Big Banyan Tree, Yangshuo

In 1960 the film Liu Sanjie shot its most famous scene under this tree, the moment the Zhuang singer throws her embroidered ball to Aniu. A film marker stands under the branches today, and most Chinese visitors arrive knowing the shot before they see the tree. It was already old by then. The sources agree on about 1,400 years and a Sui dynasty planting, which would put its first century in the decades when the Sui reunified China after three hundred years of division. The trunk is 7.05 metres round and the tree only 17 metres tall, so it spreads rather than climbs: a fig with a crown wide enough to cover the river crossing at its foot, still called Rongyin Gudu, the old ferry in the banyan's shade. Zhuang families treat it as sacred and bring offerings at the new and full moon. The rest of the year it works as a stop on the Ten Mile Gallery, the road and river route that runs south of Yangshuo town through the karst: a gate, a ticket of fifteen to eighteen yuan, open eight until half past five, and a posted visit of about half an hour. Reach it by bike along the road, by sightseeing bus from town, or by bamboo raft down the Yulong to Gongnong Bridge and walk the last stretch.