Day 31

Guilin is famous for its scenic location among a host of beautiful two-hundred metre rocky peaks which stretch along the river Li. These have been portrayed in Chinese painting for centuries, and now feature in any marketing of China. When people think of the 'picturesque' Chinese countryside, this is what they visualise. This is why we've come to Guilin: to look at the scenery. We plan to take a boat trip down the Li tomorrow. Meantime, we decide to conduct our own walking tour of the town, guided by the tourist map we obtained at reception.

Guilin is a city of human dimensions. Its population is not measured in millions, only about seven thousand people live here (I'm quoting last night's driver), and this is small by Chinese standards. The centre of the town is based on its original medieval model. One side of the old town is bounded by the river Li. Man-made lakes: Shah Hu and Rong Hu, the remnants of an original moat, complete the encirclement by water. You can pretty much walk around the town on paths beside the river or the lakes. You are away from the traffic, also moderate by Chinese standards.

We head south along the river towards Elephant Trunk Hill through a park celebrating the large stone pachyderm. There are elegant themed bushes, statues, ornamentation on the street lamps and gates. The story is that this three hundred metre hill is the body of an imperial elephant turned to stone. The shape of the hill corresponds to the creature drinking from the river. I pose, pretending to play the drums, in front of some musical elephant statues. Monica poses in front of some magnolias. She retains her poise, I lose even more credibility. There is a steep stone staircase up the hill to a small pagoda at the summit. Monica cannot resist steep stone staircases, so naturally, we climb to the top, and visit the various viewing platforms. It is a warm, humid day, and we are wearing our Siberian anoraks.

Our forst circuit is of Shah Hu, a large lake featuring two ornate pagodas. These are illuminated at night and provide a centrepiece on an evening light show around the lakes. We catch this later in the evening as we reurn from our restaurant.

Guilin is popular with Chinese tourists, and for a number no holiday is complete without a photograph of themselves with Monica. There is an island in the middle of Rong Hu reached by a windy white bridge. She's stopped on three occasions for a photographic session with giggling Chinese girls. One takes it quite seriously and arranges artful poses for the pair of them within stone arch.

Monica photographs a few wedding couples using the lakes as a scenic backdrop before we enter the the Jinjiang Princes' Palace – basically, some old (rebuilt) Chinese buildings in a park within the old city walls. The principle feature is another small sharp pinnacle Duxiu Feng (“the Solitary Beauty Peak”). Even though this has only 306 steps to the summit, I decline the invitation to climb it and settle for photographing it behind Monica. She settles for working out on some park equipment.

As we return to our hotel, we catch sight of what might possibly be our boat tomorrow.