Guilin Botanical Garden

Guilin Botanical Garden

Highlights: It is a national youth science and technology education base; the lush forest landscape offers a highly picturesque setting; March to April is the best time of year when peach blossoms and azaleas are in full bloom. Introduction: Guilin Botanical Garden is located at the foot of Yanshan Mountain in Yanshan Town, Guilin, covering an area of over a thousand acres. Established in 1958, it is one of the first ten botanical gardens set up by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is also one of the earlier and more influential botanical gardens in China. The garden offers beautiful landscaped scenery, the charm of the plant world, the coziness of man-made forests, the nourishment of clear springs, and the fragrance of the air. The mission of the botanical garden is to primarily collect and conserve subtropical plant species from South Asia, with an emphasis on plants unique to Guangxi, limestone endemic plants, rare and endangered species, as well as various ornamental and economic plants. Nearly 3,000 species of plants have been introduced and collected here. Noteworthy areas open to visitors include: the Exotic Plants Collection Garden; the Specimen Garden; the Azalea Garden; the Hundred Bamboo Garden; the Golden Camellia Garden; the Endangered Plants Garden; the Palm and Cycad Area; and the Peach Blossom Garden. The garden is home to many representative plants: the "Sequoia"—North American redwood gifted by former U.S. President Nixon; "living fossils" such as the silver fir, dawn redwood, and ginkgo, which are national treasures; the "Four Treasures of Lingnan"—love pea, square bamboo, green calyx plum, and osmanthus; as well as the tree fern, a staple food of dinosaurs. There are also hundreds of valuable Chinese medicinal herbs such as Chinese prickly ash, isatis root, mahonia, fleeceflower root, blackblood vine, white hairy snake, and dwarf lilyturf. Additionally, there are fun plants introduced from across the country: the "itchy tree," the "shoulder-pole vine," the "general," dancing grass, balloon flower, dancing lady orchid, and kangaroo paw, all of which are highly entertaining. Transportation: Located in Yanshan District, Guilin (at the 24-kilometer mark on the Guiyang Highway). You can take a bus from the train station on the Guilin–Yangshuo route and get off at Yanshan.

Guangxi Guilin City