Seen at sunset, the unique landscape of Guilin along the banks of the Li River in southern China is one of the most breathtaking in China. Founded in 214 BC its name - literally "Cassia Tree Forest" - comes from the trees whose blooms scent the entire town in autumn. The highlight of any visit is a boat trip on the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo, as it winds through a dreamy agricultural landscape of bamboo groves, terraced paddy fields, water buffalos, and peasants with cone-shaped straw hats. Huge limestone sugarloaf peaks, whose curious shapes fired the Chinese imagination to concoct fantastic names, rise sheer out of the plain. Scenes of cormorant fishermen in narrow bamboo boats, children bathing along the water's edge, small settlements and women doing their washing on the banks of the river can be seen along the way.