Guilin/Yangshuo, China 🇨🇳⛰🌾

Posted by kittykate29 on

Guilin and Yangshuo have been on my list of places in China to visit for a while and I finally got to go in March 2022!! 😭😍

Located in Guanxi Province in Southern China, the area honestly has so much to do here! Great hikes, bamboo rafts, leisurely bike riding..it’s a very nature oriented trip! These beautiful places are a quick 2ish hour flight from Shanghai.

I’ll leave here a simplified 4-day itinerary of what we did! If you’d like more details..keep reading! 👀

Day 1- We arrived in Guilin late on this day. So I’m not counting it! 😬

Day 1:

  • Sun and Moon Pagoda
  • Elephant Trunk Hill hike
  • Lunch 🥙
  • Drive to Longjizhen to see rice terraces 🌾
  • Hike rice terraces. Stay the night here at Baike Hotel.

Day 2:

  • 3 hour car ride to Yangshuo
  • Ruyi Peak and cable car 🚠
  • Check into Airbnb for the night

Day 3:

  • Early morning hot air balloon ride 🎈
  • Quick stop to see Moon Hill 🌝
  • Fuli Bridge
  • Bike riding along river/mountains 🚴
  • Bamboo raft *(we didn’t get to do this…I’ll explain later)*
  • Check into hotel for the night. Sugar House Hotel.

Day 4:

  • Morning at the hotel
  • Bamboo raft rescheduled *(I’ll explain this later as well)*
  • Silver Cave 💎
  • Back to Guilin to catch our flight to Shanghai ✈️

Alright let’s get into more detail! 👀👇🏼 I’ve linked the Airbnb we stayed at. I couldn’t link the hotels but if you just type them into Ctrip it’ll pop up!

(fake) Day 1:

We flew from Shanghai-PVG to Guilin-KWL. ✈️ My friend Allison and I were a bit apprehensive flying/traveling during this time since China is still quite strict with the pandemic. In order to fly we needed to have green QR health codes from Shanghai and also from Guilin cities. Along with a negative Covid test within the past 48 hours. While at the airport we read an article stating that any visitors to Guilin from Shanghai would have to quarantine upon arrival, 😳 so of course we had a mini freak out at the Starbucks and contacted our travel guide who reassured us we were still in the clear.

After we calmed down a bit we hopped on the plane and landed in Guilin 2ish hours later. 👍🏼

The airport was about 40ish minutes from our hotel to the city center of Guilin. We got to our hotel around 12:30am and it was just lovely and right next to our first destinations for the morning. We stayed at Lijiang Bo Yin Hotel and I highly recommend!

(real) Day 1: Sun and Moon Pagoda, Elephant Trunk Hill, Longjizhen Rice Terraces

We started the day around 9am. Literally right outside the doors of the hotel is the Sun and Moon Pagoda which sits on Lake Shanhu. The day was just getting started so it was a quiet and peaceful walk around the lake. 😌

After about 30 minutes walking around the lake and taking pictures we crossed the street and were “headed straight to the elephant” (if you get this movie reference, I love you ❤️) We were at our 2nd stop of the day Elephant Trunk Hill. 🐘 Climbing to the top took around 20-30 minutes. Go around the back way to go up, and then take the steep stairs coming down as it’s easier. 😅 There’s a few stops along the way up…you can stop in the “eye” 👁 of the elephant with a view of the river. There is a tower on the way up called Pu Xian Tower. They say if you circle the tower 9 times you’ll be blessed with longevity. 👍🏼👵🏼🧓🏼

After heading back down you can cross the small stream to get to the other side to get a clear view of the elephant. Think of it as the trunk in the water. 🐘

🐘🎥

After hanging out with the elephant we headed to lunch! A short 10 minute walk we headed to Zhangyang Pedestrian Street. Our friends recommended Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) Indian restaurant and wow it was good! And they had chai 🥳 which is a rare find here in China.

After our delicious lunch we were headed an hour and half Northwest to the Longji Rice Terrace. 🌾 The drive is beautiful as you’re winding up the hills! We stopped in a small village by the side of the road once we passed the ticket booth. It was honestly a bit odd because we were the only tourists there while cute old ladies tried selling us random trinkets.

