Known as Xiangbi Shan in Chinese, the Elephant Trunk Hill is a must-visit for any first time visitor to Guilin. It is so called because the hill resembles an elephant with its trunk drinking water from the river.
Located at the western bank of the Li River, it was a short distance from the Backstreet Youth Hostel where we stayed.
With the aid of a map, we walked along the bank of Li River which ran parellel to Binjiang Road.
I thought it was a such a nice place to walk! It looked almost like a park to me with its wide walkway and shady trees! I have even seen Chinese dancing classes conducted for tourists on this walkway!
This is the view of the famous Li River from the place where we walked.
As we headed to our destination, we were approached by a lady who offered us a trip to see the Elephant Trunk Hill on board a raft on the Li River itself!
This was my first experience of Chinese tourism and it would not be my last. It seemed that every where we go, there would be locals offering us trips and tour packages. Guilin is definitely a tourist city as many locals are working in the tourism industry.
The advantage of this is that you will never ever get lost because at every corner, there would be people offering to help you with directions and recommending places to visit. The down side is of course, some of them could be a bit too persistent and irritating.
Since my Mandarin was really bad, I left it to Jam and his friend to deal with these "tour agents".
It so happened that this particular lady made an irresistible offer to us. She said that it would cost us 15 yuan each for admission fees to enter the Elephant Trunk Hill. And we would not be able to see the shape of the hill properly on land.
Whereas if we were to go on a raft on the Li River, we would be able to view the Elephant Trunk Hill in its entirety. And it would cost us only about 13 yuan each!
We were sold! And so we followed the lady and made our way to the raft waiting for us.
This is how the raft looked like.
It ran on a motor engine. And it could seat up to 7 people, or more if you don't mind packing it in.
In the beginning I sat in front. But after being splashed with water, I decided to sit in the middle on the return journey and let Jam and his friend sat in front. Haha! No wonder everyone chose to sit at the back!
Look at the waves created by the raft when it sped across the river!
It would be impossible to stay dry if you sat in front!
As we sat there in the raft enjoying the view, we saw a ferry passed us.
And other rafts just like the one we were sitting on.
Look at that man in front. How clever of him to use an umbrella to keep himself dry! Haha!
This looks like a group of fugitives escaping from their country on a raft! Just kidding, haha!
Ooh! This couple must have booked the whole raft! Unfortunately the river did not have a very romantic setting. Maybe they should return during the sunset. Haha!
We also went under a bridge.
And then, we saw it!
Did that look like an elephant? No, not really.
But it became clearer as we got closer.
Still no elephant.
Heck, where's the elephant?
Finally, we saw it.... the Elephant Trunk Hill!
I just clicked away with my camera. Now moving closer and at a slightly different angle, can you see the rock formation that resembles an elephant dipping its trunk into the water for a drink?
Here is another view of the Elephant Trunk Hill taken from yet another angle.
Actually, there's a legend about this hill that tells about an elephant which belonged to the Emperor of Heaven. The elephant had came down to Earth to help the people in their work and this angered the Emperor, who stabbed the elephant while it was drinking at the river's edge and turned it into stone.
I am not a believer of such legends, but I guess they have a legend for every landmark, don't they?
Do you see that cave between the body of the elephant and its trunk? It's called "Moon Over Water Cave". Although we did not get to step into the cave, I learnt that on the walls of the cave were many inscriptions from the Tang and Song dynasties. Seems that the interesting shape of the cave had inspired many ancient poets and writers to engrave verses on its walls.
On the top of the hill, which is about 165 feet above water, stands the Puxian Pagoda (erected during the Ming dynasty) which shaped like the handle of the dagger that killed the elephant.
It's too bad we were not able to see the cave up close. I think we would be able to visit the cave if we had entered on land paying that 15 yuan admission fee. Then again, we would have missed the wonderful view from the river! So it's a trade off, I guess.
Our river trip did not stop there. We reached the other side of the river bank where many rafts were docking there and were asked to get down.
Looked to me like a place to milk tourists' money! You could pay money to have your photos taken. Or your portrait drawn.
But I was interested to see a girl dressed in traditional Chinese costume posing for the cameras.
And there were stalls selling fried stuffs.
There were fried fish, prawns, crabs and God-knows-what all placed nicely on sticks!
Then I saw the seller placing live crabs on a stick and dipping them into the flour before frying them alive in the hot oil!
Look at those poor crabs! Still alive and kicking being dipped into the flour mixture.
When the lady seller saw us took photos and did not make any attempt to buy, she hid the crabs from our view as a show of protest! Now, now, I'm not sure if I like this kind of attitude.
Anyway, I was not in the mood to eat fried oily stuffs as the sun was hot and I was sweating profusely. But Jam bought one stick (forgotten what he ate but definitely not the crabs!) anyway. He said it was delicious!
After that, we got back onto the raft for our journey back to land.
It was indeed an enjoyable trip. Not only did we get to see the famous Elephant Trunk Hill but we got to enjoy our first taste of traveling on the Li River.
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