Morning trek tour around Banyan Lake

We stayed in Guilin Bravo Hotel for 2 nights, the location was excellent - across the street from the Banyan Lake and wonderful strolling paths.  A 10 minute walk took us to the heart of the city. 

A morning lakeside walk was what we did today.  Many local senior citizens everywhere…Tachi, fan dancing, Kungfu…in a beautiful corner with bushes, flowers and trees.

Map of Banyan Lake

The lake surface was so smooth that it looked like a mirror. To the north of the lake is ancient banyans and Banyan Shadow pavilion.  A beautiful stone castle was originally built 700 years ago.  A zigzag bridge leads to the mid-lake Isle, which is dotted with long corridors, waterside pavilions and ancient buildings.  We heard some people were singing loudly there, it sounded so good in the distance.

We arrived the Yang bridge,  it was the boundary of the Banyan Lake.  On the other side of the bridge was the Fir Lake. The two lakes together were often referred to as Round Lake. The Fir Lake faced Li River, it was named for the fir trees on it’s shore.

We passed the the Sun and Moon Pagodas. The taller of the two, the Sun Pagodas, was at nine storeys high, we were told that it was the tallest copper pagoda in the world. The moon pagoda standed seven storeys high.

Map of Banyan Lake

Dating back to the Tang Dynasty, the Banyan and Fir lake were part of a city moat, they subsequently became a lake within the city.

It was a wonderful walk along the lake’s edge.  We did it again at night,  with the magnificent lighting and music fountains in the lake, it was just magic.

More informations of evening cruise on Banyan Lake and Fir Lake