Guihai Stele Forest

The Guihai Stele Forest in Seven Star Park in Guilin boasts innumerable inscriptions from different dynasties. Housed in a display cabinet is the stone engraving of the Portrait of 16 Arhats by Guan Xiu, a famous monk painter of the Five Dynasties (907-960). In a pavilion is the Song Dynasty carved pattern of winding water on stone and a stone tablet by the Song Dynasty calligrapher Cai Jing, which records the factional strife among the ruling parties of his time.

Also found there are 1,000 or more rare rubbings of inscriptions collected from elsewhere in Guilin. These include the Map of the Seat of the Jingjiang Prefecture found in Mount Yingyu. It is one of the two oldest stone maps in China and also the largest of its kind in the country. It is the earliest use of symbols and thus represents a great innovation in Chinese cartography.