Guilin Things to Do

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Though the elephant’s trunk it is not a remarkable spot, it's easy to understand what it means to locals, enough to justify the arrangement of all the area.

The small park is well maintained, and it allows some beautiful sights.

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After a couple of days listening to the guides attaching names to everything that could be promoted for the tourists, I confess that I was expecting a small cave with a few stalactites seeming... bamboo.

I was positively surprised by the size and beauty of the caves. Of course, each rock and formation won a name and a story, but the cave is very interesting, due to the elaborated game of lights and the contrasts they create.

Situated only 5 km far from Guilin, they are easy to visit by taxi or bicycle, if you are not in a package as we were.

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Chuanshan park is one of Guilin's larger public parks (about 2 square km), and feautures scenic karst hills, caves, and waterfront scenery. You can climb to the tops of the two main hills in the park (about 200 meters high) to get great views of Guilin and the surrounding countryside. The routes to the top are paved with hundreds of stairs to make the climb more convenient.

At the base of one of the hills lies the Tunnel Cave, one of Guilin's more scenic caves. There is an admission charge to tour the cave. Group tours enter the cave regularly during the day with Chinese-speaking guides. However, some of the signs inside the cave also have English. The cave contains numerous stalactitesstalagmites, and rock curtains, which are lit, as in most scenic Chinese caves, with a variety of colored lights. There is a second, smaller cave, called the Moon Cave located about halfway up the mountain.

There are a number of places within the park where you can buy refreshments and souvenirs. The biggest concentration of souvenir vendors is located at the exit to the Tunnel Cave.

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Every evening, a number of tourist boats provide tours of Guilin's lakes, which are beautifully lit up at night, with spotlights in the lakeside trees and lights on many of the lakeside buildings. Along the way you will see fisherman using cormorant birds to help them catch fish. You will also be able to hear numerous singers and musicians who are providing entertainment at lakeside cafes that you will pass by.

One of the things that I enjoyed were seeing the various bridges across the lake, which were built to resemble famous bridges from around the world. At the far end of the tour, the boats spend a few minutes in a tourist village with entertainers singing and dancing while wearing costumes from some of the region's ethnic minorities.

The boat tour is very touristy and we were skeptical about taking it. However, we enjoyed it very much were glad that our friends talked us into going on it.

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The Reed Flute Cave, located about 5 miles outside of Guilin, is the most impressive cave in the Guilin area. The cave is full of interesting rock formations, including stalactities, stalagmites and curtains. It takes about an hour to tour the cave. You enter with a guided tour, but can separate from the tour and proceed on your own once you are in the cave.

Many of the more interesting rock formations are lit up with various colors of light. In the middle of cave, there is a large room in which they do a laser light show about every 15 minutes. After that, there is a section that you can pay a few RMB extra to visit, which has a mixture of interesting rock formations and turtles. Our daughter enjoyed petting one of the turtles.

After you leave the cave, you have to run a gauntlet of souvenir vendors. If you want to buy something, hold out and drive a hard bargain. We were able to buy a book about Guilin's caves for about 20% of what the first vendor offer to sell it to us for.

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The top highlight of Guilin was almost a deception.

A hole in the rock, a collection of tales, and... that's all. Not particularly remarkable nor nice.

The best of it, was... the people around it. Some funny details, a cool garden, good sight of the river, and it's done.

I took a Chinese language class back home in 2009 and I really enjoyed it. Since then, I was looking for a good language school to continue studying Chinese in China, with the following search criteria: (1) a small classroom of 4 students or less, (2) located in a smaller city, where I could immerse myself in the Chinese language without being able to get away with speaking much English - i.e. not in Shanghai where all the locals will try to speak to you in English - and (3) somewhere that is not too polluted and where I can actually enjoy blue skies during my summer months in China.

After reading a few articles online and browsing through forums, I found the Chinese Language Institute (CLI) in Guilin. I decided to spend my whole summer vacation here to learn Chinese. It was a leap of faith, but I've been here for 2 months so far and I couldn't be happier! My classes are actually private 1on1 lessons, which surpassed what I was looking for, and it’s really well organized as the school is run by a private American company that has ties to the local University GXNU. Also, being in a smaller city in the South of China, these private classes, as well as the cost of living, are quite affordable compared to what you would find in a big city. The immersion program is great. The teachers are professional and experienced at teaching Chinese to foreigners. There is a friendly atmosphere within the CLI community and I’ve made friends with students from all over the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, Israel, Netherlands, etc.

To be face to face with 1 teacher who can focus all their attention on you when learning a language is amazing because your teacher can tailor the class to suit your needs and your learning speed. I only had the equivalent of some very basic Chinese before coming to CLI and now I am actually quite conversational. What's more, Guilin and its neighboring towns are truly beautiful places to visit! It’s a tourist destination and it also feels very safe.

I would definitely recommend this school if you're interested in learning Chinese, whether it be for long-term studies or just for a few weeks.

Guilin's downtown lakes are ringed with parks whose footpaths and trees are beautifully lit up at night. Many of the larger buildings around the lakes are also lit up. The lakefronts also contain two pagodas, as well as a number of restaurants and teahouses where you can stop and eat or have a snack. Some also feature live music.

A more expensive, but easier, alternative to walking around the lakes is to take a boat tour that travels around them.