By 3:15pm we were arriving at our hotel up by the rice terraces. Only town residents can bring their cars in, so we had to get off and luckily we had some sweet village people help us with our luggage for the 10 minute walk up the hill with our belongings. 🧳 Here we stayed at Baike Hotel. We were right in the middle of the terraces! The owner Jason and his wife were so lovely and accommodating! Again, we were the only tourists/guests in the area!

Room with a view 😍 🌾

Once we checked in and freshened up, it was off to hike the actual terraces! 🚶🏻‍♂️ A short 15 minute hike uphill thru Ping’ An Village and we were greeted with some amazing sights. 😍 It’s interesting to hike literally thru someone’s front yard to get to the terraces. But, that’s how it’s done here! 💁🏻‍♀️

Hiking thru the village 🎑

We made our trek up to Nine Dragon Five Tigers scenic point. 🐉 This took around 30 minutes only because we stopped so many times to marvel at our views! After stopping here we walked across the terraces to Seven Stars with Moon scenic point. 💫 🌝 Our whole time trekking thru was about 2 hours, seeing 2 scenic points. By 6:15pm we were back at the hotel exhausted ready for dinner and bed! 💤

Guilin local foods cooked in bamboo 😋

Day 2: travel to Yangshuo, Moon Hill, Ruyi Peak Mountain & Cable Car, West Street

Our day 2 started around 9:30am with a 2ish hour road trip down to Yangshuo. 🚙 Once we reached the area we stopped to have lunch at a cute spot with a lovely view of Moon Hill. 🌝 Unfortunately the cafe was closed so we had to find a different spot to eat. I’ve read that this can also be a hike up to Moon Hill, but we opted to see it from afar as our schedule was tight.

After a cute waterside lunch, we were headed to Ruyi Peak. ⛰ By 1:30pm we were whisked away on a cable car up to the mountain. Ruyi Peak has only been opened for 3 years so it’s still very new. The cable car up took about 10 minutes. 🚠

Once at the top you cross a bridge with red ribbons which are put on there by visitors making wishes. ✨ From here you can go up even further to the highest peak where there’s a massive lookout point. 👀

Coming back down you cross a glass bridge…Look, heights aren’t my thing so I don’t know why I put myself thru this. 😰 You pay ¥5 for the fashionable booties and off on the bridge you go. You can walk on the glass bridge part or the part next to it which is covered.

After crossing this glass bridge you cross yet another glass bridge, this time on the side of the mountain ⛰😰 OR you can take the other scenic route…no glass bridge involved. 🙅🏻‍♀️

From there, your time at Ruyi Peak is done and you take the cable car back down the mountain. Our whole time on the mountain took 2 hours. It was plenty time to enjoy the majestic karst peaks and beautiful scenery surrounding us. 😍

After our time at Ruyi Peak we went to check into our Airbnb for the night. A short 10 minutes later we arrived, dropped our stuff off and freshened up before we were headed to West Street for dinner.

West Street is a popular tourist attraction in Yangshuo. Many cafes, restaurants and shopping to chose from! All while being surrounding by beautiful hills and mountains. We had dinner at a delicious Thai/Vietnamese place called RNG Cafe.

Also, hear me out…but the Starbucks that’s at West Street is so beautiful 😍 there’s 3 floors and the view from it is gorgeous. Even if you don’t get a drink, go in and have a look! 👀

We called it a night after this. It was only 7:15pm but we were ✨tired✨ call us grannies all you like…but we had to rest up for our next early morning! 😬

Day 3: Hot air balloon, Fuli Bridge, Bike/scooter riding

It’s morning everyone! Today’s the day! The sun is shining! Today was probably one of my favorite days ever. So awayyyy we go! 🎈

6am we were already on the road for our hot air balloon ride! The excitement and nervousness was REAL. 40 minutes later we arrived. And wow! Was it a sight to see! 🤩 We were told every hot air balloon ride is different depending on the weather and wind speed. And you can only fly in the early mornings.

Our whole ride took about 45 minutes. The area of Yangshuo is just so majestic with lush green peaks surrounding you. I absolutely would 100% do a hot air balloon if you visit the area. 🤩

Eagle mountain 🦅

After our epic early morning we headed back to our Airbnb to gather our things and take a power nap. 😴 By 9:45 we were headed back out the door to visit the local hospital for a covid test that we needed to get back into Shanghai.

