The Song Dynasty Painter Who Invented a New Brushstroke Technique Just for This Mist, the Alila Yangshuo in a Sugar Mill & the Longji Terrace Mirror in February When the Fields Are Flooded
Mi Fu's 11th-century 'Mi dot' brushstroke invented to capture the Guilin mist and establishing the primary technique in Chinese landscape painting; the Yulong River's Song Dynasty stone bridge as the oldest and most beautiful in Yangshuo; the Alila Yangshuo converted sugar mill as the most acclaimed boutique hotel in southern China; the Longji terrace February water-filling creating mirror reflections as the most photogenic but least-known Longji season; the Liu Sanjie story's 1961 film origin before becoming the Zhang Yimou performance; and the private Li River bamboo raft charter at the Yellow Cloth Shoal.
The World's Tallest Bronze Pagoda on a Lake Island, the Cave That Sheltered Thousands During the 1944 Japanese Bombing & the Savory Tea That Takes Three Encounters to Like
The Sun-Moon Pagoda's bronze tower as the world's tallest bronze pagoda; the Reed Flute Cave's WWII civilian shelter function; the 1944 Battle of Guilin and the evacuation of the 14th Air Force base; the Guilin youcha savory oil tea as the most counter-intuitive local morning drink; the Silver Cave's musical stalactites played as percussion instruments; and the Guilin–Guiyang 1h40m HSR connection as the access point for the Miao silver headdress culture and the largest waterfall in China.
The 300-Million-Year Acid That Sculpted Tower Mountains Found Only Here and in Halong Bay, the Dong Bridge Built Without Metal Nails & the Beer Fish Braised in the River It Came From
The carbonic acid karst process over 300 million years producing the world's most extreme tower-karst only in Guilin and Halong Bay; the Chengyang Dong bridge at 76m as the longest wooden covered bridge in China; the Dong grand song as a 2009 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage; the Red Yao hair-washing ceremony at the Lu'an River; Yangshuo's 3,000 sport climbing routes on karst towers; and the Longji terraces' less-than-1-metre width with 1,000+ layers on some sections.
The 20-Yuan Note Landscape, the Cave With 77,000 Square Metres of Stalactites & the Red Yao Women Who Hold the World Record for Longest Hair
The Li River's Yellow Cloth Shoal as the most reproduced Chinese landscape; the Xingping 10-yuan note view making the Li River the most currency-referenced river in the world; the Reed Flute Cave's 77,000 m² and WWII air-raid shelter history; the Red Yao women's average 1.4m floor-length hair and the world record holder; the Moon Hill's 50-metre natural arch as the most photographed in China; and the Guilin osmanthus wine giving the city its name.
The River Filmed on 500 Million Banknotes, the Zhang Yimou Outdoor Performance With 600 Real River Fishermen & the Fuli Village Where Fans Are Painted With Mountains That Appear on Money
The Han Yu poem 'Guilin's mountains and rivers are finest under heaven' appearing on the entrance gates of every major Guilin site since the Tang Dynasty; the Impression Liu Sanjie's 600 performers using the actual Li River as the stage; Fuli Village's hand-painted folding fans with ink-wash karst scenes; the Yulong River bamboo raft as the most serene non-commercialized Li River experience; the geological difference between Guilin tower-karst and Zhangjiajie quartzite pillar-karst; and the 8-day Guilin-Changsha-Zhangjiajie complete karst circuit.
The 2,240-Year Canal That Made China's Southern Conquest Possible, the Li River Otters Nobody Talks About & the Shadow Puppets Made From Paper at the Same Temperature as the Han Dynasty
The Lingqu Canal's 219 BCE construction as the oldest operational navigational canal in the world; the fish-mouth water divider using the same centrifugal engineering principle as the later Dujiangyan but predating it by 37 years; the crested ibis recovery from 2 individuals in 1981 to 11,000 in 2023 as the most successful bird conservation in Asia; the smooth-coated otter as the rarest mammal in the Guilin region; the Yangshuo bamboo paper using the Tang Dynasty wet-press method unchanged; and the Nanning-Hanoi overnight train as the most atmospheric border crossing accessible from Guilin.