Guilin Attractions

Elephant trunk hill and Fubo hill

Elephant Trunk Hill is located on the western bank of Li River. The shape of the hill is just like a huge elephant drinking water from the river with its trunk, thus the mountain was named so.

Shui Yue Cave (Water Moon Cave) is between the trunk and the legs, which is a semi-round cave penetrated by water. The inverted reflection of the cave in water plus the part above forms a full moon. This phenomenon is unique and many laudatory inscriptions were found on the wall inside the cave. Visitors can boat through the cave to the river.

Another cave regarded as the eyes of the elephant lies in the hillside. It provides tourists an ideal position to enjoy the panoramic view of Guilin.

On the top of the hill is a two-storey pagoda built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) surrounded by green trees. The north seat of the second floor is inlaid with an image of Bodhisattva Puxian. The pagoda looks like a precious vase on the back of an elephant seen from distance and many beautiful legends about the pagoda with good wishes are said among people.

As the symbol of Guilin, the hill is the main scenic spot of the Elephant Trunk Hill Park, which also includes Yunfeng Monastery (a building with ancient style), Aiqing Dao (Love Island) and so on.

About 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from Elephant Trunk Hill and above the western bank of Li River Scenery , there towers Wave-Subduing Hill (Fubo Hill), another of Guilin’s wonderfully scenic spots. It reaches the height of 213 meters (698.8 feet) and emerges 62 meters (203.4 feet) above the water. Half of it stands in the river and the other half of it on land. Since the galloping water is always blocked here and eddied, the hill is considered to have the power of subduing waves. Moreover, it was on this hill that a temple in commemoration of General Fubo was built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which gave rise to the name Wave-Subduing Hill.

Natural scenery of rocks and stalactites as well as artificial cloister and pavilions compose the fantastic and unique sight of the hill. At the foot of the hill lie the Pearl-Returning Cave, the Thousand-Buddha Cave and the Sword-Testing Rock, all of which have great appeal. A gracious cloister and tearoom were built on the southern slope. Halfway to the hill is the Tingtao Pavilion (Pavilion of Listen-to-Waves). Stone stairs wind up towards the hilltop on the western slope of the hill. The Viewing Platform on the stairway is an ideal spot for taking in the panorama of Guilin.

Reed Flute cave

With its location five kilometers northwest of the downtown of Guilin, the Reed Flute Cave is a brilliant cave marked on almost all travel itineraries. The cave got its name from the verdant reeds growing outside it, with which people make flutes. Inside this water-eroded cave is a spectacular world of various stalactites, stone pillars and rock formations created by carbonate deposition. Illuminated by colored lighting, the fantastic spectacle is found in many variations along this 240-meter-long cave. Walking through the serried stone pillars, tourists feast their eyes on changing spots, feeling they are in a paradise where the Gods live.

Tourists in the caveTourists enter the cave and then take a U-shaped sight-seeing route to see different spots, whereupon they exit it from another cave quite near the entrance one. One trip lasts about one hour. It is a Chinese habit to give each formation a legendary or poetic name such as Crystal Palace, Dragon Pagoda, Virgin Forest, Flower and Fruit Mountain and other interesting names. For some of these names, you need to use your imagination, but the story behind each is quite fun. It’s a pleasure to listen to romantic or fairy tales whilst appreciating the fantastic stone formations. Both the stories and the lighting add mystery to the scene. Although there are different kinds of lighting inside, you are not supposed to take photos unless you are a professional photographer, because the light inside is not sufficient for exposure. At some spots, such as the Crystal Palace or Flower and Fruit Mountain, special photography is offered at 20 yuan for one picture. (They use special equipment to provide enough illumination.) Some 70 inscriptions on the cave wall are said to be travelogues and poems derived from the Tang Dynasty, which made the cave a popular tourist site at that time.

Li River Cruise and Yangshuo

The Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo is the centerpiece of any trip to northeastern Guangxi Province. Gorgeous Karst peaks give you surprises at each bend of the limpid river under the blue sky. Water buffalo patrol the fields, peasants reap rice paddies, school kids and fisherman float by on bamboo rafts. With its breathtaking scenery and taste of a life far removed from the concrete metropolis, the scenery along the river become one of China’s top tourist destinations.

The trip starts from the dock south of Liberation Bridge in Guilin downtown area. Otherwise some agencies will transport tourists to take a one-hour bus ride to the Bamboo River Dock (Zhujiang Dock) or the Millstone Hill Dock to start the cruise from its essential part. The river trip is over 83 kilometers (52 miles) long and is estimated to take four to five hours. The eye-feasting landscape and country scenery will never disappoint you.

