Historical origin of Guilin

With a history of more than 2,100 years, Guilin city in Guangxi province is one of the first 24 famous cities of historical and cultural significance designated by the State Council. Guilin has a unique historical culture and a wide range of tourist attractions featuring natural beauty and human achievements. If you were to think of Guilin as a scroll of painting, the history of Guilin could be said to be a tome.

The long history gives Guilin a profound cultural foundation. As early as 30,000 years ago, humans were found to be active in Guilin. The Baoji Cave dwelling site on the hillside of the Baoji Hill near the Zhongshan North Road in downtown Guilin used to be home to the “Baoji Cave Dwellers”, who have been proven to be the earliest inhabitants in Guilin. The Zhenpi Cave National Archeological Ruins Park in Guilin is an important cultural heritage dating back to the prehistoric culture of the Stone Age.

Guilin boasts such sites of historical and cultural heritage as the Ling Canal, a water conservation project undertaken in the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), the Guihai Forest of Steles, which consists of more than 2,000 inscriptions on cliff surfaces dating back to the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), and the mausoleums of the Princes of Jingjiang and the regional prince culture centered on the Jingjiang Prince Residence. The three sites represent the historical and cultural heritage of Guilin which is as significant as the natural landscape deemed to be the best in China.

Starting from more than 2,000 years ago, men of letters in different dynasties lavishly praised Guilin by writing in the four forms of Chinese poetry, which makes the waters and mountains in Guilin more poetically attractive.

The fact that the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army fought the most heroic battle known as “Blooding the Xiang River” here in Guilin during the Long March, the original site of the liaison office of the Eighth Route Army in Guilin, and the Tomb of 800 Heroes all remind us of the revolutionary heroes. The long history of Guilin has left us with a splendid cultural heritage – places of historic figures and cultural heritage and the natural landscape add radiance and beauty to each other. As a result, Guilin, the city renowned for having the most beautiful scenery in China, has good reason to be called a “historical and cultural famous city.”