The boundaries of the city of Guilin are now much larger. The new city, composed of former city of Guilin and the Guilin Prefecture, encompasses 27,797 square kilometres. It has a population of 4.79 million. Undeniably, to live in Guilin is to be a lover of mountains and rivers. Which is not to say that all the city residents spend this leisure hours gallivanting among the hills and forests of the high country.

The establishment of the new city, approved by the State Council in 1999, will further to strengthen Guilin's status. as a tourist attraction, and promote construction and economic development in the whole area. The new government gives top priority to tourism and make better use of rich resources to develop its economy. The expansion provides better opportunity for the city to optimize tourism structure and improve tourism services.

Guilin, one of China's most popular scenic cities, played host to 10.97 million tourists in 2002, up 8.7 per cent from 2001. The city ranked in a record 4.99 billion yuan (US$ 601 million) in earnings from tourism. With a history of more then 2,000 years, Guilin is renowned for its green mountains, clear water and strangely shaped rock formations.

Most of the sights in Guilin are scenic. Although the mountains are the usual peaked mountains, they are rounded at the top and there are tons of them, very picturesque. They look almost fake and the ones in the background fade to grey more than the nearer, darker ones. A popular Chinese saying goes: The scenery in Guilin is the finest, but Yangshuo's is still better .The well known poet Han Yu (768-820) in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) described Guilin's landscape:

"The river forms a green gauze belt, the mountains are like blue jade hairpins." / "The river resembles a green ribbon, while the hills are emerald hairpins."

About 30 ethnic groups like Zhuang, Hui, Miao, Yao, and Dong inhabit in the city. Guilin is reputed as a city with "the most beautiful hills and rivers on earth. Its fantastic scenery and cultural heritage attract millions of tourists each year from both home and abroad.

It is said that since ancient times the landscape of Guilin has been second to none under Heaven (the scenery in Guilin is the best under Heaven). Great poet Fan Chengda (1126-1193) of the Southern Song Dynasty ( 1127 -1279) said," The strange sight of Gui Mountain should be ranked first under Heaven. "Li Zengbo of the Southern Song Dynasty acclaimed," The mountains and streams of Guilin are second to none under Heaven. "Till the Qing Dynasty when poets changed the word" stream "iIlto" waters, "hence the popular saying:" The mountains and waters of Guilin are second to none under Heaven, "or rather," The landscape of Guilin is second to none under Heaven." It is said that Guilin is unique in four aspects verdant mountains (enchanting hills) , lovely waters (limpid water) , strange caves (fantastic caverns) , and charming rocks (wonderful rocks) , and in addition there are four excellent views deep ponds dangerous shoals , flowing springs , and torrential waterfalls . It takes years to appreciate each of these features. Besides the four uniquenesses and the four excellences, the four seasons should also be taken into consideration. The landscape in Guilin changes in four seasons.

Li River (the beauty of the scenery along the Li River defies description)

Li River, also known as Guishui River or Gui River, takes its source at Mao' er Mountain in Xing' an County, which lies to northeast Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Li River makes its way through Guilin and Yangshuo and merges into Xijiang River in Wuzhou. The mountains on the banks over 40 kilometres long between Guilin and Yangshuo display their extraordinary beauty as a result of the development of the limestone. More than 40,000 hills lie along the two sides of the river, covering a total length of more than 150 kilometres. With their astonishing resemblance to bamboo shoot, screen, elephant and camel, these mountains, together with green banyans and green bamboo as well as the cottages and fishing boats, contribute to form a scenery picture depicting a haven of peace dominated by green. It has a total length of more than 430 kilometres. In the past it was thought that Li River shares the same source with Xiangjiang River. A watershed divides the two rivers, one flowing to the north and the other to the south. Li River meanders southward like a belt flanked by mountains and marvelous peaks. The 83-kilometrelong waterway from Guilin to Yangshuo is especially spectacular. Cruising on

this section of the river the tourist feels very poetic. The town of Xingping is located at a bend of Li River down in the south. Cruising 13 kilometres upstream from here, the tourist will find the most beautiful scenery of Li River. The nearby mountains resemble green screens while the remote mountains seem to be in smoky mist, and their inverted reflection in water are blackish green. Even the air seems to have been tinged with green. Green is the essence of the beauty of Guilin. Sailing southward, the tourist will be fascinated by the inverted reflections of mountains and hills in water.

