About this place

Located in the center of Guilin city, standing at the confluence of the Lijiang River and the Peach Blossom River, the Elephant Trunk Hill looks like a huge elephant standing by the river and sipping water with its long trunk. It marks the token of Guilin city and it’s the most typical karst-formation representative in the city.
It is 220 meters above sea level and 55 meters high from the ground. The hill got the name because of its unique shape,  there is a beautiful legend about the hill. Legeng has it that this hill was really an elephant belonging to the Emperor of the Heaven, and that when the jade Emperor set out to conquer the Earth, the elephant was made to work so hard to providing transport that he felt sick and some farmers saved his life. For this the elephant was very grateful and decided to stay on the earth and help the farmers. The Emperor of Heaven was so angry about that, when it's drinking from the river. The emperor’s sword thrust it on its back and turned the elephant into the rocky hill. Hence the name. a pagoda erected on top of the hill stands for the hilt of the sword.
At the southern foot of the hill is Yunfeng Temple, which was once a military post of the Taiping Forces in 1852. Tai Ping Forces were a troop of farmer rebellions in late Qing dynasty. At that time, farmers suffered a painful life because of the harsh administration and unstable political situation. So some farmers uprose against the Qing Administration. Although it failed finally, it was a blow at the Qing Dynasty. Yunfeng Temple was once one of their military posts.