Rocks and rivers cast a spell

Ethnic groups celebrate their cultures in a gem that many have yet to discover.

- Yang Yang and He Chun report

Hundreds of millions of years ago this land was a vast sea. In its littoral areas, rivers carried vast amounts of quartz-rich sediment from the land, which steadily settled and built up over time. On the seabed huge amounts of carbonate material were deposited, mixed with mud and sand.

Over eons of tectonic shifts, what were once oceans have transformed into land, creating a world of peerless and spectacular natural beauty in the west of Hunan province. Two big rivers, the Yuanjiang and the Lishui, run across the land, bordered by the Wuling Mountains to the northwest and the Xuefeng Mountains to the southeast.

This area is now called Xiangxi, which, from north to south, mainly includes Zhangjiajie, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture and Huaihua.

In this land, rivers flow like the sweetest poetry, and rugged rock formations add to the beauty of a region rich in the cultures of many ethnic groups.