Yangshuo County Profile

Yangshuo (Simplified Chinese: 阳朔; Traditional Chinese: 陽朔; Pinyin: Yángshuò)

Yangshuo is situated in northeastern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, lies south of Guilin and is under the jurisdiction of the city of Guilin. Yangshuo is one of China's great historical treasures in Asia.

Yangshuo is an ancient county with a history more than 2000 years, established during the Jin Dynasty about 1500 years ago. Yangshuo County covers an area of 1,428 square km and has 20,000 hectares of land used for agricultural cultivation. It has a population about 300,000, making up of different minorities such as Han, Zhuang, Yao,Mao, Hui etc. Yangshuo minority culture survived well up to this day, including the dialects, costumes and special clothes.

As the old saying said, "Guilin has the best mountains and waters under the heaven, but Yangshuo is even more beautiful than that of Guilin". In Yangshuo County alone, there are over 20,000 hills and over 250 scenic spots. The clean and clear Li River winds through Yangshuo for 56km. About 70,000 limestone towers make up this inconceivable landscape. In a word, Yangshuo covers the most beautiful scenery in Guilin China.

The main tourist area in Yangshuo County is laid out roughly like a ladder. The two main tourist streets run more-or-less parallel up from the river to end at one of the town's larger streets. There are assorted smaller streets (rungs) crossing between the two larger streets. The street (ladder vertical) on the left seen from the River is Yangshuo West Street (西街 Xijie) and is the older more established tourist street, the real center of things. The other long tourist street is Diecui lu (畳翠路). Actually, Yangshuo is one small town but very charming in Guilin China.

There's a small creek that runs down the center of the "ladder"; some of the Yangshuo bars and Yangshuo restaurants in town are on balconies near it. At the "foot of the ladder" by the river is an open area with a large number of vendors hawking all sorts of tourist stuff, both from shops and from handicarts.

Yangshuo bus station is at the corner where Pantao Lu (蟠桃路) meets Diecui Lu(畳翠路). Yangshuo bus station offer tickets to the main cities in China, including the bus tickets to Guilin which is every 15 minutes.

Yangshuo Park is just opposite to Yangshuo Bus Station. As one of the relaxing place, Yangshuo Park is one good place for walking, practicing Taichi, and do some more sports. Now Yangshuo Park has one big platform for holding the local culture festivals, such as the Yuanxiao Jie (元宵节), Mid-autumn Day etc. Out of Yangshuo town, there are many places for exploring. Also, there are some very good countryside hotel for someone who are eager for a really quiet and peaceful to enjoy the countryside life.

Yangshuo attracts many famous persons in history by its beautiful sights. Tao Yuan Ming(陶渊明) who lived here in Jin Dynasty and wrote many beautiful poems. Sun Yat Sen (孙中山), first president of the Republic of China, came to Guilin with 200 boats from Guangzhou on November 15, 1921. Clinton, American president, has been here before too etc.