Plants growing from stones seem like an incredible fairytale, but in China's Libo, endowed by nature and preserved through conservation, this legend is reality.

A small county nestled in southwest China's Guizhou Province, Libo is home to mysterious Karst landscapes and splendid natural scenery that has fascinated generations of travel lovers.

Along with two other Karst areas in south China, Shilin in Yunnan Province and Wulong in Chongqing Municipality, Libo was crowned with the World Natural Heritage title in 2007 for its fine example of Karst topography.

I went to Libo to see for myself the unique gifts that nature has bestowed on the land. Our itinerary for the day is Maolan Karst Forest Natural Conservation in the morning, and then the Zhangjiang Scenic zone in the afternoon.

Our guide said that Libo is the only green land on this latitude in the world, like a green gem isolated itself from the outside world. It was late September, but Libo is still in its rainy season, so we were accompanied by continuous rain for the whole day.

A visitor from Shanghai surnamed Tang shared her photos as well as her thoughts with us.

"The scenery in Libo is very beautiful, just like what I saw from TV. But there are two aspects that need to be improved in order to get more tourists. One is its traffic, the other is hotels. I've been to many tourist attractions in China, many of them can't match their beauty with Libo, but the facilities are better."

Tang thought the application for World Heritage List was worthwhile, since it could bring a lot of invisible benefits for Libo, in both the short and long term.

In Maolan, scenery is not divided by zones, but by your time and ability to explore. The forest coverage rate is 91.59 percent. We were told that experienced hikers would spend at least one week walking across the forest. In our limited time, we could only get a glimpse of the diverse Karst ecosystem. Butterflies, insects, and colorful spiders are among the treasures to be seen by curious travelers. Many rare and endangered plant species also inhabit in the magic forest.

At Zhangjiang Scenic area, we visited the famous big and small seven-hole bridge, which are said to be even more splendid than Sichuan's well-known Jiuzhaigou Scenic Attraction. Here, plants growing out of plain stones are commonplace, demonstrating nature's strong life force. More surprisingly, there is a "super bonsai" featuring bizarre plants growing under the water in this area. Plants grow defiantly in the rushing water, with branches and vines twisted in a clutter.

Huang Jianwei, director of the World Heritage Management Office, said that Libo is on track in building an international tourism destination, with a group of theaters and minority gardens already in the works. Huang also said new high speed roads connecting Libo to Guiyang city as well as Guangxi Province are under construction and are expected to open by the end of the year.

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