Where to next on my off-season travellings?! Well I went south and west to Guangxi, and its capital Guilin. It’s mainly famous for the strange rock formations dotted around the city, but there’s actually much better examples in countryside to the south around Yangshuo. The one below is supposed to resemble an elephants trunk, although that was bit lost on me.

Elephant trunk hill

Guilin is definitely high up on the list of China’s top tourist attractions. It’s not totally clear to me why though, it seems a bit over-developed and the sights are just so-so yet eye wateringly expensive. There’s a Chinese phase 一般般 which seems appropriate. Anyway this means there’s an awful lot of English speaking touts, especially around the bus and train station, which came as a bit of a shock to me after a week in Guizhou which had none of that. They are annoyingly persistent.

World’s tallest copper pagoda

My favourite attraction was actually this, the world’s largest copper pagoda. And, I’m fairly sure, the world’s only copper pagoda. It really is all made of copper. Impressive. You can go outside and walk around every level, which is rather good fun. And the only way to access it is via an underwater tunnel from beneath another pagoda (the one I’m standing in). Oh and it’s the only pagoda in the world with an elevator to the top. Um…

Guilin scenery

But the best scenery in Guilin is not in the city itself, it’s what you can see in the distance from the top of the city’s scenic spots. The mountains in Guangxi really are very exotic. But more of that later, including a fun hiking adventure.