Penglai Islet

Penglai Islet

Penglai Islet is located 16 kilometers from Xingbin District, covering a total area of 8,200 square meters. It is an isolated island in the Hongshui River, oval in shape, measuring 500 meters in length and 250 meters in width, with a relative height of 30 meters. The islet was originally one of the former Eight Scenic Spots of Laibin County and is renowned as the "Fairyland of Penglai." The Penglai Shoal at its head is one of the ten most perilous shoals in the Hongshui River. Between 1263 and 1277 AD, the county seat of Xiangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty was built on Penglai Islet. On the stone cliffs on the southern shore of the islet, there is a cliff inscription (the Xiangzhou Ancient Prefecture City Restoration Stele) measuring 2.66 meters in height and 2 meters in width—this is the most intact and largest surviving cliff stele from the Song Dynasty in Guangxi. On the opposite bank of Penglai Islet, at Hualing, lie the ruins of the Tang Dynasty’s Xunde County seat. The islet is 100% covered in greenery, with 95% of it consisting of fruit trees. In early 1998, geological experts from 12 countries including Canada and Russia conducted a survey of the Hongshui River and discovered that the Permian strata sections on both banks are complete in sequence and widely distributed—making them rare and standard Permian stratigraphic profiles in the world.