Guilin is one of the most picturesque cities in China. It is located in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and on the west bank of the Li River. Its name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city. Since the ancient times, Guilin has enjoyed the fame of "the finest under the Heaven" and is one of the most famous places of historic interest and scenic beauty in China and the world.
Guilin is a historical and cultural city as well as a tourist wonderland of world fame. Taking Li river scenery and karst landscape as the representative, Guilin scenery is characterized by its green hills, crystal-clear waters, spectacular rocks, and fantastic caves.
The poetic and picturesque Li River is the important component of Guilin scenery. It originates in Mountain Cat in the northeast of Guilin and meanders its way for 84 kilometers between Guilin and Yangshuo like a jade ribbon winding among thousands of the hills. Along the river, the rolling peaks, steep cliffs, green hills and clear water constitute a fascinating hundred-mile pictures gallery.
Depend on the abundant tourism resources and enchanting city flavor, the tourism industry in Guilin has got a rapid development in recent years. Guilin was listed in the first batch of “China’s Excellent Tourist City” and was recommended by the World Tourism Organization to all the visitors in the world.
Area Code: 0773
Zip Code: 541000
Location: Located in the northeastern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Climate: located in subtropical zone and boasts a pleasant climate throughout the year with an average temperature of 20 °C and an annual rainfall of 1890 mm
Area: 27809 square kilometers (565 square kilometers are urban area)
Population: 4.76 million (0.68 million in urban area)
Ethnic Groups: 28 ethic nationalities such as the Zhuang, Miao, Yao, and Dong account for 8.5% of the total population in Guilin
dining
Guilin is a city inhabited by various ethnic groups. The dining features of these minorities influence each other and gave birth to the unique dining culture in Guilin. Guilin cuisine is a combination of Canton, Hunan and Sichuan dishes. Guilin cuisine is also typified by its sweetness and delicate use of spice and chili. The local food of Guilin has strong taste and the color is bright. Wild plants and animals are often found in Guilin dishes.
The most famous dishes include Stewed Clam Chicken and Steamed Mandarin Fish from Li River. You are also strongly recommended to try the Dong Bamboo Shoot Meat, the Miao Bamboo Fish, and the Maonan Roast Pork.
The Guilin rice noodle, a local snack, is the resident’s favorite. Rice noodle, gravy, fried peanuts or soybeans, chopped scallions and thin slices of different kinds of meat are added for different preparation forms of this renowned food.
The famous local snack in Guilin is Guilin Rice Noodles (Mi Fen). It is the most favorite food of local people. It can be either round or flat. The rice noodles taste delicious with voluptuous gravy, fried peanuts or soybeans, scallions and thin slides of different kinds of meat such as beef, horse meat and pork. You can also add some spice and chili in the rice noodles.
The Zhuang nationality is good at preparing dog's meat as well as crisp chicken and steamed bean curd ball. The meat cooked with bamboo shoots of the Dong Nationality, the fish cooked on bamboo clappers of the Miao nationality, and the broiled savory pork of the Maonan nationality all have their own specialties respectively.
shopping
Guilin is a well-developed tourism city. A large variety of souvenirs, which range from costly jewelry to inexpensive decorations, from distinctive specialty to delicious local snacks, could be found here.
Pottery and Proclaim Paintings
All works have unique design, vivid figure, exquisite workmanship, traditional and elegant colors, and strong flavor of modem life over ten kinds of works, such as goat pot, elephant hill pot, landscape paintings vase and big pips vase and so on, have won the prize in Guangxi province and the ministry of light industry, and also were on display in France, Spanish, and Japan, etc.
Jade Carvings
The handiwork of Guilin jade carvings dates back to ancient times. Jade carvings with elaborately carving, novel figures, artistic charm, are popular with tourists. They are made of Lu Chuang stone, Dong Xin stone, Yie Na stone and You Yan jade stone and Long Shen talcum.
The main shopping district in Guilin is Middle Zhongshan Road, where Silk shirts, jackets, and ties are widely available. Besides, bamboo carvings, scrolls and paintings, embroidered tablecloths, carved seals, and beautifully carved tea sets all can be find here.
Zhengyang Pedestrian Street is a newly opened business street in Guilin center. As a assembly of commerce, dining, entertainment and culture in Guilin and is a good place for shopping, recreation and nightlife.
entertainment
Travel to Guilin, besides the picturesque landscape, one could also experience the infinite pleasure of the modern recreation.
In recent years, various new recreational activities emerge in endlessly. When darkness falls, the city is overwhelmed by the lights of the neon lamp. The bowling club, night club, cafe, bars and pubs are all good choice for relax. Additionally, Li River Folk Customs Park, which located in the confluence of Li River and Little East River, is most characteristic places for recreation. It is a galaxy of folk architectures, folk customs and folk arts of Yao, Dong, Zhuang, Miao. It is a good entertainment place integrating the viewing and admiring, stimulation and participation characteristics, where you can take part in all kinds of national activities such as Wood Shoe Dancing of Zhuang, Reed-pipe wing instrument of Miao and the Duoyesong of Dong; watch the exciting programs such as rooster fighting, house fighting, climbing knife hill and crossbow show, an admire a singing and dancing program full of vocal minorities’ features, and national dress shows.
