A Brief Introduction to Guilin

      Located in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin has always been a famous historic and cultural city in China, reputed as “the landscape in Guilin, the best under heaven.”
It is said that there are many cinnamon in Guilin City, so the name “Guilin.” The population in city proper is some 590,000, living on a land of 565 square kilometers. As it lies in the southwest of the Lingnan Mountain Range it features a subtropical monsoon climate with an affable temperature and plenty of rain. Normally, it averages 19℃ all the year round with the lowest down to 8℃ in the coldest month of January and up to 28℃ or so in the hottest days of August. The amiable weather having neither severe cold in winter, nor sweltering heat in summer, was once praised by the great Tang poet Du Fu as:
         When the Five Ranges are hot as a hell,
          Guilin alone enjoys still a charming cool.
Guilin is really a place where you can make your tours all the year round.
Guilin is an ancient city of culture. With a history of over 2,000 years, it has accumulated a profound base of culture. In the Warring States Period, here was under the rule of the Kingdom of Chu. After the unification of the country by the Qin, Guilin was made a prefecture with the Ling Canal dug to link up the Xiang and Li rivers, thereby making Guilin a town of importance for reaching the sea to the south and a thoroughfare hub up to the central China in the north. After the Song Dynasty, Guilin had always been the political, economic, and cultural center of Guangxi, known as the “Prefecture of Conjunction in Southwest China” till the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In the long run of history, the picturesque landscape of Guilin has attracted many vistors and men of letters to come, making them write down lengthy pieces of relishing poems and articles, left over more than 2,000 pieces of stone and wall carvings and inscriptions. You can find these historical sites and leftovers almost everywhere in Guilin. “To tour among hills seems to go over the history but to look at them is as good as enjoying a serial of pictures.” The long history and rich culture had made Guilin to be appraised as a historical and cultural city in China in 1982 and in 1985, it was followed with the crowning as one of the ten major scenic spots, next only to the Great Wall in the country and then was futher made a tourist city being put on the list for key construction into a tourist city in China as well as one of the four major tourist cities promoted by the WTO to the world.
      Now, a tourist area with Guilin as its core joined by over 10 counties in its vicinities has come into being. Living on this piece of land are the Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Dong, Mulao and Maonan, a good over 10 ethnic minority peoples. What swifts over green waters and hills around here are the feelings and customs, pure and fervent, featuring the unique styles of life of the ethnic minority people in here. A greater scroll of scenic beauties with more ethnic customs and history and culture is now unfolding before you, catching the attention of more visitors domestic and foreign and making them to come and linger here longer without thinking of return.
To make a tour in Guangxi, Guilin should be the initial step to set out. In a one-day tour of ancient sites in Guilin, the best places of interest advisable are the City for King of the Ming Dynasty, Sea of Osmanthus Trees with Forest of Steles, Solitary Beauty Peak, Elephant Trunk Hill, Tamilng Waves Hill, Piled Silk Hill, Nanxi Hill, Seven Star Crag and Reed Flute Cave as well as the Banyan Lake and China Fir Lake and so on. However, the scores of miles of the green Li River and the hills flanking both sides from Guilin to Yangshuo are the must for those coming to Guilin for tours. “The landscape in Guilin is the best under heaven but that in Yangshuo is even better.” If you’ve come to Guilin yet failed to make a tour along the Lijiang River down to Yangshuo, it’s tantamount to having made no tour to Guilin. Nevertheless, if you want to get something true out of it, you cannot but go experiencing it yourself, and you are advised not to lose the chance maybe only once of a lifetime.