Hiking in Guilin, China

Guilin, China, is well known for its natural environment of limestone "karsts" or pillars of mountain within and around the city.  Here is an example of a karst in the midst of the city:

This environment creates many opportunities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, in the city.  In the flats of the city, along one of the many rivers or lakes, there are many city parks for relaxing or walking.

Many of the karsts are tourist attractions that can be climbed.

Stairs have been created up these karsts to make them very accessible but challenging.

The view at the top, of course, gives a good sense of the parks in and around the city.

Beyond the tourist attractions, however, are many city parks with karsts to climb that are teeming with city residents early every morning.  We started out in the morning fog to reach the local neighborhood park just three blocks for our host family apartment.

Our hostess climbs five karsts every morning!  We only climbed one, but from that height could see (and hear because many of these residents sing while they hike) a couple of dozen hikers on the next karst over.

This is an example of the hiking opportunities that are important to me within cities.  Of course there are very few cities in the world with the kind of environment in Guilin.

Back at the park entrance, we could look up to see where we had been.