City guide · 桂林 Guilin
Guilin
The river a green silk ribbon, the mountains like jade hairpins — the Li River landscape sings together with a thousand-year prefectural city
Guilin lies at the southern end of the Hunan–Guangxi corridor, in the southwest of the Nanling ranges; the Li River runs through the city and karst peak forests embrace the urban area. Solitary Beauty Peak, Elephant Trunk Hill and Folded Brocade Hill rise straight from the flat ground, composing with the river and the fields the original point of China's landscape aesthetic. Since the Qin dynasty dug the Ling Canal to link the Xiang and Li rivers, this has been the gateway between Lingnan and the Central Plains; the Jingjiang Prince's Palace, the carved phrase "Guilin's scenery is the finest under heaven" and Xu Xiake's travel notes together wrote this city into the Chinese geographical imagination. The climate is warm and humid, suitable in all seasons, and slow travel is the right way to open Guilin.
History
How the city came to be
Guilin's history can be traced to the Qin dynasty: in 214 BC the First Emperor had the Ling Canal dug, linking the Xiang River and the Li River, and the Guilin area became the grain route and garrison land for the southward advance into Lingnan. In the sixth year of Yuanding of Emperor Wu of Han (111 BC) Shi'an County was set up under Guilin Commandery, and the city's name became tied to "Guilin" (cassia forest) from then on. In the Tang, Guilin was a key town of the Lingnan West Circuit; in the Song, Jingjiang Prefecture's city took shape; in the Ming, Prince Jingjiang Zhu Shouqian was enfeoffed at Guilin, and his palace with Solitary Beauty Peak formed the city's axis — eleven generations of Jingjiang princes lived here for nearly three hundred years. In the Qing it was the capital of Guangxi, and in the Republic it remained Guangxi's political and cultural centre. During the War of Resistance, Guilin briefly became a cultural city of the rear area, gathering men of letters. After the founding of the People's Republic, Guangxi's capital moved to Nanning, while Guilin, on the strength of its landscape, developed into one of the first Chinese tourist cities opened to the world.
- 214 BCThe Qin dug the Ling Canal, linking the Xiang and Li rivers; Guilin became the gateway for the southward advance into Lingnan
- 111 BCThe Han set up Shi'an County, under Guilin Commandery
- Tang, Kaiyuan eraGuizhou (Guilin) became an important prefecture of the Lingnan West Circuit
- 1370In the third year of Hongwu of the Ming, Prince Jingjiang Zhu Shouqian was enfeoffed at Guilin and built the Jingjiang Prince's Palace
- 1647Qu Shisi, Zhang Tongchang and others of the Southern Ming resisted the Qing in Guilin and died when the city fell
- 1637Xu Xiake toured Guilin, leaving in his Diary of a Journey to Western Guangdong the classic account of Guilin's scenery
- 1949Guilin was liberated
- 1973Guilin was listed among the tourist cities open to foreigners, and its scenery's fame went out to the world
Trips beyond the city
These places can be explored from this city but lie outside it. See each place for transport and visiting guidance.
