CHINA'S BEAUTIFUL KWEILIN

Kweilin is unlike any other place in the world. For centuries, Chinese poets and artists have been inspired by its sheer beauty and have left behind a wealth of legends, paintings, and stone carvings in praise of its scenery. It is where visual dreams come true.

Early in the Chin Dynasty (221-206 BC) Kweilin was founded as a way station on the Li River. It gained importance when the emperor completed a two-mile canal as part of a link between the Yangtze River in central China and the Pearl River to the south, thereby bypassing the arduous mountain trails.

Kweilin owes its fame mainly to the fantastic topography that seems to thrust straight out of the open plain. This can be traced back some 3 million years when the region was a seabed with a thick overlay of limestone. Through crustal movements, the seabed thrust up, and the layers of limestone eroded by water and wind formed and expanse of land marked by majestic hills in unusual shapes.

Today, visitors to China are once again enjoying Kweilin's charm and breathtaking beauty -- where the Li River like a green silk ribbon entwines the lofty hills.