Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is located in the south of the region on the Yongjaing River and the Xiangtan-Guilin Railway. With ceiba, palm, jackfruit, and mango trees growing all the year round and fresh fruits and flowers abundant from spring to winter, the city is known as the city of flowers and fruit. As an urban planting programme is launched almost every year, the city streets are lined with trees and its houses surrounded by flowers and greenery. It is a city of foliage and subtropical color.

Nanning is also a developing industrial city with light industry as the mainstay. It produces canned foods and handicraft articles, particularly a type of silk called Zhuang brocade, which, like the region itself, is named after the ethnic group that inhabit.

Yiling Cave

Lying twenty kilometers northwest of Nanning, this cave is forty-five meters deep and covers an area of 24,000 square meters. The 1,100-meter trip through the cave includes a walk through the "passage in the air," which is three hundred meters long and has three turns and three rises and falls. Standing by the railing, the visitor gets a fantastic view of the cave's colorfully lit stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, and other strange formations.

Spirit Water Lake (Lingshui)

Spirit Water Lake, forty-six kilometers north of Nanning, occupies an area of five thousand square meters and is two to three meters deep. Springs emerging from stone cracks at the bottom of the lake form jets of water droplets, like strings of pearls, above the surface. The lake can be used for swimming all year long because the temperature of its clear green water remains at about 23ºC (73.4ºF) despite the season. Visitors to Spirit Water Lake can also enjoy the season.

Visitors to Spirit Water Lake can also enjoy the nearby Crab Hill (PANGXIESHAN), Wolf's Tooth Pass (Langyakou), and Nine-Layer Cliff (Jiucengpi).

South Lake Park (Nanhugongyuan)

Charming South Lake Park in downtown Nanning embraces a wide lake and green-covered hills. The fish restaurant in the park is well worth a visit.

Other attractions such as the zoo and the Dawangtan reservoir at the outskirts of the city are also worth a sightseeing trip.

Longhu Mountain Nature Reserve (Dragon and Tiger Nature Reserve)

Lying to the south of the Long'an County seat, 80 kilometers from Nanning, the 300-hectare nature reserve has 30 rocky peaks, 14 ridges, 17 gullies, and ten karst depressions. It has a forest cover of 97.2 percent. There is an altogether different world, with green hills, blue waters, karst caves, and stone forests. The visitor can climb the rocky hills, drift on the waters or venture into the depth of the forests.

The Longgang State Nature Reserve

It stretches for 8,000 hectares in northeast Longzhou County. Listed under protection are the ecosystem, the natural resources, and the white-headed leaf monkey. More than 300-year-old trees are growing in the strangely-shaped hills, and the nature reserve is a treasure house of sub-tropical plants in China. There is an enchanting landscape and a cool climate, ideal for tourists.

Cliff Paintings on Floral Hill

The pictures are to be found on the pyramidshaped Floral Hill towering on the eastern bank of the Mingjiang River, 25 kilometers from the Ningming County seat. The paintings, mostly brownish red in color, are left by the ancestors of the Zhuang ethnic tribe in ancient times. They are grand in scale, vivid, and vigorous in the execution of the bold lines.

Most of the paintings describe the daily life of the Zhuang tribe.

The Friendship Pass

Erected between two hills on the eastern section of the border between China and Viet Nam in southwest Guangxi, the Friendship Pass is 18 kilometers from the city of Pingxiang. It is one of China's nine famous passes and has been the gateway to southern China since ancient times. The imposing pass has three stories and stands 22 meters tall. Fort barbettes are built on the hills at the flanks.

The Detian Waterfall

Located on the upper reaches of the Guichun River in Daxin County, a border river between China and Viet Nam, it flows more than 50 meters down a cliff, bringing along with it thunderous roars and splashes of water in all directions. It is cited as "the No. 1 transnational waterfall in Asia."

The Mangrove Forest Nature Reserve

Also called a submarine forest, it is on the western shore of Yingluo Port in Hepu County. When the tide is at ebb at Yingluo Port, a dense growth of mangrove trees that are eight meters tall each appear. When the tide comes in, the trees are submerged under water, and boats can sail over the tree tops. It is a new tourist center.

Guangxi Ethnic Relics Center

The Guangxi Ethnic Relics Center is the expansion of the exhibition in Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Completed in 1988, the center covers an area of 24 thousand square meters. It is a unique outdoor museum which used to house the relics of various minorities in Guangxi Province.

Unique architectures of various minorities such as "Ganlan" of Zhuang nationality, bamboo buildings of Yao nationality, houses projecting over the water of Miao nationality, drum-tower of Dong nationality, bridge in the hometown of Dong, local-style dwelling houses of Maonan nationality are all displayed here. Inside these buildings, the daily use articles and handcrafts are also shown.

In addition, there are national restaurants in the bamboo buildings of the center, providing all kinds of national delicacies and dishes with special flavors for tourists. If you visit there in festival times, you also have the chance to see the beautiful minority's performances there.

Mt. Qingxiu

Originally named "Mt. Qingshan", also known as "Oingtai Peak", Mt. Qingxiu lies 5 kilometers away from the southeast of the city of Nanning, where ridges and peaks are rising and falling, magnificent, beautiful and forceful, with woods verdant, old banyan trees towering into the sky. There are rocks and grottos, deep and precipitous, there are stones and springs, sweet and clear. Bordering on the Yongjiang River, leaning against the mountains and peaks, it is an imposing and unrivalled scenery. Mt. Qingxiu is famous for mountains not high but beautiful, waters not deep but clear.

The Mt. Qingxiu scenic spot has an altitude of about 82 meters to 189 meters above sea level, including Fenghuang Mountains, Fengyi Mountains and Qingxiu Mountains. With pleasant weather, there are exotic flowers and rare herbs blossoming all the year round. As an ancient poetry described it: "Mt. Qingshan doesn't grow old for seasons, the absent son feels as if spring is joyful at the end of the world, I go up the mountain with the spring scenery, flowers are in blossom to welcome the spring". Since ancient times, Mt. Qingxiu has been a famous summer resort and tourist attraction in the south of Yongjiang River.

The Mt. Qingxiu scenic spot was built in the Sui and Tang dynasties, thriving during the Ming Dynasty, falling into oblivion during the period from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China. At that time, the tourist area is about 1180 mu.

There were originally 8 sceneries on Mt. Qingxiu. Owing to having long been out of repair, the 8 sceneries have now fallen into disrepair and have been gradually forgotten, all that remains are the resorts of all dynasties and fairy tale stories circulating among the people. Since liberation, the government now pays attention to the development of scenic spots. And on October 1st, 1987, the Mt. Qingxiu scenic spot has been opened formally to tourists from home and abroad. Through continuous repair and rearrangement, Mt. Qingxiu will be a place for people touring and resting, and will be the place that must be seen by tourists to Nanning.

Nanhu Lake Park

Situated in the southeastern part of Nanning city, Nanhu Lake Park brings together the aquatic scenery and the subtropical gardening outlook. It covers an area of 126.6 hectares, of which three fourths is occupied by the lake.

Inside the park are planted palms, Chinese fan palms and pinangs and other tropical trees which are full of southern flavors. Besides which, more than thirty kinds of tropic fruit trees, including litchi, jackfruit, pomelo and mango can be found in the park.

The seven-hole bridge arches across the lake, like a huge dragon floating in the water and the blue sky and white clouds are reflected in the clean and green water.You will enjoy yourself a lot by paddling a boat in the lake, or just fishing with a hook and line.