Field notes
The journal
What we've learned walking this city — written when there's something worth saying, not on a schedule.
Guangxi2 min read
Yangshuo — The Karst Landscape Everyone Has Already Seen
Guilin and Yangshuo are the most famous landscape in China and they earn it. The trick is knowing which river, which village and which hour — the difference between a coach park and an empty valley is about six kilometres.
Guangxi3 min read
Dongxing — Walking Across a Bridge into Vietnam
Dongxing sits on the Beilun river opposite Móng Cái, connected by a short bridge. Cross it and the architecture, the language and the coffee change within fifty metres.
Guangxi2 min read
Detian — The Waterfall That Belongs to Two Countries
Detian is the largest transnational waterfall in Asia. Half of it is in China and half in Vietnam, the border runs through the middle, and you can stand at the marker stone that says so.
Guangxi2 min read
Liuzhou — The City That Exported Snail Noodles to the Nation
Liuzhou's signature dish smells like it has gone off and tastes extraordinary. Eating it at source, at a plastic table at 11pm, is the correct introduction.
Guangxi2 min read
The Giant Sinkholes of Leye — Forests at the Bottom of Holes
Guangxi's Leye county holds one of the greatest concentrations of giant sinkholes on earth, including one over 600 metres deep with an intact forest at the bottom. A new one made global news in 2022.