Guangxi shares a 1,020 kilometers border with Vietnam. Guangxi also has a coastline, including many bays and estuaries, of 1,595kilometers. Lying between Southeast Asia and the rest of southwest China, it is an increasingly important gateway connecting these regions.

Towards the end of the Old Stone Age, about 50,000 years ago, primitive men appeared in Guangxi. Today's Zhuang people are the descendents of the Sizhen and luyue branches of the ancient Baiyue tribe, so they are Guangxi's oldest nationality. ln 214 B.C., Qin Shi Huang set up three counties in Guangxi, namely, Guilin, Xiangjun and Nanhai. Guilin was the administrative center of the region; hence the name of "Gui" for Guangxi. During the Song Dynasty, the whole country was divided into several regions, The present Guangxi was the western part of the then Guangnan region and was named the western Guangnan region, with its administrative center in Guilin. "Guangxi" has since become an administrative region. After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, the People's Government of Guangxi Province was established on February 8th, 1950. ln 1958,with the approval of the State Council, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was set up.

There are 12 nationalities in Guangxi, the Zhuang, Han, Yao, Miao, Dong, Mulao, Maonan, Jing, Hui, Shui, Yi and Gelao. There are also 25 smaller ethnic groups in the region. Guangxi has a population of 46.33 million, of whom 15.18 million are Zhuangs, the largest of China's 55 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own language, and their customs, food, housing and clothing vary greatly. The colorful traditional customs and diverse cultures add much to Guangxi's attractiveness.

Guangxi has a humid subtropical monsoon climate, which is characterized by plenty of sunshine, moderately high temperatures and abundant precipitation. The Tropic of Cancer runs across its central part. The average annual temperature ranges from 16 degrees Celsius to 22.7 degrees Celsius. Winter is mild and short. Spring usually comes early and the summer tends to be quite hot. lts warm climate is ideal for subtropical plants and crops. Even in winter, when much of the rest of the country is covered by snow, most places in Guangxi are still luxuriantly green.

Guangxi is rich in mineral resources, especially high quality metal ores. Guangxi, one of China's ten major metal production bases, is known as the "Home of Metals". About a hundred types of minerals have been found, and the reserves of 70 of them proved. The proved reserves of 53 such minerals are among the ten largest in the country.