Liunan District and
City Center
Yufeng Hill
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Yufeng Hill is an interesting mountain on the west side of Yufeng Park. The park is the most popular in the city with old people and has many, many cultural activities going on: board games, card games, Chinese opera, dancing, musical instruments, feeding fish, paddle boats, various gambling activities, water poetry written on the ground, and traditional singing in Liuzhouoise, Zhuang, Miao, Dong, Yao, and other local traditional languages. The hill has many tables and sitting areas at various levels around it or next to the small lake, which features a statue of LiuSanJie, an ancient folk tale heroine.
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The hill itself has several entrances on the lake side. Also on this hill is a cave and temple area that you enter through a circular door. The top of the mountain has a flat paved area with many places to sit and has good views, especially of InTime City and Ma’anshan. It is open at night.
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Climbing Time: 10-20 minutes
Type of Trail: Cement steps
Difficulty: Normal (The top is quite steep)
Notable features: Cave area, Cable Car entrance, the park itself
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4/5
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Ma’anshan
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The most popular mountain of Liuzhou with the best views of the city center, it is even open at night. You can climb it, take an elevator for 10 rmb one way, or use the cable car for 20 rmb one way (which doesn’t take you to the top but ¾ of the way up). The mountain contains multiple tunnels and caves, a variety of paths up and down, several covered viewing platforms part-way up, a Buddhist temple, and a store near the cable car. The mountain contains two peaks; the most popular has a glass-bottomed viewing platform with a view of downtown, while the other is more remote and the locals often choose to climb over the barriers and go up to sit on the rocks for a full 360 degree view. This is considered the best mountain for photography in Liuzhou, but is also the busiest.
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Climbing Time: 20-45 minutes depending on route and method
Type of Trail: Cement steps
Difficulty: Normal
Notable features: Caves, Glass Viewing platform, the Views, Cable Car, Elevator, Buddhist temple
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5/5
Panlongshan
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Panlongshan Park sits against the curve of the river and has two accessible mountains. It has several ponds and leads to a nice artificial waterfall that you can see at night from a boat. The main mountain, Panlongshan, with the two large Pagoda Towers is on the East side of the park. You’ll hike past a bomb shelter cave, through some sitting areas, a badminton court and several unfinished buildings, as well as a sculpture walk on the hill closest to the water. A trail also leads down to Yao Bu village, coming out near the parkour area. One of the Pagodas is open to climb up, but the views are limited by the window placement. Further south is a second smaller mountain with a large cave and a single pagoda on top. This one is still under construction.
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Climbing Time: 30-40 minutes for Panlongshan, 15-20 minutes for the Smaller Mountain
Type of Trail: Cement steps
Difficulty: Normal
Notable features: Pagoda Towers, Buddhist carvings, A cave
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3.5/5
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Liudong Hills
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Named after the road that wraps around them, they are simple hills with small pagodas on top to allow local people access to green spaces. They don’t have tremendous views and aren’t difficult to climb. The northern one has an interesting shaded area with tables in a pocket of rock, and trails that travel along the top of the hill.
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Climbing Time: 10-15 minutes each
Type of Trail: Cement steps
Difficulty: Normal
Notable features: None
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1.5/5
Banshan
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Banshan is a small mountain but has an interesting history. A bomb shelter during WWII and Vietnam, it has three entrances and numerous giant caverns inside, which used to host singing/dancing entertainment but now host a dozen or so Mahjong parlors. On top is a circular viewing platform with poor views and a two story pagoda in front of it looking west towards Intime city and Ma’anshan. There are also good views of the Confucius Temple and Yufeng District if you climb the northern face. The entrance on the northern face is through a rebuilt stone wall gate which has small viewing towers, while the southern entrance comes from the beautiful Jiahe Xiaotaoyuan Park, which has several bridges crossing a serpent-like pond.
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Climbing Time: 15-20 minutes
Type of Trail: Cement steps
Difficulty: Normal
Notable features: The giant caverns inside, the Pagoda on top, the Views
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2.5/5
Tongyoushan
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Tongyoushan is a set of mountains that originate in an old park located up the hill behind the pet market. At the center of the park is a closed off traditional-style building in the middle of a large pond. To the east is a two-story viewing tower with poor views. This park is popular with older men who bring their birds in cages so they can enjoy the nature and very few other people. The western part of the park has an area affected by rock slides. There is an interesting artificial hole in the ground made from stone bricks that used to have a staircase one could use to go down into, but the stairs have broken. There is a target range for slingshots set up near the hole, and a wall gives you a view of a tunnel exit (S 2nd Ring Road runs underneath the park).
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On the west side of the pond are the trailheads leading to the two southern mountains. Each trail is made of older cut stones and positioned rocks and along the trail you can occasionally find a family grave.
The smaller of the two hills has an ok view, but the trail never reaches the peak, while the larger mountain is one of the tallest in Liuzhou. It has an old abandoned building on top and the trail to get there is rough, but the views are spectacular.
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The two northern mountains have several ways to reach them, either from a trail at the houses or up several stairways from the lake. has a bush trail made only of rocks and dirt as they lay. In the area between the two mountains you can look over the edge of a rock wall. Follow it right and you go up the smaller mountain, which has several good viewpoints and a cave. To the left is a trail overrun with bushes and thorns – this is a difficult mountain to climb, especially near the top. Several times the trail becomes very slippery and it is easy to fall off into the bushes. There are numerous graves. Near the top is a single orange tree that still produces fruit.
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Coming from below the park, there are houses built on a hill and it is possible to hike up above the houses into an area full of well-maintained graves. This hike is steep and the trail is mud and rock.
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The best hike is in the south, starting up some stairs heading behind a rockslide barrier. From here you can climb up to the highest mountain in Liuzhou. The trail is a bit tricky to find at times but this hike is worth it.
Climbing Time: 15-20 Minutes (West) 30-45 Minutes (North) 1 hour+ (South)
Type of Trail: Old rocks (West) and Mud/Gravel (North)
Difficulty: Difficult (West) Very Difficult (North, South)
Notable features: Many grave shrines
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3.5/5
Eshan
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Known as the largest mountain in Liuzhou, this mountain located behind the train station contains a lower and upper peak. Entering through a gate, visitors stroll up a hill lined with tables and badminton courts used for dancing and leisure. There is also a senior’s center on the grounds of the mountain. There is a walking path around the bottom of the mountain that children can use scooters on. Above the path the trails split. One trail heading north is extremely steep and difficult with steps carved out of the mountain and railings to help you climb. The regular trail, on the other hand, is mostly cement steps and leads to an open area between the two mountain peaks, where there are many tables and places to sit. The small peak on the south of the mountain has a pagoda and a little farther on an abandoned building designed with unique architecture. Climbing the large mountain using the regular path you eventually reach a three story circular viewing tower with a steep spiral staircase taking you between floors. At the top of the mountain are viewing platforms on the south and north, but the views are not as nice as other mountains.
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Climbing Time: 60 min + for both mountains
Type of Trail: Cement steps, carved steps, and forest paths
Difficulty: Normal and Difficult
Notable features: Pagoda Tower, Circular Viewing Platforms, Animal Statues, Walking Path, Abandoned Building
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3.5/5