Dragon’s Teeth
This is a bit late, but I thought I should note down a recount of our last full day in Guizhou province. We all piled into our buses and headed off into the country to visit a small village where People to People had previously donated funds to build a new school. It was a couple hour drive, and along the way we were treated to views of the southern countryside which gave us an even better look at the karst mountain forms in the region.
Karst mountain formations en route to Changjiao Village
When we had arrived in Guiyang, our guide had mentioned that in order to build the airport, they had to remove 11 of these mountain tops in order to create a space large enough and flat enough for an airport. Somewhere in my past, I’ve heard the term “dragon’s teeth” to describe the terrain. I googled it, and found a reference to Dragon’s Teeth Mountains, but it was referring to Terry Brook’s Sword of Shanara fantasy books that I read years ago…so now I’m not sure if I heard the term from the books or in reference to these mountains. Either way, I think the term fits.
Karst mountain formations en route to Changjiao Village
As we drove along, Matt and I took up positions at the back of the bus on either side. These two places, you could open the windows. I felt like a WWII tail gunner in a B52 except armed with a camera with a telephoto lense. You can see Matt’s photos on his Flickr page. I’ll be uploading my photos soon. A link will appear on the Photos page.
In the meantime, here are a couple more views from the bus:
More scenic views of the Dragon's Teeth mountains
In the description of karst formations on wikipedia, it notes that the process that forms these mountain tops also forms caves from water erosion. We could see this in some of the mountains like this one.
This tooth has a cavity!