The Guilin Karst

The name “Guilin” means “the forest of the sweet-scented osmanthus tree” (Osmunda sp., Osmanthus delaboyi) and the town is one of the historical cities designated by the Chinese government. The town goes back to the Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.) and was named Shian under the Han Dynasty (111 B.C.). As the political centre for the Guangxi region in the Tang Dynasty (618–907 A.D.), it has many stone inscriptions and statues of that age, and continued to be predominant under the Song Dynasty (960–1279 A.D.), becoming the provincial capital under the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty in 1393, Prince Jing Jiang constructed a palace with pavilions, terraces, altars and temples. Although damaged in the Qing period, the palace was sufficiently repaired for Sun Yatsen to set up his headquarters there in 1921. It now houses the Guangxi Teachers’ University (Ru Jinwen et al. 1991). During the Sino-Japanse war, when much of China was occupied by the Japanese, many scientists, artists and writers fled to Guilin. Among these was J.S. Lee (Li Siguang), the famous geologist whose laboratory was at Yanshan, S of Guilin.