...
). Li River cruises from Guilin to Yangshuo are famous, attracting millions of visitors a year.


Geology

The Li River and tributaries drain the area from Guilin to Yangshuo, descending from 141 m at Guilin to 103 m at Yangshuo.
Mean flow In fluid dynamics, the fluid flow is often decomposed into a mean flow and deviations from the mean. The averaging can be done either in space or in time, or by ensemble averaging In machine learning, particularly in the creation of artificial ...
past Guilin is 215
cubic metre per second A cubic metre per second (m3s−1, m3/s, cumecs or cubic meter per second in American English) is the unit of volumetric flow rate in the International System of Units (SI) equal to that of a stere or cube with sides of in length exchanged or mo ...
, and alluvium sediments consisting of
well sorted Sorting describes the distribution of grain size of sediments, either in unconsolidated deposits or in sedimentary rocks. This should not be confused with crystallite size, which refers to the individual size of a crystal in a solid. Crystallite ...
gravels covered by
silty Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
, form
floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
s and terraces along its route. Yet, it is the 2,600 m of Devonian and Carboniferous
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
s and karst terrain within the Guilin Basin, that gives the area a dramatic landscape. Two distinctive types of karst are found, Fengcong, and Fenglin, which have evolved for the past 10-20 million years, within the Cenozoic. Fengcong karst dominates the course of the Li River and is defined as a group of limestone hills with a common limestone base, with deep depressions or dolines between the peaks, and sometimes described as peak cluster depression karst. Hundreds of caves are present in this terrain, with 23 having passages longer than -1 km alongside the Li River gorge. The longest is the Guanyan Cave System which extends from Caoping to Nanxu. Fenglin dominates the area around Yangshuo and south of Guilin and is defined as isolated limestone hills separated by a flat limestone surface generally covered by loose sediments, and sometimes described as a peak forest plain. The best-known fenglin is the tower karst around Yangshuo. These towers consist of strong and massive limestone forming near vertical sides with base diameters less than 1.5 times their height. The heights of the towers range from 30 to 80 m in the central basin but can be as high as 300 m near the Fengcong. Fenglin evolves from Fengcong by slow and continuous
tectonic uplift Tectonic uplift is the geologic uplift of Earth's surface that is attributed to plate tectonics. While isostatic response is important, an increase in the mean elevation of a region can only occur in response to tectonic processes of crustal th ...
, associated with the Himalayan orogenic zone, and even slower erosion of the towers. Famous Show caves in the Guilin area include Qixing Dong and Luti Dong.


Notable features

#
Reed Flute Cave The Reed Flute Cave (), also known as "the Palace of Natural Arts," is a landmark and tourist attraction in Guilin, Guangxi, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List ...
: a
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
with a large number of stalactites,
stalagmites A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically co ...
, stalacto-stalagmites, rocky curtains, and cave corals. #Seven-Star Park: the largest park in Guilin. #Mountain of Splendid Hues: a mountain consisting of many layers of variously colored rocks. # Elephant-Trunk Hill: a hill that looks like a giant elephant drinking water with its trunk. It is a symbol of the city of Guilin. # Lingqu Canal: dug in 214 BC, is one of ancient China's three big water conservation projects and the oldest existing canal in the world. #Other attractions include Duxiu Peak, Nanxi Park, the Taohua River, the Giant Banyan, and the Huashan-Lijiang National Folklore Park. The imagery of the Li River is featured in the fifth series of the 20 yuan note.


Gallery

File:Guilin landscape.jpg File:Guilin (48278561562).jpg Image:Image at the Lijiang River.jpg, Image:Rio li Guilin.jpg, File:Li River, mountain tops in the fog (6169746265).jpg Image:LijiangRiver.jpg, Image:Li river.JPG, Image:XingPing, GuangXi, China.jpg, This is the view from the banks of the Li River, as pictured on the 20 Yuan note. Just on the outskirts of
Xingping Town Xingping () is a city located in the center part of Shaanxi province, China. It has been a city since 1993, with a total area of 496 square kilometers and a population of 620,000. The annual average temperature is and its annual precipitation o ...
. Image:Li River.jpg, Locals playing in the
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
section of the Li River in Guanxi Province, China. Image:Li-Flussfahrt-206-2012-gje.jpg Image:Lijiang River scenery.jpg Image:Lijiang.jpg Image:Lijiang river fishing.jpg Image:Li-Flussfahrt-260-Flotte-Spiegelung-2012-gje.jpg Image:Li-Flussfahrt-246-Huegel-2012-gje.jpg Image:YangshuoFromTvTower.jpg, The town of Yangshuo


See also

* Geography of China *
List of rivers in China This incomplete list of rivers that flow through China is organized according to the body of water into which each river empties, beginning with the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast, moving clockwise on a map and ending with the Arctic Ocean. Se ...


References

* {{Coord, 24.6301, N, 110.64, E, source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Rivers of Guangxi Tributaries of the Pearl River (China) Tourist attractions in Guangxi AAAAA-rated tourist attractions