The Detian (Virtuous Heaven) Waterfall is situated on an international border-between Shuolong Ilown of Daxin County in Guangxi. China, and Yuxi of Chongqing County in Cao Bang, Vietnam. The Guichun River serves as the natural national boundary from Detian Village to Shuolong. The Guichun, which originates in Jingxi County, Guangxi, is about l 50 kilometers long. and runs into Vietnam for 35 kilometers before crossing back into China. Indeed the name Guichun. Which comes from the local inhabitants? Means "returning to the country and meeting the source." The Guichun becomes a waterfall when it comes to a cliff at Putang Islet near Detian and the waterfall is named after the village. The Detian Waterfall has an overall headfall of 70 meters over three cascades, the largest being over 200 meters wide and with an average flow of 50 cubic meters per second, five times that of the Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guangxi.Geologically, the site is stratified dolomite, a relatively soft rock that is prone to collapse during the flood season, resulting in the waterfall changing form frequently.

It can provoke different reactions at different seasons. During the rainy season when the Guichun River is at peak flow in June and Julv, the waterfall is mighty, powerful and rasplnng, angrily roaring and billowing, not allowing anyone near. Try getting close on a bamboo raft, and the earthquaking roar and overwhelming vapor swallow up the air, making it hard to breathe.

If you can't stand the humidity and heat of summer in a sub-tropical monsoon climate and appreciate gentleness and grace, you should visit Detian Waterfall in October or even later, when the Daddy fields turn gold. Detian Waterfall at this time looks stunning-like a graceful lady wearing a silk cape. In winter, the sub-tropical zone is rather cold and gloomy and the flow is reduced.

Spring comes early to southern China; the mountains are covered by green and the kapok is in full bloom. If you want to enjoy Detian Waterfall in spring, you need to get on the road in February. If you stay at the nearby village you can enjoy the murmuring sound of the waterfall at night and, though the flow may still look meager in spring, it will swell out after several rains Within a 250-kilometer radius of the Detian Scenic Area-a natural landscape gallery-you can enjoy karst landscapes, rural scenery£¬canyons and waterfalls deep river valleys, steep cliffs and roads, lakes and exotic customs.

A combination of wars and range upon range of high mountains have kept this Sino-Vietnamese border area separate from the outside world. The most dangerous section lies 60 kilometers away from Detian, where the road winds its way through steep mountains towering into the sky. Fortunately, since the completion of the Class 2 highway, it takes only three hours to drive the l96 kilometers from Nanning to Detian and the steep cliffs and mountains and other views en route are a real delight.

After Shuolong, the Guichun River comes into view. The river water is green and crystal clear. On market days, people from one bank take their piglets, chickens and rice on bamboo rafts to the busy market fair on the opposite bank less than l00 meters away. If no one mentioned it, you would never believe that these two sides of the river, with the same mountains, water, trees, crops and villages are two different countries. At the bustling market, people with the same skin color and facial features chat to each other in dialect, as if from the same village. Just around the comer, the Detian Waterfall roars day and night. Scenes like these are particularly heart-warming.

It is commonplace that people from the two countries in the border area inter-marry. To them the Guichun is just an ordinary river instead of an international boundary. People from both banks raise their families, using the river for irrigation, for fishing, and for a nice cool dip after hard physical labor. To the inhabitants of the border area, the past wars were not as

horrible as outsiders imagine; even during the fighting, they refused the local government's evacuation orders and insisted On staying put. Life nearby the Detian Waterfall is peaceful and harmonious, like the tranquil Guichun River itself. But though the fighting is a thing of the past, the border area remains mysterious as ever.

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