Fuli Ancient Town Travel Guide

Fuli Ancient Town located 8 kilometers (5miles) east of Yangshuo is known as the “Painting Fans township of China”. And it is also a multicultural town due to its special role in transportation before. Visiting this small town which is retained original, you can explore characteristic handicrafts as well as special folk custom.

The Yangshuo Painting Fan made in Fuli town is almost as famous as the landscape of Yangshuo. It is one kind of the Chinese folding fans. Folk craftsmen in Fuli use bamboo to make the fan ribs, tissue paper for its covering and paint it by themselves. The contents of the covering pictures are mainly about Guilin’s landscape as well as local culture.
In addition to the painting fans, Fuli’s scenery and culture are very attractive. There are well preserved ancient wall and pavilions in the historical small town. It was the furthest destination of the famous Ming Dynasty geographer, traveler and writer, Xu Xiake. As the description in his book, the wonderful and bright views will heave in sight suddenly when you arrive at Fuli surrounded by hills ranges from its three sides.

Here you can find not only beautiful scenery but also many happy tales. It is said that Fairy Song, Sister Liu, lived here for many years and she left many beautiful tales after her, In the 1960s, the famous film Sister Liu was based on these tales and mainly filmed here.

The Fuli town situates beside he Li River. In ancient time, here was the only wharf connecting the Yangtze River and the Pearl River. Because of the complex terrain, Yangshuo seldom effect by wars in ancient times. Then many people moved here, such as people in Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shandong, Anhui and Fujian, and most of them family residences in Fuli town which about a half residences are external. Therefore, culture here is various and complicit. Meanwhile, it has retained the ancient tribal culture Nuo. Local people play music with local instruments and dance with colorful wooden masks in certain ceremonial celebrations. Fuli is also the only inland town where has the Mazu culture which is popular among coastal cities generally. On the eighth day of the fifth lunar month (in the early June) every year, the folks will hold the Huiqi Temple Fair to pray for harvest and good luck.