Elephant Trunk Hill

This guide to Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin opens with the legend of a heavenly elephant that deserted its master, the farming couple who nursed it back to health, and the sword said to have frozen it in stone as it bent to the river. It follows the pagoda on the hilltop, tied to a Buddhist tradition of elephant-riding bodhisattvas, and the gap called Water Moon Cave, its walls carved with travelers' verses dating back to the Song dynasty.