Nanning & Detian Falls

The provincial capital, green and subtropical, with a Zhuang majority and a small but established Hui community. The gateway for the southern border routes and the Detian falls.

The border country of southwest Guangxi, where the Guichun river drops over Detian, one of the largest transnational waterfalls in Asia, in a landscape of karst and sugarcane.

A large landscaped hill park inside the city, with palm avenues, a pagoda and a Buddhist temple. Best in the cool of the early morning.

The main Hui mosque, active and central, with a halal restaurant street beside it.

A multi-tiered fall more than 200 metres wide on the border, viewable from bamboo rafts at the base and from a path along the top.

A flat karst valley of rice fields and water wheels along the river, quieter than Yangshuo and barely visited by international travellers.

No pork on the premises, no alcohol on the premises, and the full list with addresses in your inbox before you fly.

Salah is placed first and sightseeing is built around it, not the other way round. Your guide carries a mat, a compass and a prayer-time sheet.

Hui halal restaurants near the mosque, plus Zhuang dishes prepared halal: rice noodle soups, steamed chicken and beef offal hotpot. Fewer choices than Guilin, all pre-checked. Nanning mosque is nearby, so you can pray and eat on the same street.

Hui-run halal kitchens are thin here; we pre-arrange halal meals at the hotels and bring a halal lunch on the long driving days. Zhuang sour fish and mountain chicken, prepared halal. Chongzuo mosque is nearby, so you can pray and eat on the same street.

Central and active, with wudhu. Jumuah is straightforward.

One main mosque in the city and prayer rooms at the major service areas on the Detian road. Long drives are broken around prayer times anyway.

In Chongzuo city. For the falls day we plan prayer at the visitor centre before you descend to the river.

This is the most genuinely rural leg in Guangxi, so we plan ahead: prayer in Chongzuo or at the visitor centre, a mat and compass in the vehicle, and a packed halal lunch.

Nanning Wuxu (NNG) airport, high-speed rail from Guangzhou in about three and a half hours.

About four hours by road from Nanning. No rail; we drive it as a two-day loop.

October to April. Summers are hot, humid and wet; the winter is mild and green.

May to October, when the falls carry water. Winter flow is a fraction of the summer volume.