Guilin has clear rivers and lush hills - scenery like a painting.
Tips
mistakes
清 (clear) - not 青 (green). 山青水秀 is a common misspelling. The idiom pairs "clear mountains" (scenery that's not hazy) with "lovely waters," not a color description.
history
Rooted in 宋·黄庭坚《蓦山溪》: 尽湖南，山明水秀 - Huang Tingjian's "bright hills and lovely waters" of Hunan. The modern form substitutes 清 for 明, but the image is the same: the Chinese ideal of natural beauty, two characters for the peaks, two for the rivers.
