Guilin Zhengyang Road Pedestrian Street

This guide to Zhengyang Road in Guilin centers on a bronze statue most shoppers walk past: Ma Junwu, born here in 1881, who became a scientist, diplomat and the first president of Guangxi University while quietly translating Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species into Chinese over nearly two decades. It follows him from studies in Japan and Berlin back to Guilin, and sets his story alongside Cai Yuanpei, the reformist president of Peking University. Stand at the statue's spot and look north up the street toward the red bell tower.