Chongzuo: Find hotels for nature and culture

Here you’ll find waterfalls on the Guichun border river, villages with Zhuang architecture and historic urban sites. The different locations include Shuolong Town in Daxin County, Longjiantun in Aijiang and Jiangzhou District. This lets you consider nature, architecture and urban history separately when planning your trip.

Waterfalls and border landscapes

The cross-border Detian Waterfall is in Detian Village, Shuolong Town, Daxin County, on the upper reaches of the Guichun, the border river between China and Vietnam. Shuolong Town is also home to the Detian Transnational Waterfall Scenic Area, a national 5A tourist attraction. The waterfall is located on the border river; the Scenic Area is a separately named destination.

Shatun Waterfall consists of seven tiers. A description from 2013 mentions fishermen passing between the waterfall’s tiers on bamboo rafts. The two waterfalls therefore have distinct features: the Detian Waterfall is defined by its location on the border river, while Shatun is distinguished by its sequence of seven cascades.

The Detian-Laomian Scenic Area and Dayang Yougu Scenic Area are also located in Shuolong Community, Shuolong Town. The Detian-Laomian Scenic Area was rated an AAAA tourist attraction on December 23, 2016; its area is listed as four hectares, and it is operated by a non-governmental entity. The Dayang Yougu Scenic Area was rated a state-level AAAA tourist attraction on September 21, 2018. It covers 90 hectares. The area figures show the difference in scale between the two sites without equating their respective themes.

Zhuang architecture and historic sites

The traditional village of Longjian in Longjiantun, Aijiang, has 26 surviving Zhuang stilt houses. The village was founded in the 1920s and is one kilometer from the China–Vietnam border. Here, the surviving homes are the specific architectural feature; historic urban sites, by contrast, are defined by their walls, city gates and urban structures.

The Zuojiang Leaning Pagoda is also known as Guilong Pagoda and Shuibao Pagoda and stands on an island in the river. The octagonal tower was built with three stories in 1621. Two more stories were added during the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty. Its construction date, later extension and floor plan offer three different ways to understand the tower’s architectural history.

Taiping Ancient City stands on the banks of the Zuojiang in Jiangzhou District; its history dates back to the Song Dynasty. The dates refer to different periods: construction of the city wall began in 1372, and during the Ming Dynasty, Taiping was the seat of one of Guangxi’s eleven prefectures. Surviving sections of the old city wall and old city gates can be seen on Taiping Road.

Other features of Taiping Ancient City include the Taiping Prefecture Tower, several hundred lakeside buildings in the Lingnan-Huizhou style, two stone wind-and-rain bridges with tiled roofs, a stele bearing the character “寿,” the Houguan Pavilion and a Zhuang roundhouse. As part of the redevelopment that began in 2018, an inland canal was reconstructed and extended at its original location, and the old city wall was repaired. An article from 2024 described the area as a 4A scenic area and mentioned offerings related to folk customs, regional cuisine, leisure, creative products and themed accommodation.

In January 2025, performances by young Zhuang people singing and dancing in traditional dress were described in Detian Zhuang Ancient Village in Longjiantun, Aijiang; visitors could join in the dancing. If you’re planning to experience this, check in advance whether performances are taking place and when.

Discover more destinations: Yangshuo, Hechi, Guigang, Yulin, Liuzhou, Hezhou, Xing An, Qinzhou

For the main travel overview: Guangxi.