Dreamlike Li River
The Dreamlike Li River is a large scenery performance with real mountains and rivers. Consisting of four parts, this performance shows the harmonious combination of Ballet, acrobatics, and the landscape in Guilin, bring audience to a colorful fairyland.
Ticket Price: Class A: 150 Yuan / Class B: 120 Yuan.
Show Time: 19:30 Pm
Impression of Sister Liu
Impression of Sister Liu is the large-scale performance with mountain and river famous at home and abroad. It is directed by Zhang Yi Mou, one of the most eminent directors in China. This night show will show you a unique man-made landscape of smoke, mists and clouds, as well as a brand new environment of sightseeing and music and will bring you one of the greatest pleasures of your life.
Location: Yangshuo town
Ticket Price: 188 RMB.
Show Time: 20:00-21:05 Pm
transportation
Airplane
Guilin Liangjiang International Airport is located 30 kilometers southwest of Guilin city. It was constructed in 1993 and was completed and opened to traffic on 1st Oct. 1996. Now, it has a yearly passenger handling capacity of 5 million persons. It has totally 48 air routes which could reach more than 30 domestic cities and 8 cities and areas abroad. Chinese cities with direct flights to Guilin are Beijing, Shenzhen, Huangshan, Xi'an, Zhuhai, Nanning, Chongqing, Ningbo, Chengdu, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beihai, Urumuqi, Shantou, Xiamen, Haikou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Kunming, Guiyang, Changsha, Dalian, Hefei, Wuhan, and Jinan. It also serves international/regional routes to Hong Kong, Macau, Fukuoka, Bangkok and Seoul.
At the airport, you may take taxi or bus to the city center. Airport shuttles cost 20 RMB and operate every 30 minutes. A taxi into the city will cost around 80 -100 RMB.
Railway
Guilin railway station, widely known as the south railway station, is located in South Zhongshan Road. It is the major passenger railway station in Guilin. It was renovated in 2005 and after that, the annual passenger transportation of the station was increase dramatically.
Train tickets can be hard to buy in Guilin as this is the most visited tourist destination in China. It is best to buy your tickets several days before you plan to leave the city.
Bus:
Most short range buses (to Yangshuo and Xing'an) leave from the old railway station in the west. These buses should be relatively inexpensive (RMB10-20 to Yangshuo). Long distance buses leave from the Long Distance Bus Station on Zhongshan Road near the Taihe Hotel. By long distance bus, you can reach Guangzhou, Nanning, and other Southern cities and regional cities in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.
Taxies:
Taxis in Guilin are relatively inexpensive compared to other cities. The flat rate fare of taxis in Guilin is about 7 RMB for the first 2 km (about 1.2 miles), then the distance surcharge is about 1.6 RMB to 2 RMB per km. After 23:00, the flat rate fare will increase to 7.8 RMB and the distance surcharge is about 1.8 RMB to 2.4 per km.
highlights
Impression of Sister Liu (Liu San Jie)
Impression of Sister Liu is the largest real scene theater show in the world. It is directed by Zhang Yi Mou, one of the most eminent directors in China. The whole performance cost over three years to finish and experienced modification for several times. This show combine the Li River landscape, minorities’ culture and the wisdom of China’s most famous artists together, and is the first new concept “real scene theater show of landscape” in the world.
Taking 12 famous peaks as the stage background, this theater covers an area of about 2 square km along the Li River. It is designed by a team of 67 famous artists at home and abroad and more than 600 performers take part in the performance.
Resembling a green terrace with a panorama vision, the auditorium possesses a panorama of the whole showing area. There are about 2200 seats for the audience, in which 180 reserved for VIP and 20 for presidents.
Unlike the traditional stage performance, which is limited by its facilities, the real scene theatre incorporates the beautiful scenery into its performance. Guests will truly be impressed by the misty rains, the bamboo forests, and mountains, particularly how it fits ever so perfectly in this creative stage performance.
Sister Liu (Liu San Jie)
Sister Liu is the singing goddess of the Zhuang minority group. According to the local tale, Sister Liu was born in a village along the Liujiang River of Guangxi in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). She was not only beautiful but also good at singing folk songs. At the age of 17, Sister Liu fell in love with a handsome young man who was also a good folk singer. The two swore never separate in their lives.
The peaceful happiness was, however, broken by a hooligan in the village who had been for a long time attracted by Liu's beauty. This evil man decided to take Sister Liu by force. He got his chance on a moonlight night when Liu and her lover were sitting on a big rock at riverside to enjoy the beauty of the moon. Suddenly, a gang of hooligans surrounded them. Sister Liu and her lover had no way to escape, with no hesitation, the couple jumped into the roaring Liujiang River, hand in hand.
Nowadays, on the day of March 3, local people will gather along the riverside of the Liujiang River, organizing a folk-song competition to mourn Sister Liu.
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