The river generally has three sections. Various attractions like peaks and villages along the river have interesting descriptive names, which calls for much of your imagination to see what it is like. Listening to tour guide’s legendary stories about the attractions is a delightful experience when you are appreciating the landscapes. Most are mystical fairy and love stories. The following Introduction to the attractions are presented in order of location along the river. You can also refer to the river Map on the right. Now start our impressive Li River trip from section to section.

Xiangong Hill Xingping

Xianggong Hill is located near Xinping town in Yangshuo County. It is situated between Nine Horse Mural Hill and Huangbu shoal on the west bank of the Li River. You can actually pass Hungbu shoal on the way here if you take a boat from Xingping. You can also hire road transportation to get there after taking a public bus to Baisha or Putao. 

Optional activities (at additional costs)

Impression Sanjie Liu (evening showtime)

The performance regards the lmpression Sanjie Liu as the general theme, and creatively combines the classical Sanjie Liu’s Songs, ethnic groups’Culture and the fishing lights together, to reflect the harmonious atmosphere between human beings and the nature. With 65 square kilometers water area, 12 famous mountain peaks, 67 well-known artists home and abroad made contribution, 600 actors and actress involved, this is a totally different performance from the conventional form. The theatre is the nature itself. In this stage, only the half of the performance is created by man, and the other half is belonged to the mysterious nature. In the show, you won’t see the plots, the characters and the usual scenes, but rather a series of impressions from the landscapes and the ordinary life of the place.

Bamboo rafting on the Yulong River

Yangshuo County is a county in Guilin. Surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one side by the Li River it is easily accessible by bus or by boat from nearby Guilin. Visitors to Yangshuo can swim in the Li River or the cleaner Yu Long (Dragon River), climb one of many nearby karst peaks, hire a bicycle for a cycling trip through the karst scenery, arrange a sightseeing trip on the Li River by bamboo raft or cruise boat, or visit a number of local cave systems, including a butterfly cave.
Bamboo rafting on the Yulong River is one thing must be done during Yangshuo tours. Rafting on the Yulong River does not mean that you go over rapids or waterfalls, it is actually a very peaceful way of travelling on water, the languid river is surrounded by a primitive, but pure, natural landscape, combined with green bamboo forests and rolling hills. You can put bicycles on the back of the raft, and experience another popular way of seeing the valley later on, cycling along riverside tracks.

Two-river and four lake cruise

When night falls, many lanterns and lights are lit and music fountains in the lakes start to entertain the public, making the area a lovely place to go. Taking a sightseeing boat to cruise this inner city water loop, you will get the most beautiful scenes of the night Guilin.

Crown Cave

Guilin is famous for its magical limestone pinnacles and spires. Crown cave is one of the karst scenery but unique in ways of signt-seeing. Crown Cave (Guanyan Cave) is about 29 km (18 miles) south of Guilin. Due to the crown-shaped hill, the cave beneath was given the name Crown Cave. The Crown Cave contains a giant underground river system. Equipped with a sightseeing elevator, small trains, sampans and sightseeing roller coasters, it has received a Guinness World Record for having the most numerous means of touring a cave.

Longsheng Rice Terrace

Located approximately 27 kilometers (about 16 miles) southeast of Longsheng County, a vast region of rice terraces stretches layer upon layer, coiling around from the base of Longji (the dragon’s backbone) Mountain to its summit. This is the most amazing terrace in China, the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. Construction of them began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and continued until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when construction was completed. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces are the culmination of both the profound wisdom and strenuous labor of the Zhuang people.

Now, the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces covers an area of 66 square kilometers (about 16308 acres) and spans an altitude between 300 meters (about 984 feet) and 1100 meters (about 3608 feet). It is said, ‘Where there is soil, there is a terrace’, be it in the valley, with swift flowing river to the mountains summit with its swirling cloud cover, or from bordering verdant forest to the cliff walls. Even though the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces is large, it is made up of numerous patches no more than 1 mu (it is a traditional unit of area in China, currently call shimu) (about 0.16 acres). The smaller ones like snails while the bigger one like towers. The outline is very smooth with gradients between 26 degrees and 35 degrees.

The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces is a beautiful natural picture. The linked together rice terraces vary from season to season. In spring, the water is irrigated into the fields and they look like great chains or ribbons hung on the hillsides. When the onset of summer, green waves rush continuously down the mountainside from the heaven. The theme of autumn is the harvest, with the mountainside decorated with the gold of ripened millet. Coming into winter, the whole mountain will be covered with white snow, just like dragons playing with water.