Guilin

Guilin is located in Guanxi Province, in China's southwest. Most visitors come to the area to see the limestone formations located along the Li River but the geology of the area has also endowed Guilin with a number of interesting parks and underground caves.

Elephant Trunk Park

The centerpeice of the park is this limestone hill shaped like an elephant. Notice the pagoda located on top of the hill.

Reed Flute Cave

The Reed Flute cave is the best known of several caves located in the vicinity of Guilin. Unlike national parks in the US, the Chinese like to to improve on nature. In this case by adding color light. The formation shown at right is called "City in the Distance".

Minority Dance Show

Guanxi province is home to a large mosaic of Chinese minorities. We watched an excellent show focused on minority dances and customs at The Royal Garden Hotel.

Li River Cruise

The highlight of any Guilin visit is the Li River cruise. A long bus will take you several miles upstream to board your boat, which will then cruise back towards the Guilin area. With its blue-green water and vegetation covered hills, the river was a nice contrast to the monochromatic Yangzi river cruise. Thousand of limestone formations called karst line up the river.

The river is also famous for the technique the local fishermen use to catch fish with the aid of a team of cormorants. Fishing in the evenings, the fishermen will shine a light into the water to attract the fish. The cormorants will dive, catch the fish, and return it to the boat. They can't cheat and swallow the fish because the fishermen will have tied a string around their neck beforehand.