Yulong River

This guide to the Yulong River near Guilin opens with the legend of a young scholar who promised the river a bridge in exchange for safe passage to his imperial exams, and the dragon said to have carried him across. It follows the stone bridge legend credits to him, dated to the Ming dynasty around 1412, and the centuries the crossing has survived since. You'll also hear about bamboo rafts still poled along the shallow, glass-clear water past paddy fields and low weirs.