Current Time in Liuzhou, China

Liuzhou is a prefecture-level city in the center of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, situated on the Liu River where it loops dramatically around a horseshoe-shaped bend. With a population of approximately 4.2 million people, Liuzhou is the largest industrial city in Guangxi and one of the most important manufacturing centers in southern China, particularly renowned for its automobile and steel industries.

The city has a documented history of over two thousand years, serving as an administrative center in the region through successive Chinese dynasties. One of its most celebrated historical associations is with Liu Zongyuan, a famous Tang Dynasty poet, essayist, and philosopher who was exiled to the remote Liuzhou region and served as its prefect from 815 to 819 AD. Liu Zongyuan left a significant literary legacy tied to his time in Liuzhou, and the Liu Hou Ci memorial temple dedicated to him is one of the city's most important cultural sites.

Liuzhou is perhaps most internationally famous today as the home of Luosifen, or river snail rice noodles, a pungent and intensely flavored noodle soup that has become one of China's most viral food sensations. The dish, made with rice noodles in a broth of river snails and flavored with preserved bamboo shoots, dried shrimp, peanuts, and a variety of toppings, has an intensely distinctive and polarizing aroma that has made it famous across the internet. Packaged instant Luosifen has become one of China's most popular export food products, and the Luosifen industry has become a major economic sector for Liuzhou.

The city's spectacular natural surroundings feature the karst limestone peak landscape characteristic of Guangxi, with dramatic pointed hills rising from the river plain and lush subtropical vegetation. Dule Rock Scenic Area and the scenic loop of the Liu River provide beautiful settings for hiking, cycling, and river boat excursions. The spectacular landscape of Guilin, one of China's most visited scenic destinations, is located less than two hours from Liuzhou by high-speed rail.

Liuzhou's automobile industry centers on the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, which produces the Wuling and Baojun brands of small affordable cars and minivans that are enormously popular throughout China and beyond. The city is also a center for machinery, chemicals, and building materials manufacturing.

Transportation includes Liuzhou Bailian Airport, high-speed rail connections to Nanning, Guiyang, and Guangzhou, and expressways serving the broader region.

Liuzhou's combination of dramatic karst scenery, culinary fame, industrial dynamism, and Tang Dynasty cultural heritage makes it a distinctive and underappreciated southern Chinese city that offers visitors much more than its industrial reputation might suggest.