JANVI TOURS

Central to the Seven-star Crags Park is a group of misty limestone hills, with concealed caves and grottoes among their craggy peaks, Willow and kapok trees line the paths around Star Lake. The Seven-star Crags Park is about 104 kilometres from Guangzhou, the seven crags named Langfeng (Lofty Wind), Yuping (Jade Screen), Shishi (Stone Chamber), Tianzhu (Pillar of Heaven), Chanchu (Toad), Shizhang (Stone Palm), and Apo (Hill Slope). They are called Seven-star because they form a pattern like the Big Dipper.

The crags are mainly limestone. Long weathering and erosion by underground water have formed caves, stalactites, stalagmites, stone columns and subterranean streams in marvelous and grotesque shapes. For more than a thousand years, tourists of different dynasties inscribed many poems on the cave walls in praise of the scenery.

Although well known since ancient times, the Seven-star Crags resort was long neglected and became desolate during the rule of the Kuomintang. With liberation, it revived. In the winter of 1935 large-scale landscaping work was started by the masses under the leadership of the local people's government. As a result of several winters of hard work, a 6 square kilometre lake was created, adding greatly to the beauty of the scenery. Regulated by sluice-gates, the lake irrigates a thousand t, hectares of land outside of Zhaoqing. Fish are bred in the lake. So the project also contributes to production. Today, with the seven crags mirrored in the limpid water and the lake circled by twenty-two kilometres of embankments dotted with more than forty pavilions and bowers at suitable spots, the area is more attractive than ever. From the top of a crag, one gets a fine view of the West River fringed with green and the city of Zhaoqing with its rising factory buildings.

OTHER SIGHTS IN ZHAOQING

✔ The oldest part of Zhaoqing is surrounded by old city walls complete with fortifications: River View Tower (Yuejiang Lou) to the southeast and the northwest, the more flamboyant Cloud Draped Tower (Piyu Lou).

✔ Chongxi Nine-storey Pagoda is red green and white tower facing the River in the southeast. It has been restored to its original Song style and can be climbed. From the top are terrific views of the river and two similar pagodas on the opposite bank.

✔ Mt Dinghu has 11.3 sq km protected reserve, offers excellent walks among lush vegetation, temples, springs, waterfalls, and pools, including one where Sun Yat-sen took the waters in the 1920s. As is the custom. every geographical feature has been given a fanciful appellation: Leaping Dragon Pool (Yuelong Tan), Immortal Riding a Crane and so on.

EATING IN ZHAOQING

Zhaoqing number ONE culinary speciality: glutinous rice dumplings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves and contain anything from peanuts and lotus seeds to dried sausage and salted duck-egg yolk. Unless you visit during the Dragon Boat Festival, several restaurants and food stalls fill the pavements of Wenming Lu, due south of the Star Lake Hotel The restaurant in Zhenbao Big World Hotel is notable for its Yum Cha and other Cantonese specialities.