At the southern part of Guilin, Elephant Trunk Hill is located at the western bank of Li River, which simply resembles an elephant dipping its snout into the river. With an elevation of 600 feet (200 m), the hill towers 165 feet (55m) above the water.

A legend tells that an elephant, which belonged to the Emperor of Heaven, came down to earth to help the people in their work. This angered the Emperor of Heaven, who stabbed the elephant while it was drinking at the river's edge and turned it to stone. The cave between the body and the trunk of this elephant figure is of a particularly interesting shape and has inspired poets and other writers, old and new, to engrave verses on its walls. The poems of Lo You, Fan Chengda, and other poets from different dynasties are of inestimable literary and archaeological value. On the top of the hill stands the Puxian Pagoda, erected during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and shaped as the handle of the dagger with which the elephant was killed.

Nowadays Elephant Trunk Hill is regarded as the symbol of Guilin landscape.