Guilin is one of the most beautiful cities in china with picturesque li river and karst peaks around it li river originates from maoer mountains in xingan county and flows south through guilin yangshuo and pingle the 34 mile 54 kilometer waterway on the winding li river from zhujiang to yangshuo covers hundreds of thousands of grotesque peaks its unusual karst topography hillsides have often been compared to those at halong bay vietnam