Elephant Trunk Hill (xiàng bí shān 象鼻山), originally called Li Hill (lí shān 漓山) or Yi Hill (yí shān 仪山), is located at the west bank of the southeast Li River (lí jiāng 漓江). It gets its name because it looks like a huge elephant dig its trunk into the river. The hill is 55 meters high, 108 meters long, 100 meters wide and has an elevation of 200 meters above sea level. The Elephant Hill is regarded as the symbol of Guilin City (guì lín shì 桂林市).

There is an old story of the Elephant Trunk Hill. It is said that the elephant was left by the immortal lord of the sky. The elephant was like Guilin so much that he stayed to help the city’s people to recover from his exhaustion. However, the elephant was punished because of deciding not to return to his master. One day, while drinking from the river, he was killed and turned into stone, frozen forever in the place he chose to call home.

Between the elephant trunk and the elephant legs there is a bright huge cave, namely, the Shuiyue Cave (shuǐ yuè dòng 水月洞), means water moon. It got its name from the description by Xu Xiake (xú xiá kè 徐霞客), a geographer of the Ming Dynasty (míng cháo 明朝). Under the moon light, the shadow of the cave is like a moon in the river. Thus there are two moons in the river.

Out of the Shuiyue Cave, stepping to the slope, there is a cave going through the hill, like the eye of the elephant, hence the name Elephant’s Eye Rock (xiàng yǎn yán 象眼岩). The scene in the north and south part of the cave are different. It is a best place for you to looking over the scene of Guilin.

On the top of the hill, there is the Puxian Pagoda (pǔ xián tǎ 普贤塔), which was built in the Ming Dynasty. On the north of the base of the pagoda, there is a black stone, on which there is the engraving of Samantabhadra (pǔ xián pú sà 普贤菩萨). Looking from afar, the pagoda is like the handle of a sword, also like a vase, so it is also called Jianbing Pagoda (jiàn bǐng tǎ 剑柄塔) or Baoping Pagoda (bǎo píng tǎ 宝瓶塔).

Elephant Trunk Hill
Location: west bank of Li River in Guilin
Admission fee: RMB 25
Opening hours: 8:30 a.m. – 4:40 p.m.
Transportation: you can take bus No. 2, 23 and get off at Wenchang Bridge (wén chāng qiáo 文昌桥), then go through the bridge and take 2 minutes’ walk, or you can take the free bus No. 57, 58, and get off at Elephant Trunk Hill Park