In Britain, JMW Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales romanticised the country’s coasts and castles. For Japan, Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji helped make the stratovolcano a must-visit among international tourists.
And in China, it is the shanshui paintings depicting the nation’s mountains and rivers that have captured the imagination of travellers for centuries.
Far from the glittering skyscrapers of Shanghai (but not so far – in actuality it’s less than a three-hour flight) you’ll be able to find lofty cloud-shrouded peaks and flowing waterways that feel like something out of an ink wash painting in Guilin.
No stranger to tourism, the city in Guangxi, South China, has been famed for its karst scenery for centuries – more than 800 years ago, Wang Zhenggong declared the landscape as “the best under heaven”.
Tourists both domestic and international have been agreeing with him ever since.