The ride on the boat from Guilin to Yangshuo is 6 hours long and on the way there are nine sights to see. On the mountains the tourist can see along the way, there are whiter colours from years gone by that make pictures in the mountains. Some of the pictures were called, "bat hill" (two bats flying off the cliff) , "pagoda hill,"

and "nine horse." If you look carefully in one of the horse's ears is another dark-coloured horse looking straight at you.

People often say that the green is a colour indicating life. In this green world, you feel that all your worries associated with secular affairs have suddenly disappeared. This is a green paradise where you sense the link between your heart and the nature as well as the fusion of your life and the world.

The World Bank-financed project to protect the ecosystem that exists on both sides of the Li River in Guilin, one of the China's most popular tourist destinations, has made significant progress since earlier 2000.

When visitors take a boat trip out on the Li River, they can watch the cormorants or ospreys (like the similar cormorants they are the expert fishers, diving to considerable depths in order to spear or grasp prey with their pointed bills) catching fish for the fishermen. They tie a string around the bird's neck just tight enough so that it cannot swallow the fish it may catch. About six birds are taken out on a flat bamboo raft. The fishermen tie them by a rope to the boat. Then he pushes them into the water. Then he makes this sound and they start diving for fish. When one catches a big one, the fisherman pulls it in and puts it back up on the raft. The fish tail is at the top of the bird's mouth and he "massages" it back out of its mouth. It is put in a bucket. Back in the water the bird goes to try and catch another. It is so weird. They use no baits; no hooks and the birds do all the work!

The Li River in Guilin (Forest of Osmanthus) is the scene of the fantastic and imaginatively shaped mountains that figure in so many Chinese landscape paintings and are the motif of choice for many postcards. Scenes of life along the river punctuated by water buffalo, passing bamboo boats and more will keep your attention for better than three hours. Lunch on board the riverboat. Optional visit to Jewellery Factory and other antiques, handicrafts and art markets time permitting, and guidance for those who wish to discover these markets on their own during independent time.

Reed Flute Cave

Reed Flute Cave is the largest and the most spectacular of the karst caverns in Guilin. Its name derives from the reed that grows near the entrance of the cave and makes excellent flutes. Lined along its entire SOD-metre zigzag length with stalactites and stalagmites of the most striking colours, the cave is known also as a palace of natural art. Illuminated, the limestone containing minerals appears like coral, agate, amber or jade. and the tourist imagines splendid pavilions. palatial halls. flower garden and orchards. Another impression is of the sun's rays filtering through tree leaves. At one point in the cave a huge slab of white rock hangs down from a ledge like a cataract. On a terrace opposite the fall stands a rock, the very image of an old scholar. A story of course explains this, saying that a scholar who came to admire the scenery at Guilin was soon enchanted by Reed Flute Cave that he decided to write a poem worthy of its beauty. But a long time passed and he had composed only two lines:

"What a masterpiece of nature is the Reed Flute Cave, I wish to praise its beauty, but I cannot find the words." Before he could finish his poem, the scholar was turned into a stone. One grotto in the cave can hold a thousand people. This is called the Crystal Palace of the Dragon King in Chinese folklore. One stone pillar here is the Dragon King's magic wand with which he kept the sea tranquil. In the well known novel Pilgrimage to the West the Monkey King Sun W ukong, asks the Dragon King to give him the wand. The Dragon King turns him down, whereupon the Monkey King takes it by force, defeats the Dragon King's army of snails and jellyfish, and wreaks havoc in the palace. The "snails" and "jellyfish" lie scattered in the cave, broken bits of stalagmites. One stone resembles a carp diving into the water.

The Reed Flute Cave is huge and you walk through to see rock formations named as they look-one looking like a mother holding her baby, one like a crystal palace, another like melons and vegetables! It is full of stalagmites and stalactites. It is interesting to think that all the mountains could have caves inside and you might never know what is inside them.

Elephant Trunk Peak or Elephant Hill

Elephant Trunk Peak, also known as Elephant Hill, a huge rock formation of an elephant by the confluence of the Yang and Li rivers , looks as if its trunk is dipping into the water. Legend has it that this hill was really an elephant belonging to the Emperor of Heaven, and that when the Jade Emperor set out to conquer the Earth, the elephant was made to work so hard providing transport that he fell sick and some farmers saved his life. For this the elephant was very grateful and decided to stay on earth and help the farmers. The Emperor of Heaven was so angry about its drinking from the river. The emperor's sword thrust turned the elephant into the rocky hill, hence the name. A pagoda erected on top of the hill stands for the hilt of the sword.