Guilin

I was shocked to find that I never wrote a post about Guilin! Guilin is one of the gems of China. A small(by Chinese standards) city, located in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it has a population of about 600,000 with an urban area of about 4 million. I is the home of many of China’s 55 ethnic minorities which make up about 7% of China’s population.

Guilin’s income comes mostly from tourism, and a look at its sights explains why. It is a beautifully landscaped city, named “Forests of Osmanthus” after its city flower, the osmanthus. Osmanthus flowers are used to make perfumes and wines.
One of the most famous places in Guilin is Elephant Trunk Hill.

There are a number of other sights nearby that are fun to see


There are a number of lakes in the city. Over them are a variety of bridges and the area around them is landscaped beautifully. People love the sun and moon pagodas by day

and by night.

Although they look very ancient, both were built in the 1990s and are not real pagodas, but places where one can go to the top to look out or eat dinner.
Another beautiful sight in Guilin is the Reed Flute Cave, a magnificent cave that resulted from the Karst formation that is all around the city.

Of course we can’t leave out the gorgeous YaoShan, Yao Mountain. The chairlift to the mountain is 20 minutes of relaxation and beauty!


From Guilin we love to travel to YangShuo and from there take a cruise on the Li River. It is beautiful! On the way, we see rice fields. But more about that next time…