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Guilin
Taking a trip into the hully karst landscape of Guilin at
sunset is one of the most breath-taking site in China. Guilin by the banks of
the Li River in southern China is justifiably considered to be one of the most
beautiful in China. Today, Guilin attracts innumerable tourists because of its
unique landscape. Until the end of the 1970s, it was a quiet, sleepy area. Since
then, Guilin and the settlements along the Li River have undergone an incredible
development through tourism. This town with over 400,000 inhabitants acquired
its name from the Cassia trees, whose blooms carry their sweet scent through the
whole town in autumn. Guilin literally means "Cassia Tree Forest". Guilin
is said to be founded in 214 BC. At that time, the Lingqu Canal was built under
the regency of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Sin Huangdi. It still connects the
central Asian plain with southern China, and South-East Asia, via the Yangzi,
the Lijiang and the Pearl river. Guilin and its surroundings are still mostly
agricultural, but this is limited by the numerous mountains which pose a problem
in the whole of Guangxi region. The landscape is characterised by terraced rice
paddies, water buffalos, and bamboo groves, and peasants with turn up trousers
and cone-shaped straw hats. Guilin is famous for it spicy Guilinjiang, a type
of pepper sauce. From the Mountain of Coloured Layers, a 223 metre high mountain
on the north, visitors can get a wonderful view of Guilin and Lijiang. The most
beautiful tourist spot is the Crystal Palace of Dragon King, in the Reed Flute
Cave at north west of the city centre and a subterranean water landscape, which
resembles the landscape around Guilin and the Li River. A boat
trip on the peaceful Li River is the absolute high point of any visit to Guilin.
A cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, visitors will experience the winding and twisting
Li River, goes past the many bizarre mountains whose shapes have inspired and
fired the Chinese imagination, the Elephant Trunk Mountain, Old Man Mountain,
Pagoda Mountain and Hole Mountain. Cormorant fishermen in narrow bamboo boats,
bathing children, water buffaloes, small settlement and women doing their washing
on the banks of the river can be seen along the way. Yangshuo, at the end of the
boat journey is today a developed village that thrives mainly on tourism and seems
to have nothing but tourist shops. North-east of Guilin is Sanjiang,
a settlement of the Song people. Changyong Bridge is an architecturally unique
sight. South-west of Guilin, in the centre of the Autonomous region of Guangxi
is Linzhou with 600,000 inhabitants, is an expanding industrial town, pricturesque
and typically southern Chinese. The main attraction is the Dule Rock with its
numerous karst caves. Another area with a beautiful landscape is the settlement
of Guiping. The capital of the Autonomous Region of Guangxi is Nanning. It is
located deep in the south and is only 160 km from the Vietnamese border. South-west
of Nanning, near the Vietnamese border by the river Zuojiang, is a landscape as
fantastic as that in Guilin. In Ningmeng county, visitors can see a 1,700 year
old mysterious rock painting along a steep rock face by taking a boat on Zuojiang
river. |
