Yangshuo’s City Qi and the Role of West Street

Dragon Cave, Mountain–Water Formations and Flying Star Structure

As I mentioned in the article "Feng Shui of Guilin City", highway G321 and Li River bring along fortunate Qi to Yangshuo city. The city center of Yangshuo is very small and was built alongside West Street, location of the dragon cave. The street is 517 meters (1,696 feet) long and 8 meters (26 feet) wide, meandering in an 'S' along its length.

In classical feng shui, such an S-shaped water-and-street pattern helps slow down and retain auspicious Qi instead of letting it rush straight through the town. West Street acts like a Qi reservoir and distribution channel, collecting the energy carried by the Li River and G321 before it spreads into Yangshuo’s old urban core.

Aerial view of Yangshuo West Street and surrounding hills Yangshuo West Street streetscape with hills and Li River

South Entrance: Sitting Position and Incoming Qi

From the south side entrance of West Street (the sitting position), you can see the energy coming from distant hills, as illustrated in the figure below (marked with 1-3). Just on the right hand side of West Street, there is a small hill (we call it the White Tiger Hill in Feng Shui terms, indicated by the large green circle in the first map) which captures both the energy from the distant hills and the Li River.

Standing at the location where the picture was taken, you can feel a strong Qi coming from the left and top (the entrance of West Street here is in fact a low-lying area, a slope of around 20 degrees down from the mainroad). This slope acts like a Qi slide, gently guiding people and energy down into the heart of the street.

View from South entrance of West Street showing hill formations

White Tiger and Azure Dragon Formations

The greater West Street area is surrounded by water and hills, the White Tiger on the right is slightly higher (visually) than other hills on the left (The Azure Dragon), which forms a perfect feng shui structure.

In feng shui symbolism, a slightly higher White Tiger provides protection and containment, while the Azure Dragon on the left brings movement, growth and business opportunities. With the Li River nearby acting as a lively water dragon, West Street sits in a natural “embrace” of mountain and water, ideal for commerce and tourism.

Diagram of White Tiger and Azure Dragon hills around West Street

Facing Direction and “Parents of 3 Trigrams” Formation

The Street has a facing direction of 38 degrees (sitting Kun facing Gen, the line from 1-2 in the top figure). In Period 8 (2004-2023), this direction forms a "Parents of 3 Trigrams", where each of the flying star palace has either star combination of 1-4-7, 2-5-8 or 3-6-9. This indicates extreme good fortune and fame.

What is “Parents of 3 Trigrams”?
In Flying Star Feng Shui, the star combinations 1-4-7, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9 are known as the “Parents of 3 Trigrams” structure, symbolizing a complete and harmonious interaction of Qi. When a street or building aligns with this pattern, it is believed to be especially favorable for reputation, prosperity and long-term popularity.
In Period 8, this is one of the most sought-after configurations for commercial and tourist areas.

Usually in a feng shui survey, we want to see higher land in the Sitting area, and water (lower land) to the facing direction. However, in a "Parents of 3 Trigrams" situation, we want to see the reverse. As I mentioned above, the low-lying entrance at the Sitting area of West Street perfectly fits this purpose. In the evening, you can see thousands of people flowing into the street from there.

Macroscopic City Feng Shui in Action

This is a good example of using macroscopic feng shui to analyze the feng shui of a city. Instead of only looking at individual buildings, we consider the entire network of hills, rivers, roads and pedestrian flows. West Street benefits from:

• Distant hills sending Qi along visual lines into the entrance
• White Tiger and Azure Dragon hills balancing and holding the energy
• G321 and the Li River channeling external Qi towards Yangshuo
• A powerful Flying Star “Parents of 3 Trigrams” time–space pattern

West Street evening crowd at entrance, view from sitting area Dense flow of tourists moving into West Street

People Flow as Proof of Strong Qi

Can you see how big the crowd is? If not, take a look again: (picture taken from the sitting area looking down the entrance of West Street).

Massive tourist crowd entering West Street from the south

From a feng shui perspective, the continuous, natural inflow of people is one of the clearest indicators that the Qi configuration is working. West Street has become not only a famous tourist hotspot, but also a living classroom for how classical forms, water and Flying Star patterns can combine to create a thriving urban environment.