Guilin

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 these 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 makes 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 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 it 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 post 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 "into" waters, " hence the popular saying:" The landscape of Guilin is 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. The city boasts 9 international exhibition centers, 34 universities and institutions and a high-tech business incubator.