Elephant
Trunk Hill
Situated majestically at the
southeast of Guilin city and west bank of
Li River, Elephant Trunk Hill is regarded
as the symbol of Guilin landscape. Originally
named "Li Hill", "Yi Hill"
and "Chenshui Hill", the hill
has a history of 3.6 hundred million years.
Resembling an elephant leisurely sucking
water from the river with its long trunk,
this hill is famous as Elephant Trunk Hill
for hundreds of years.
With an elevation of 200m,
the hill towers 55m above the water, measuring
108m in length and 100m in width. Between
the trunk and the legs of the elephant is
a cave, in the shape of a full moon, penetrating
the hill from side to side. People named
it "Moon-over-Water Cave". When
the waters wave and the moonlight gleams,
the scene is exceedingly enchanting. On
the walls in and around this cave, over
70 inscriptions from the Tang and Song dynasties
were found, praising the beauty of hills
and waters nearby. Halfway up the hill lies
another cave, which goes through the hill
and serves as the eyes of the elephant,
through which visitors can overlook the
beautiful scene of Guilin city. On top of
the hill stands a pagoda named Puxian Pagoda.
Built in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), it
looks like the handle of a sword. In and
out of the cave are many carvings and inscriptions,
the most well-known of which is a poem by
Lu You (1125-1210), one of the four great
poets of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279).
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