Sorry, not real elephants. But if you decide to embark on a relaxing bamboo raft down the Li River, you might pass by The Elephant Trunk Hill. It's a landmark attraction that looks like an elephant drinking water amongst what appear to be slender mountains. These are the Karst mountains, rock pockets left over from limestone dissolved by the water. It's all worth the trip to visit our #28 AbsoluteVisit.
While pictures do better justice than words could ever hope to, even photographic comparison is simply inferior to actually seeing this landscape for yourself. The river is nestled amongst what appears to be mountains, withered and weathered by seemingly multiple millennia, enrobed in a delicate mist that simply enhances their mystery and magnificence, utterly unparalleled by our smoky Appalachians. These, however, are not really mountains, rather they are Karst mountains, rock pockets left over after the limestone that once surrounded them had dissolved away over time by the groundwater... read more
