Oct 2013 - Guilin

19 Days to Guilin, Yangshuo, Zhangjiajie & Guangzhou

14/10/2013 - 1/11/2013

Day 1 (14th Oct 2011) Kuala Lumpur (LCCT Terminal) to Guilin Liangliang International Airport

Flying at 6:25am morning by Air Asia flight AK1034 and arriving at Guilin Liangliang International Airport at 10.15am. Flight was smooth all the way. Upon arriving we took the airport coach to Guilin downtown at RMB20 per person and arrived at the bus depot in about an hour. We then took a taxi to Oasis Inn for RMB15. Oasis Inn is just about 5 minutes from the bus depot

 

We had steamed rice in bamboo container (4 meat + 3 vegetables) at RMB10 at a stall beside Oasis Inn

We then walk across the road for our desert which is a mixture of various beans and nuts in thick soya milk(RMB6). One of the best desert I ever eaten.

From the lunch place we walked to the Sun Moon pagodas. We been here during our tour in 2005. Nothing much have changed. Just that we have more time now to discover more of the place and its surrounding area.

 

Guilin's showcase two rivers (the Li and the Taohua) and four lakes (Rong, Shan, Gui and Mulong), are perhaps best seen from on the water itself. The Two Rivers and the Four Lakes (Liang Jiang Si Hu) form a continuous picturesque waterway through the center of Guilin City.

 

Standing in the water of Shan Hu are the Sun Pagoda (Ri Ta 日塔 ) and the Moon Pagoda (Yue Ta 月塔). The Sun Pagoda is painted gold and the taller of the two. In the night it is lit with bright yellow lights. The Moon Pagoda has deep brown beams and aqua eaves. It outshines the moon at night, with its artificial white lights.

 

The two pagodas are open to the public and there is an underground aquarium-like viewing tunnel linking the pair. The towers are in the style of Buddhist pagodas and Buddhist music can sometimes be heard emanating from them during the day.

 

The Sun Pagoda at the background.

Part of the Shan Hu ( Chinese Fir Lake)

 View of the pagodas from the opposite side of the lake

The bridge leading to the Moon Pagoda. The Sun pagoda must be reached by an underwater passage located between the two pagodas

 

 

We had our dinner at the night market opposite Oasis Inn

 

Famous Guilin chilli
 

After dinner we walked to the Sun Moon Pagodas to see the night scenery. It is more beautiful at night with all the colour lights lighting up the pagodas and the lake side.

We then take a walk around the many stalls of the night market opposite Oasis Inn

Miniature stone painting depicting the scenes in Guilin

View of Oasis Inn from the night market.

Day 2 - 15th Oct 2013

Before we  go for our breakfast we make booking from the Oasis Inn staff for our Li River Cruise, Liu San Jie show in Yongshuo and the Rice Terrance Tour for tomorrow.

Li River Cruise - RMB320/pax
Liu San Jie Show - RMB178/pax
Rice Terrace Tour - RMB140/pax

After breakfast we walked to the Elephant Trunk Hill viewing area

 

Elephant Trunk Hill is located on the western bank of Li River. The shape of the hill is just like a huge elephant drinking water from the river with its trunk, thus the mountain was named so.

 

Part of Li River near the Elephant Trunk Hill area

Beautiful polished river stones in the form of birds sold by vendor along the river side

 

You can see many such groups exercising along the Li River

We walked across the bridge to the Seven Star Park. Anglers fishing by the river side.

On the way back we walked along the Shan Hu Lake and Rong Hu Lake

We took a rest at one of the many rest spots around Shan Hu Lake

The famous glass bridge at the background.

 

 The glass bridge in the day time. At night it will be more colourful.

This is the 1000 year old Banyan tree at the shore of the Rong Hu Lake

 

One of the many mini Pavilions at the shore of Rong Hu Lake

Behind us in the middle of Rong Hu lake is an island with a teahouse. To get to the island, visitors must cross a marble zigzag bridge

 

 

Another wooden zigzag bridge.
 

From the Rong Hu lake we walked back to Oasis Inn for a rest and had dinner at the night market again. After dinner we walked back to Rong Hu to capture the scenery at night, which is more beautiful because of the colorful lights

The light at the glass bridge changes color every minute or so.

The marble zigzag bridge at night

Another view of the zigzag bridge

Locals exercising beside the lake at night

The mini pavilion at night

Part of the marble zigzag bridge leading to the island in the centre of Rong Hu Lake

Behind us is the teahouse on the island built in traditional Chinese style architecture

The island is built in the style of a Chinese garden with rock formations, bridges, and beautiful plants

Main entrance of Guilin night market

Day 3 - 16th Oct 2013

Today we joined the day tour to Longsheng Rice Terraces.  Longsheng Rice Terraces are located in Longsheng County, about 100 km (2 hours drive) from Guilin city. The most popular are Ping An Rice Terrace and Jinkeng Rice Terrace. The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, the highest part being 880 m in elevation while the lowest part is 380 m. The coiling line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water glittering in the sun in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of golden rice in fall, and layers of silvery frost in winter.

 

The bus picked us up at 8:20am and arrived at the Ping An Rice Terrace entrance at 10:30am. We tracked for two hours before we had lunch at a village restaurant.

Entrance of Ping An Rice Terrace 

Unfortunately during our visit the rice have been harvested and fields are being prepared for the next planting season

The weather was good during our track up to the village

Lili taking a breather before continuing the tracking

We are almost there

Some of our tour members are way behind us.

Part of Ping An Village

Going down to the village restaurant for our lunch

 

Our lunch which consisted of rice and chicken cooked in bamboo over charcoal fire and wild vegetables

If you are tired you can hire these carriers to carry you around. It is quite risky because your life is in the hands and shoulders of these people,

We are at one of the highest spot in Ping An Village

Handcrafts and souvenirs are plenty in the village

You can rent the colorful costumes and dress up like the tribes in the village

Life can be hard for some of the elderly villagers, having to sell small souvenirs for a living by the road side

Lili standing among the rice that are ripe for harvesting

Because of the slopes the rice are harvested manually

The village restaurant that we had our lunch

After lunch we made our descend to the other entrance .

Porter carrying luggage for some tourists staying in the village rest houses

Cut stones that resemble pieces of meat.

We came down to this other entrance of Ping An Rice Terrace

We arrived back at the hotel at about 6pm. This evening we decided to walk to Guilin Central Square for dinner and watch the artificial waterfall.

We had the famous Guilin noodles for dinner today in one of the food courts around Guilin Central Square. After dinner we joined the crowd waiting at the Guilin Lijang Waterfall Hotel for the nightly show to begin

Opened in 1976 and refurbished in 2001, Guilin Lijiang Waterfall Hotel is located in downtown Guilin. Featuring an artificial waterfall that flows full-face down from its top, the hotel is situated just behind Shan Lake, with the Li River flowing to the east and Elephant Hill Park to the south.

A  musical waterfall

On the way back to the hotel we took this final short of the Sun and Moon Pagodas. This is our last night in Guilin and we will be taking the cruise to Yangshuo tomorrow