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Dujiangyan [China] Is This One of The Most Beautiful City In the World?

Dujiangyan bridge

Dujiangyan [China] Is This One of The Most Beautiful City In the World?

Go Golfing events and tours span 28 countries and we’ve been to hundreds of cities on every continent. Go Golfing’s founder Peter McCarthy has just returned from China with claims he has just visited the most beautiful city in the world, and no-one in the office had even heard of it.

And, if you know Peter, you won’t be surprised to find out that he tracked down the mayor of the city, got a photo that has gone viral in China, and now has this amazing city wanting to host a VIP tour for Go Golfing clients and shower them with amazing gifts and the keys to the city.

And the city is (drum roll please) . . . Dujiangyan, about an hour from Chengdu in south-west China. This is where you go to see Panda Bears and savour Sichuan hotpot cooking and spicy cuisine. Yep, Peter had never heard of it and neither had we until he made his way there.

“Wow, this place is rarefied beauty. I confess I am not one for sightseeing, but you can tell from the ancient architecture, the precision placement of flora and equidistant trees, the magnificence of the ornate streetscaping and the reverent yet understated celebration of its rich history, you sense this place has an amazing story to tell. This is panda bear country and the Chinese love it. The livery on the local taxis are themed like panda bears. Lose concentration while driving and you might run up the bum of a panda bear!”

Even more impressive about Dujianyan is an irrigation and flood control system constructed more than 2000 years ago that modern day German engineers would still marvel at. The system’s infrastructure is located on the Minjiang,  the longest tributary of the Chang Jiang in SichuanChina. Situated in the western portion of the Chengdu flat lands at the confluence between the Sichuan basin and the Qinghai-Tibet plateau

Originally the Minjiang rushed down from the Minshan, but slowed abruptly after reaching the Chengdu Plains, causing the watercourse to fill up with silt, making the surrounding area extremely prone to flooding. Li Bing, then governor of Shu for the state of Qin, and his son headed the construction of the Dujiangyan, which harnessed the river by using a new method of channeling and dividing the water rather than simply following the old way of dam building. In layman’s terms, they built an artificial ‘S’ bend in the channel and cut a hole in the side of a mountain to ensure a controlled water source that is still in use today to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometres of land in the region. The easily accessed viewing platforms allow you to see for yourself the cleverness of the Dujiangyan, known as the greatest hydraulic engineering project of the Qin dynasty.

Having tracked down the mayor, Peter McCarthy decided to pick up the 110kg guy like a baby – as you do, rather than a traditional handshake. The mayor posted the photo on social media and had 17,000+ likes in 2 hours. Peter followed up with an impromptu rendition of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ with a local entertainer who wasn’t expecting to lose his microphone for a spot of karaoke. Peter’s unofficially official appointment as Australian ambassador to Dujiangyan was sealed with numerous shouts of Kampai – the Chinese equivalent of cheers and then bottoms up.

Peter must have made an impression – then again he usually does, as he now has the Mayor’s invitation to return with a group of Go Golfing VIP’s. And make no mistake, the city of Dujiangyan is rolling out the red carpet for this group. The tour also includes 6 rounds of golf, 4 of these in Kunming, which offers even better golf than the world-acclaimed Mission Hills.

 

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