The area around Guilin is surrounded with picturesque landscapes including terraced rice fields, beautiful rivers and the famous dome-shaped karst peaks. Pictured on the back of the 20 RMB note, these karst peaks stand tall on the horizon in all directions. Located in southern China in GuangXi province, the area has been made famous throughout China by centuries of paintings depicting its natural wonders.
Guilin City
In Guilin it's impossible to walk around without someone approaching you to sell a tour, but really the beauty of the area lies outside the city. Many large tour groups use Guilin as their hub and do day trips to the surrounding areas.
Li River Cruise
The most popular tour of the area includes a boat cruise down the Li River from Guilin City to the popular town of Yangshuo. On the cruise tourists can float in between the towering karst peaks offering the perfect opportunity to snap wonderful photographs. The boat ride takes around five hours and usually includes lunch and bus transportation back to Guilin. For those not too keen about such a long boat ride, there are shorter trips available, which spend about two hours on the most beautiful section of the river.
Tourist Attractions in Yangshuo
At the end of the Li River cruise lies a town called Yangshuo. This tourist hot spot has really boomed in the past few years. Popular with backpackers and Western travelers, Yangshuo offers a few days worth of leisure activities for outdoor enthusiasts. Take a bike ride through the rice fields, watching farmers plowing their fields with water buffalo. Drift down a pleasant river on a bamboo raft for two, stopping for a snack or swim as you please. Tour local caves with beautiful geological formations, mud baths and hot springs. At the end of the day the famous West Street of Yangshuo draws all of the tourists back to its hotels, restaurants, shops and bars, as well as an extensive street market.
Long Jin Rice Terraces Near Guilin
A little over two hours journey from Guilin lies the beautiful hillside community of Long Jin. There are various shows and handicrafts for sale by local minority groups. Here tourists can hike around the terraced hillside rice paddies. Visitors can even stay the night in one of the many guest houses.
Transportation and Accommodation
Guilin is accessible by bus, train and air. Most tourists come by airplane since it is quite a long over-land trip to other tourist areas in China. Guilin has an international airport about 30 Km from Guilin City and about 60 Km from Yangshuo. There are regular connecting flights to most of China and a few other Asian countries.
Both Guilin and Yangshuo have an array of hotels. Guilin is a much larger city and has many business hotels, but not many hostels. Yangshuo has mostly tourist hotels and many backpacker hostels. Check Ctrip.com to find good deals on both hotels and flights throughout China.
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