Guilin City Facts & Districts

The scenery in Guilin is among the most beautiful in all of China. The hills are the most magnificent green, the fields colorful, and the pinnacles unique and intriguing. The Li River also winds its way through the city. Both sides of the river are lined with many green hills that seem to spring up from the ground as though a crop growing. This entire area is poetic and tranquil.

Guilin has been famous since the Tang Dynasty, for its scenic location amongst a host of gnarled, two hundred meters high rocky hills on the Li River, down which you can cruise to the village of Yangshuo.

The karst formations were thrust up from the limestone sea bed which covered the region some 300 million years ago. Eroded over centuries by the area's unique wind and water conditions, this "stone forest," with its many subterranean caves and rivers, creates a haunting atmosphere. This bizarre range of peaks has caused Guilin to be immortalized in Chinese painting and poetry.

Guilin administers 17 county-level divisions, including five city districts, ten counties and two autonomous counties.