Nanning: the green gateway to Vietnam

Capital of the Guangxi Autonomous Region, Nanning remains the starting point for the famous karst landscapes and terraced rice paddies of southern China.

The center, gateway to the green toward Vietnam, can be comfortably visited by subway.

The Green Hills Park, with its karst formations surrounded by artificial lakes, remains the city's main green lung.

A few steps away, the Guangxi Museum displays bronze drums of the Zhuang populations, the most numerous ethnic minority in China.

Heading inland you can reach Yangshuo, famous for its karst towers plunging into the Li River, among the most photographed landscapes in China.

As evening approaches, the pedestrian quarter of Zhongshan Road comes alive with street food and night markets typical of southern China.

Nanning is nicknamed China's 'green city' for its extensive urban tree cover, the result of decades of citywide afforestation programs promoted by local administration.

The Zhuang people, who live primarily in the Guangxi region around Nanning, number over sixteen million, making them the most numerous ethnic minority group in all of China, with their own language and living traditions.