"Liuzhou, the city" a Liuzhou Travel Page by johnmperry

In the list of cities of China ordered by size, Liuzhou comes about 250th. Its population is around 1.3 million, depending on where you define the boundaries. It's just another industrial city, in this case in mid-Guangxi province, halfway between Nanning and Guilin.

[As an aside, Guanxi province is about the same size as UK by area, with similar population. There the similarities end.]

There is nothing here to make you want to make a special journey to see it. However if you came here on business, maybe for Shanghai (SAIC) - GM - Wuling Motors, maybe for the Liu Gang Iron & Steel works, then there a few places to see and things to do.

Liuzhou has several very nice parks, but its main claim is on the "Fantastic Stones". (That's how they're usually translated.) To me and to most people they're just rocks hauled out of the river, or sawn off the top of karsts, dodged up, and sold for money, in some cases quite fantastic sums. Maybe that's where they got their name. Apart from the fair, their are several stone markets - phenomenally disappointing for naive punters like me expecting gemstones rather than rocks and pebbles. There is also a gallery in Jian Panshan Park.

Liuzhou is also famous for coffins:
.. be born in Siuzhou
.. live in Guangzhou
.. die in Liuzhou

The history of Liuzhou is quite convoluted. Or rather, there are several threads, which have been mangled in translation, and merged to form one incoherent whole.

There is a central figure, a beautiful princess. This is Lady Liu, who also features in the story "Liu San Jie" (third sister Liu), which was an early 1960's hit film. Hardly surprisingly a hit, because it is a revolutionary tale of the underdog peasants rising up to thwart the evil landlord. This film is still widely available in any good pirate dvd (or vcd) shop. In fact it is quite watchable, as long as you plug your ears against the sound of the singing - Chinese female singers usually operate at quite high octaves, and really do sound like cats fighting!

Liuzhou is one of the cheapest cities in China, certainly in the south. It is possible to eat adequately well for around 2.5 RMB, although by no means would you mistake your eating place for the Ritz.

I can't really think of a word that fully connotes the roadside kitchens - the usual Chinese word is canteen, but that is somehow far too grandiose. For a lot of Chinese, the words 'maintenance', 'cleaning' and 'repair' are not in their vocabulary. Some of the placenames in Amy Tan's "The Bonecutter's Daughter" are fairly evocative though. Such as Pig's Head Alley.

There are lots of street markets too. In fact until the council drove a new road through the middle of it, Fei E was the largest covered market in South East Asia.