麒麟公园

Qilin Park

Useful Information

Location:	172 Renmin Middle Rd, Zhongshan Qu, Liupanshui Shi 553000. Liupanshui city. (26.586951, 104.862416)
Open:	No restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Karren
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:
Address:	Qilin Park, 172 Renmin Middle Rd, Zhongshan Qu, Liupanshui Shi 553000.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

麒麟公园 (Qílín gōngyuán, Qilin Park) is also transliterated Kylin Park, and is located in the middle of the city Liupanshui. The landscape is a typical tower karst, and various limestone towers can be found inside the city. This place is actually not a tower, or at least it is only a remains of a tower. The limestone hill was used to create a park and various temples. A visit of the park also shows various typical karst landforms like karren and dolines. The place is rather famous because it was visited by Xu Xiake, the Chinese travel writer and geographer of the Ming Dynasty.

Quilin is the name of a legendary creature that appears in Chinese mythology. It is not possible to translate this word. The Qilin is a legendary hoofed chimerical creature with a single horn, which is the reason why it is wrongly translated as unicorn. Actually that’s nonsense, as it not a horse like creature, except for the hooves, the body often resembles a lion and the head is similar to a chinese dragon. The cave was formerly known as 汤山洞 (Tāngshāndòng, Tang Mountain Cave), after the name of the mountain where it is located.

The park has numerous quite exceptional karst features like karren, solutional forms on rocks and even a small stone forest. At the southern end of the park is a cave named 麒麟洞 (Qilin Cave), but it is unfortunately gated and closed. The park is free and open without restrictions.