Yangshuo

Tag: China

Guilin is best known for its Li River cruise with limestone mountains as its backdrop - pictured on the 20 RMB note.

There’s three primary parts to Guilin:

Longji Rice Terraces

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★★ (worth a detour)

Jinkeng rice terraces

I was originally hesitant about visiting the rice terraces, as I had heard that they were not ideal for visiting between January to March with winter having just passed. But I was pleasantly surprised by the views on March 10.

We had arrived in Guilin quite late (~11 pm) the night before, and chartered a car via trip.com to take us to the rice terraces the following morning.

Longji rice terraces

There are three areas of rice terraces: Jinkeng, Ping’an and Ancient Zhuang, as well as the Huangluo Yao Village where women are known for only cutting their hair on their 18th birthday.

We stopped at the village briefly since it was part of our tour to walk around a creek and have lunch, where we had rice and chicken cooked in bamboo tubes - it was novel and I’d highly recommend it (it’s a specialty of the Guilin area so you can try it elsewhere too)! However, we left promptly after as we weren’t interested in the show the villagers put on.

The Jinkeng rice terraces is what’s pictured above. It had spectacular views, and an interesting cable car ride which didn’t seem to slow down at all at the start and end.

What we didn’t realise was that our charter car only included travel to the Jinkeng rice terraces (I strongly recommend checking!), so we paid slightly more to visit the Ping’an rice terraces after.

Honestly, the Ping’an terraces weren’t that different to the Jinkeng terraces, especially as the clouds rolled in and mostly obscured our views. In hindsight, I would have just spent more time walking around the Jinkeng rice terraces.

There’s also some accommodation overlooking the rice terraces, which we thought would be amazing to stay overnight to watch a sunset (and/or sunrise).

Guilin

We barely spent any time in Guilin, primarily because the Longji rice terraces were a late addition to our trip, but also because the concensus on the internet was that we were better off spending more time in Yangshuo (which we’d agree with).

海天肠粉 （Haitian Changfen)

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a stop)

海天肠粉

We discovered Haitian Changfen when we asked to be dropped off around the area, and our Didi driver recommended it. It’s a small, popular (with the locals) restaurant specialising in changfen (rice noodle rolls), a Guilin specialty, which tasted really good.

It was quite confusing to order though - you pay for a voucher at the front, and then use it to place an order at the back. There’s free self-serve congee as well.

It’s also relatively close to the Sun and Moon Pagodas.

茗草閣 (Mingcaoge)

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a stop)

Mingcaoge is a dessert chain I had heard of for their grass jelly & coconut milk dessert, walking distance from Haitian Changfen.

It tasted great & refreshing, I got the grass jelly & coconut milk with mango pieces dessert, worth a stop.

Sun and Moon Pagodas

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a stop)

This is the #2 and #4 attraction for Guilin on TripAdvisor - comprising of a park, a lake and a gold and silver pagoda.

We paid an entry fee to explore inside the pagodas, which was underwhelming, the views at the top were nothing spectacular, and I wouldn’t recommend it.

I don’t think the area would be nearly as interesting in the day - but the lighting of the pagodas and trees in the park make the park and lake pleasant to walk around in the evening.

Yangshuo

The view from our accommodation, Xitang River View Hotel The view from our accommodation

On a tangent, I got a massage a short walk away from our accommodation which was cheap and relaxing (I think 58 RMB for 30 minutes).

Li River Cruise

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★★ (worth a detour)

The Li River Cruise is a really relaxed 4 hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. Pre-bookings are essential (we used trip.com), and there are two classes of travel: 3-star and 4-star. We opted for the latter, which was less crowded and included a buffet lunch.

Some bookings will include transport from your Guilin accommodation to the Guilin departure port (which is not close). Ours didn’t, so we used the schedule feature on Didi to pre-book a driver to pick us up the following morning so we could arrive with a 30 minute buffer before departure time.

Unlike most of the trip, we actually had to collect our tickets at the port, so once we arrived, we got in line, presented our passport and were handed tickets relatively quickly.

The cruise itself is broken up into various segments where they announce upcoming scenic areas only in Chinese, and you’ll see a flurry of people go up to the roof of the boat.

I didn’t find any particular part of the cruise to be stunningly scenic, not even the spot reproducing the view of the 20 RMB note, but overally it was really nice to be surrounded by pleasant mountainous views for 4 hours.

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a detour)

In Yangshuo, you’re able to rent mopeds to explore the area - no license required. It’s not hard to find - we rented ours from a stall right next to our accommodation for 70 RMB for the day (returning at the end of the day, not 24 hours). It’s also not hard to learn - we rode ours around a quiet area for 5 minutes to get the hand of turning and braking and the controls before I was confident. It included a helmet, a mount for my phone. I really enjoyed the freedom of being able to ride around Yangshuo on a moped!

The Ten Mile Gallery is a popular scnie route. Honestly, we probably missed a bunch of stops with attractions due to a lack of preparation, but the route was really picturesque and I would strongly recommend hiring a moped to ride it and make random stops to explore the surroundings!

Yangshuo Ten Mile Gallery

Yangshuo West Street

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a stop)

Popular tourist street with lots of food options. Great for night life, can be tricky to park your moped when it’s busy at night. Not much more to say!

日头火 (Ritouhuo)

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): ★ (worth a stop)

Guilin rice noodles

A specialty of Guilin is their rice noodles, which we had for breakfast at a nearby Ritouhuo (which I believe to be a chain). There’s nothing particularly special about the chain to my knowledge (besides that they seem to be rated quite well), but the noodles themselves were a delight and highly recommended.

Once you’re nearly done, you can add soup (self-serve) and drink what’s left in your bowl.

Xianggong Mountain

Rating (in Michelin stars out of 3): unsure, potentially worth a stop in better weather

We stopped by Xingping Town on our second day in Yangshuo, which is a scenic town 45 minutes drive north - which is also close to where Yangshuo Railway Station is located.

After we got to Xingping, we stored our luggage at a restaurant for ~10 RMB/bag after being directed by one of the peddlers on the street. We were then overcharged 100 RMB per person to take a (very short) ferry across the river, followed by a sightseeing bus ride up to Xianggong Mountain. If you had the time, Rednote suggests the ferry is 10 RMB for the round trip, and the sightseeing bus is 30 RMB per person. This only works during the day - some people will go up Xianggong Mountain very early for the sunrise, you’ll need alternative transport.

Once you arrive, it’s another 60 RMB to enter the area, and a ~20 minute walk to the top.

The views were good (though honestly no better than the roof of our accommodation), but dampened by a drizzle of rain. Overall though, we were quite lucky that in our 2 week almost entirely outdoor trip, this was the only day rain interfered.

I would have loved to have spent more time exploring Yangshuo, such as Ruyi Mountain, Laozhai Mountain, riding a moped along more of the countryside and bamboo raft riding - but unfortunately we had a very late notice flight reschedule cut our trip short by a day and a half. But it was great to get a taste of Yangshuo, and I would love to return in the future.

Thus concludes my series on China! I think it’s an underrated country for its natural beauty and affordability, and I hope sharing my experiences helps demystify the complexities of visiting. I’m keen to explore more!