Lingui District 临桂区

Setting and landscape

The district covers about 2,247 square kilometres, long from north to south and narrow from east to west. Guilin Liangjiang International Airport (桂林两江国际机场) is 15 kilometres from the Lingui urban area. Yangshuo (阳朔县) lies to the south-east and Longsheng (龙胜县) to the north. The north-west belongs to the Tianping Mountains (天平山脉), an offshoot of the Yuecheng Range (越城岭), and Weiqingling (尉青岭), at 1,778 metres, is the district's highest peak. Its rivers drain to the Pearl River; the largest is the Luoqing River (洛清江), known locally as the Yi River (义江), while the Xiangsi River (相思江) flows north into the Li River (漓江).

History

In 111 BC the Han created Shi'an County (始安县), seated in today's urban Guilin; it was renamed Lingui in 757. From 997, when the Guangnan West Circuit (广南西路) was set up with its seat in the Lingui county town, that town served as the capital of Guangxi for a total of 923 years, according to the district's local chronicle office. In 1940 the urban area was split off as Guilin city, and Lingui became a district of Guilin in 2013, with the new district formally inaugurated in 2015.

What to see

Huixian Karst National Wetland Park (会仙喀斯特国家湿地公园), in Huixian town (会仙镇), centres on Mudong Lake (睦洞湖) in a karst peak-forest plain on the watershed between the Li and Liu (柳江) river systems. It became a pilot national wetland park in 2012. Through it runs the ancient Gui-Liu Canal (古桂柳运河), also called Xiangsidai (相思埭), dug in the Tang dynasty and linking the Li and Liu river systems; stone bridges such as Huixian High Bridge (会仙高桥) survive. The district government notes that migratory birds pass through from September, and that the film Liu Sanjie (《刘三姐》) was shot here.

At the old Yangtang airfield (秧塘机场), the Flying Tigers Guilin Heritage Park (美国飞虎队桂林遗址公园) keeps a cave command post, an observation stone used by General Claire Chennault and aircraft shelters; the district calls it the only surviving Flying Tigers command post. Li Zongren's Former Residence (李宗仁故居) in Liangjiang town (两江镇) is a two-storey timber compound of 113 rooms around 13 light wells, listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit in November 1996. In Wantian Yao Township (宛田瑶族乡), Dongzhaijiang village (东宅江村), a Guoshan Yao (过山瑶) settlement of timber stilt houses on a hillside, is the setting of the Zaishui Yifang (在水一汸) national AAAA scenic area.

Food and local products

Lingui is known as a centre for growing luohan guo (罗汉果), the monk fruit Siraitia grosvenorii.

Highlights

• Huixian Karst National Wetland Park 会仙喀斯特国家湿地公园: Karst lake and marsh wetland around Mudong Lake, crossed by the Tang-dynasty Gui-Liu Canal.
• Flying Tigers Guilin Heritage Park 美国飞虎队桂林遗址公园: Cave command post, Chennault's observation stone and aircraft shelters at the Yangtang airfield site.
• Li Zongren's Former Residence 李宗仁故居: Timber compound of 113 rooms in Liangjiang town; national key cultural relics protection unit since 1996.
• Zaishui Yifang scenic area 在水一汸景区: Guoshan Yao village of stilt houses in Wantian Yao Township, a national AAAA scenic area.