Making a Splash

Liuzhou's Party Secretary, the top guy, Chen Gang has admitted to a slight flaw in the local government's plan to turn Liuzhou into a major tourist city. A lack of tourist attractions!

There is a handful of parks, but beyond that the touristy things tend to be outside the city and not that great anyway. Dule Caves are some caves. Sanmenjiang Forest Park is well, a forest.

Back to the parks. My favourite is QueShan Park (雀山公园) in the north of the city. It is less well manicured (i.e. more real) than all the others and retains areas of relative wildness. A stroll around the park and by the lake is very peaceful (if you avoid the local amateur folk musicians whose enthusiasm cannot be faulted - unlike their accuracy in hitting the right notes.)

Bottom of my list is the local favourite, Longtan Park (龙潭公园). 

Admittedly it is set among some of the best scenery in Liuzhou, but what I object to is that everything else is fake. The gardens are landscaped within an inch of their lives, the 'minority villages' bear no resemblance to any minority village I have ever seen (and I've visited lots), and worst of all, the so-called Wind and Rain bridge is an appalling concrete and plaster 'reconstruction' of the beautiful wooden wind and rain bridge at Chengyang in Liuzhou's Sanjiang County. The one in the park is as aesthetically appealing as a colour-by-numbers recreation of the Mona Lisa. I can think of no greater pleasure than being the guy chosen to press the button to blast the horrible thing to rubble.

Liuhou Park in the city centre isn't bad, but is a little confused. It doesn't know whether to be a historical memorial to Liu Zongyuan or to be a kids' playground. It is much better, however, since they removed the festering dung heap they called a zoo.

Anyway, to boost their chances of achieving their stated goal of being a top Guangxi tourist city by 2015, they have decided to exploit their greatest natural resource - water. There is a bloody great river looping round the city and the outlying counties have their fair share of water, especially to the north.

Last year we saw the F1 Powerboat Championship on the river and next month we will be hosting the World Water Ski Championships.

Of course, we can't allow nature to do all the work, so we have built an artificial waterfall - the longest in Asia. It pumps water from the river and lets it fall back in. Of course this is neon bedecked and floodlit for good measure.

So, they are going to expand on this and create China's Water Sports Capital (no sniggering at the back!), effectively turning the city into an aquatic theme park. In true communist style, they are looking for local joint ventures and Chinese companies to stump up for at least part of the costs.

There are also plans to build specialist museums such as a Stone museum, Natural History museum and Military museum etc. In addition, Rongshui and Rong'an to the north of Liuzhou city will expand its water based tourism as will Sanjiang (Three Rivers).

In the meantime the newspapers are full of stories of the drought to the south of Liuzhou - well, let's not let that spoil the fun!

tags: liuzhou  guagnxi  china  tourism  parks  sanjiang  f1 powerboat  water ski  

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