Christina and I flew to Giulin on our first trip out of Shanghai on the second weekend of July 2010. Everybody recommends this place as a must-see in China, it is considered one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. We discovered that Guilin is also a prime destination for international backpackers and for local tourism.
Giulin is a place that lives out of the tourism, there are lots of souvenir stores and travel agencies where you can buy anything you can imagine or book any kind of outdoors activity. What is beautiful in this area are the landscapes and the best way to enjoy them is to take a boat from Giulin to Yanshuo, a small city 80 kilometers south of Giulin. So the first thing we did was book a tour to go to Yanshou the next day. You need to do some price shopping here because all the agencies offer the same tours but each one add a different markup you need to negociate with them.
From Guilin to Yangshou by boat
The boat trip was amazing. There is no way to describe with words how beautiful this place is. Check the pictures to get an idea!
Yanshou is another city where everybody lives out of tourism. Just 3 minutes after landing in this place we met Esther, a local guide that helped us a lot to locate a place to stay and to rent a motorbike. I will never forget her broken English and the permanent smile on her face. She was really fond of her office, which was a small table on the main commercial street.
In the afternoon we took the motorbike and we rode to explore the countryside. It was quite an adventure because our idea was to locate a quiet place to take a bath on the river, but instead we got lost, and by the time we found the river it started pouring. A lot. We got completely wet. We were totally wet and freezing but the weather changed very fast and soon after sunset we rode the bike back to the city
Guilin Scenery
The next day we did another touristic activity. In this area the rocks are very fragile and the water erode it quite easily. What happened during the last millenia is that water went underneath and slowly excave massive caves. Those caves are the reason of Guilin’s unique landscape. The ceiling collapsed while the supportive walls didn’t. In fact the hills/mountains are getting higher with the time because the ground gets eroded faster than the higher points.
The next day we explored one of those caves. Even if it was pretty far from the city it was worth the visit. I’ve never been in a such a massive cave, with impressive ceilings, amazing natural structures and colors. The cave features an interior river, a waterfall, a natural swimming pool with mud and a hot spring.
Time was running out and after having lunch on a place with amazing dumplings we took the bus back to Giulin and from there, to the airport. We arrived at Shanghai late at night, exhausted but really happy with the amazing time spent on the weekend!
You can do the boat trip in a big boat on in canoe. I recommend the big boat!
Sunset at Guilin
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As is known to all, Guilin is a really amazing poace to visit for her gorgeous natural beauty.Pity for me that I still have no chance to enjoy her fantastic landscapes even though i was born and raied in China.You have taken extraordinarily nice pictures!
It is a beautiful place indeed, I should have uploaded more pictures
Here, I fixed it for you. I added a couple of pictures
WOW, it is really amazing. the scenery is much more beatiful than that on TV. Thanks very much for your sharing of these brilliant pictures.I especially love the sunset scene. Maybe sometime you can come and visit Qingdao to enjoy the seascape and the Laoshan Mountain.