Guilin Things to Do

Descending Li river, you may receive a well detailed map, that gives a name to almost all the geological formations in the banks, and to some villages hidden in the green of the trees.

Yangti is one of those names, meaning... nothing. We may see one or two roofs, maybe a child by the river, but it's hard to imagine the whole village that stands behind. Unless you travel by road, you will stay restricted to the magnificent performance of nature, that slides by your boat, without a real look of Chinese life.

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This a full day daytrip from Guilin. Though you can go there by public buses you'd have to change buses a few times and is complicated. So you better book one of the many tours at hotels and agencies.
The minibus leaves early and arrives there in about 1 hour. Then you visit some ethnic minorities, see some mountain villages, have lunch and in the afternoon you visit the famous terraces taht make unbelievable landscapes of ebdless rice terraces.

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I was expecting a Li river full of live, with lots of villages bordering it and living on it.

Wrong.

We saw animals (not many) and a few houses, but many of them seeming… abandoned.

I understand that the boats passing by are not significant to the local’s life, and business is only placed at both ends of the itinerary, but water is life, China has billions…

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Halfway down Li river from Guilin to Yangshuo there’s a promoted cave.

I don’t know if it is announced for being interesting, or just for being there.

There were some boats stopped nearby, but I saw no one entering it, and we had no chance to leave the boat, too big to approach the entrance.

One of the attractions in Guilin is the show that each night, at 8.30 PM, takes place in the rear of the hotel: from the top, a cascade of water descends along the glasses of the wall, with music in the background.

It is, indeed, the most spectacular way to … wash windows!

Now it's the address for Guangxi Normal University. The Solitary Beauty Peak is just at the vicinity. Visiting this place you can see students attending classes. In the ancient days, this is the city for princes of the Ming Dynasty. Perfectly combining the natural landscape and historical sites, it is praised as a "City inside a city" since ancient time. The whole compound is vast with Solitary Beauty Peak, halls, bedrooms, gardens, lake and temple. The area is fortified with a wall of 3km in length.

Once you entered the front gate, you will be guided into a museum with some simple introduction of this place and all the princes in the Ming Dynasty.

At the foot hill of Solitary Beauty Peak, there's a Yueya Lake with small little bridge and a gazebo. Scholars of the olden days like to study here. There's also a monument commemorating Dr. Sun Yat Sen.

In the Qing Dynasty, Jingjiang Princes City was converted to be the Examination Hall for scholars who wants to gain a position in the Imperial Palace. Tourist will be required to sit for a mock-up examination in seprate cubicles answering four questions. Write your answers with the chinese brush and ink provided on the yellow colour exam paper. One tip for you while visiting this place: listen attentively when the tour guide is explaining. You will be rewarded if you pass the exam. You will then be given an instruction from the emperor and become an officer in the Imperial Palace. You will have the chance to undergo the ceremony with full costumes. Enjoy and act like you are in a movie.

Entrance fee is RMB20.

Located in the eastern suburbs of Guilin and about 10 kilometers away from the downtown, Mt. Yao with an elevation of 903.3 meters is the highest mountain in Guilin.

This is a European "Dopplemeyer"-made cable skyride that offers views of the Guilin hills. Unfortunately, the day I went it was shrouded in fog. It felt like a cableway to the heavens above.

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Most days we would walk along the river promenade to get us to the centre of Guilin. There was always something to marvel at along the way, it was a nice way to pass the time. Plus, if we walked on the other side of the road on the footpath, we had to walk past the rubbish dump - and OMG it smelt pretty rotten!

It was quite funny cos the same day we put some laundry into the Fubo Hotel, we walked past the river and saw people doing their laundry in it. I said "Well theres our laundry service!!!"

And I swear the 2 pagodas kept moving, cos one day they would be on one side of the river, and the next day, they were on the other side?? Maybe its just because we were always lost, or maybe I should just blame that on the vodka! I thought i was imagining things obviously, but at a later date, when I spoke to my friend Sandi Marsh (another fellow VTer who we actually met up with in Beijing!!!) said the same thing, that she was getting constantly confused and disorientated by the magical moving Pagodas!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha how damn funny is that!

Also on most days they had local markets set up along the river, stuff there was very cheap, we bought lots of jewellery there.