China Guide
Guangxi and Guizhou
Seven Star Park
Opening time: Daily 7am–7pm
Price: ¥25
Address: East over the river from the city (bus #10 or #11 from Zhongshan Lu)
Guilin's most extensive limestone formations are at Seven Star Park. With a handful of small wooded peaks arranged in the shape of the Great Bear (Big Dipper) constellation, a large cavern, and even a few semi-wild monkeys, it's a sort of Guangxi in miniature. The largest mass in the park, dotted with viewing pavilions, is Putuo, named after Zhejiang's famous Buddhist mountain, but the most striking formation is Lutuo Shan, which doesn't take much imagination to see as a kneeling dromedary. Some effort is required to find the entrance to Qixing Dong, however, which is a five-hundred-metre-long, thirty-metre-high introduction to the region's limestone caves (and China's romance with coloured lighting). Though a little tame, with most of the inner rock formations cleared to allow easy access, there's a small subterranean waterfall and the entranceway is liberally covered with carved inscriptions – some of which date back to the Tang dynasty.