Fuli Bridge was our next stop in the Yangshuo countryside. A beautiful 500 year old ancient bridge built in the Ming Dynasty. With the Yulong River running thru it, you can take a bamboo raft upstream. We didn’t as we already had plans for a different bamboo raft.

Lunch was our next stop. But, we were distracted by some beautiful yellow flowers on the side of the road. 🌼🌼🌼 There are so many flower fields so you could be here all day just stopping and admiring the sights! 😍

After a quick pit stop at the flowers we were on our way to Secret Garden Hotel and Restaurant for lunch. This place was so picturesque and had so many options for food. Our guide said it was owned by a British guy and his wife. Great place for lunch and clean bathrooms. 😆🙈

Our bike riding adventure takes place next. 🚴And it was sooo much fun. Crossing bridges, stopping by the flowers, riding a scooter, biking across a small waterfall…it’s like time stopped and we were loving it! 🥰 We started our bike ride at 1:45pm.

We were only supposed to bike for maybe about an hour but we loved it so much we were able to push back our bamboo raft from today to tomorrow before we left!

After our bike tour we were headed to the hospital to pick up our Covid test results. For some reason, we weren’t able to use our health apps like we had before with any other test we got. It needed to be paper form since we had foreign passports. It was a bit of a hassle but we got them, and we were on our way to the Sugar House/Mill hotel!

We checked in around 5:30pm and were immediately blown away! I found this hotel ages ago on Instagram but when booking the hotel realized that their Instagram was outdated along with several names associated with the hotel. When we arrived we were approached by Michael, Director of Operations for Yangshuo Sugar House. He had mentioned that they’ve gone thru several contract changes, hence the different names I’ve seen online. He gave us a detailed run down of the once sugar mill turned into small ✨deluxe✨ hotel. The pool itself is breathtaking surrounded by huge columns with a view of the Lijiang River.

At dinner we became friends with Jack one of the chefs at the restaurant. He was so nice and friendly. The whole staff was just so welcoming and we felt so taken care of. They have a stunning bar called 1969 Pub.

The room itself was lovely and spacious. Huge bathroom. And great view of the mountains and rest of the sugar mill.

Day 4: Silver Cave, back to Shanghai

So our final day we woke up early to go down to pool to enjoy it while no one was there. It was so peaceful. 😌 We had a great breakfast at the Sugar House restaurant.

Our plans to go on our bamboo raft today unfortunately had to be canceled. Since we are visiting from Shanghai they would not allow us to get on the raft. 😒 Shanghai recently had a few cases of Covid-19, so they prohibited anyone from Shanghai to partake. Honestly I was bummed as it was a bit dramatic seeing as we had our negative tests from the day before…but those were the rules. 🤷🏻‍♀️ If you do want to go on a bamboo raft, there’s plenty around the area but the one we wanted to do was the one that’s on the ¥20 note. 💴 You’ll need to travel to Xing Ping for this.

Our alternative to the bamboo raft was a set of caves in a mountain. We went to Silver Cave and there about 6 people total there. 😅 The caves were all lit up in different colors. Tbh, we just quoted The Grinch while he’s in his lair, sang the digging song from Snow White💎 and quoted Aladdin when they go to the Cave of Wonders. 🐅

After our cave exploration we headed back to West Street for lunch and then off on a 2.5 hour road trip back to the airport for Shanghai. ✈️

Just kidding, thats not the end. Just one more thing before I’m outta here. If you’re headed here, I highly recommend a tour guide. We went with Catherine Lu Tours. We gave Catherine our itinerary of things we found online and she helped us adjust our agenda. She set us up with 2 amazing guides as well. Tao and Lily were wonderful and really eased our nerves as there were so many extra things we had to be cautious of while traveling in a pandemic! Ex: which hotel we could stay at that wouldn’t turn us away, same with activities. They arranged tickets and transportation as well. It was as smooth as it could have been! Highly recommend this tour company! They provide for pretty much anywhere in China as well!

Ok. Now, the end.

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