Night Tour of Guilin's Two Rivers and Four Lakes: The Bridges Are the Highlight, So Beautiful You Want to Walk Them All

The sculptures under Yang Bridge are very beautiful.

Night tour of Guilin's Two Rivers and Four Lakes: The bridges are the highlight, so beautiful you want to walk them all. Text and photos: Liu Guoxiong.

The Two Rivers and Four Lakes ring water system in Guilin is another golden waterway as famous as the Li River. It is an open tourist and leisure area, similar to Hangzhou's West Lake, with no admission fee and covering a large area. It serves both as a transportation route and a tourist attraction. The Two Rivers and Four Lakes have made Guilin a place where "the city is within the scenery, the scenery is within the city, and the city and scenery blend together," becoming a tourism icon of Guilin.

Since it is a ring water system, bridges are definitely essential. There are over ten bridges on the Two Rivers and Four Lakes. During their construction, the city authorities felt that as an international tourism city, the bridges on the Two Rivers and Four Lakes should be built as famous bridges, drawing on the essence of renowned Chinese and foreign bridges. They took world-famous bridges as models, combined them with the natural environment of Guilin's landscape, assimilated diverse influences, adapted to local conditions, and added innovation to highlight unique features. Thus, the Two Rivers and Four Lakes now boast bridges like Gurong Twin Bridge, Xiqing Bridge, Rainbow Bridge, Lize Bridge, Glass Bridge, Beidou Qixing Bridge, and Glass Bridge, all full of imagination and passion.

It is said that during the initial construction of Guilin's Two Rivers and Four Lakes, some people opposed building the various lakeside bridges modeled after world-famous bridges. Now, these bridges have become highlights of the Two Rivers and Four Lakes.

The Two Rivers and Four Lakes can be toured during the day or at night. In the nightscape, the bridges are one of the biggest highlights. These bridges come in various shapes and have their own characteristics, adding splendor to the beautiful Guilin. The Glass Bridge is a unique presence. In the past, it required a fee, but when I passed by at the end of last year, I found it was free, so I went up to take a look. Indeed, this Glass Bridge is very beautiful, and even more so under different lighting. This Beidou Qixing Bridge on Rong Lake looks much prettier at night with lights than during the day.

Besides the appearance of the many bridges on Guilin's Two Rivers and Four Lakes, the sculptures under the bridges are also very worth seeing.

Gurong Twin Bridge, located on Rong Lake in the Two Rivers and Four Lakes, next to the Ancient South Gate and the thousand-year-old banyan tree, is the most Chinese-style bridge in the area.

The design of Gurong Twin Bridge references the Yudai Bridge in Beijing's Yuanmingyuan. The bridge body is composed entirely of curves, with smooth lines and graceful shapes. There are carvings under the bridge. It is a Chinese-style white marble arch bridge that looks even more charming under the night lights.

The bridge railings are made of 52 pieces of white marble, with 56 cloud pillars on top, decorated with auspicious clouds, vivid and expressive, combining traditional style with modern consciousness.

Beidou Qixing Bridge, also known as Jiuqu Bridge, is located on Rong Lake in the Two Rivers and Four Lakes, connecting the three islands of Penglai in the center of the lake.

This bridge is creatively designed in the shape of the Big Dipper in the sky, echoing the Qixing Mountain to the east of the Li River.

The railings of Beidou Qixing Bridge are made of high-grade white marble, carved with folk-custom auspicious patterns.

The winding and zigzag Beidou Qixing Bridge.

Glass Bridge, also on Rong Lake, is the first practical bridge in China made of special crystal glass structure.

Whether seen from afar or up close, the Glass Bridge is crystal clear.

At night, the colorful lights on the Glass Bridge alternate, making the entire bridge dreamlike.

The bridge bottom is also made of glass.

The bridge railings are crystal clear.

The Glass Bridge is the most romantic bridge on the Two Rivers and Four Lakes.

Yang Bridge, located on Zhongshan Middle Road, a main thoroughfare in Guilin, at the junction of Shan Lake and Rong Lake, was also one of the most famous bridges in Guilin. Yang Bridge is a three-span continuous curved beam bridge, with the main body made of reinforced concrete, supplemented by granite and marble.

Yang Bridge has existed since the Song Dynasty, when it was called Qingdai Bridge and was a wooden bridge. It was rebuilt as a stone bridge in the Ming Dynasty and renamed Yang Bridge. It was rebuilt again in 2000. The new Yang Bridge's exterior design adopts the shape of the Vatican Bridge in Rome, Italy.

Under the bridge are sculptures of Guilin's landscape and cultural stories. Yang Bridge organically blends world bridge culture with Guilin's beautiful mountains and waters, full of rich artistic atmosphere.

Yang Bridge is very wide, 50 meters wide, with six lanes for two-way traffic.

Rongxi Bridge, located on Rong Lake, next to Gurong Twin Bridge, is modeled after the Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei Province. It is a single-arch bridge.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Guilin people built the "Rongxi Pavilion" on Rong Lake in memory of the great poet Huang Tingjian. The bridge is near Rongxi Pavilion, hence its name. Rongxi Bridge has a white and crystal clear bridge deck and a light and transparent bridge body, fully demonstrating the charm of Chinese stone arch bridges.

Yingbin Bridge, also called Triumphal Bridge. Its bridge type references the Chain Bridge of Budapest, Hungary, combined with the design of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the drawbridge of ancient Chinese city gates.

There is a gate in the middle of the bridge, really resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Combining Western architecture with the bridge makes this Yingbin Bridge very distinctive.

View of Lize Bridge from Yingbin Bridge.

Walking along Gui Lake, you see Lize Bridge. Lize Bridge is modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. It is the first self-anchored flexible suspension bridge in China. The huge steel cables pulling the bridge are the largest suspension cables in China's bridge construction history.

Lize Bridge's deck is very flat, with two main towers standing upright, connected by steel cables.

The large steel cables serve both as support and decoration. The bridge body is entirely red, so people also call it the Red Bridge. The night view of the Red Bridge is very beautiful. Coming here at night, if not for the two lines of text above, you would really think you were abroad.

Guanyi Bridge is built referencing the "Santa Trinita Bridge" on the Arno River in Florence, Italy. It looks very much in the Western bridge style, quite different from traditional Chinese bridges.

Because I have been walking along the lake all the time, I was too tired, so I didn't go to Guanyi Bridge to see it. There are too many bridges on the Two Rivers and Four Lakes to see all at once. I can only look forward to continuing the tour next time.