GUIYANG lies in a valley basin right in the riddle of the province it governs, encircled by a range of hills which hems in the city and concentrates its traffic pollution. Established as a capital during the Ming dynasty, Guiyang received little attention until the early 1950s, when the new Communist government repaid minority groups for their tacit help during the civil war by filling the centre with heavy monuments and extending the provincial rail line to make the city a hub for western China. This encouraged investment, though wealth arrived only recently, accelerating Guiyang from a quiet conglomerate of tumbledown town houses to a web of wide roads and twentieth-century high-rises comprising a busy downtown district. The result may not be one of China’s most beautiful cities, but Guiyang is a friendly place, with a growing expert population and well-stocked shopping centers and market stalls. Most visitors simply spend one night here in transit, though anyone planning to explore the province should seek out Guiyang’s informative CITS office (see “Listings”, p.829 for details), and spend a couple of hours browsing through the Provincial Museum’s collection. There are also a scattering of temples and pavilions and a park within easy distance of the centre.

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