Guilin Holidays

Situated in the northeast corner of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin is an attractive, landscaped city with plenty of shaded avenues, thoroughfares and rocky parkland to explore. The city was founded in 314BC during the Qin Dynasty as a small settlement on the Lijiang River. It became increasingly important following the construction of a canal joining the river with another further north, providing a transport link with the Yangtze River. The imperial court could thus send food and provisions by water from the Yangtze plains to its armies in the far south. The town became the provincial capital during the Ming Dynasty and remained so until 1914 when the capital was moved to Nanning.

Renowned for its striking, if bizarre scenery, with vast areas of karst limestone outcrops that rise up from flat rice paddy fields, Guilin and the River Li are often the subject of Chinese painting. The karst limestone outcrops synonymous with Guilin are other-wordly, essentially resembling no other geological formations on earth.

Points of interest in Guilin include Elephant Trunk Hill, an endearing symbol of the city, Rong Hu and Shan Hu lakes, Qixing Gongyuan Park along the eastern shore of the River Li and Jinjiang Princes Palace.

Guilin is also famous for a number of caves including the Reed-Flute Cave, named after the reeds growing around the cave mouth. The gargantuan cave, which eats into the south side of Guangming Shan, represents one of the most extraordinary examples of limestone erosion in China.