Lijiang River Cruise
When I was in my grade school, I had learnt that Guilin had the most beautiful mountains and rivers in all of China. The ride on the Lijiang River cruise certainly did not disappoint. It’s a bit expensive - about CNY 380 (about USD 55 per person) but it’s worth it.
We also went to Banff in Canada earlier this year. The mountains there were majestic and awe-inspiring. The mountains in Guilin, however, were a lot smaller but more mysterious. If you look at them from afar, you’d see layers of mountains with all different shades of green, just like a real life Chinese painting. The Lijiang river scenery is so famous that the RMB 20 note uses one of its attractions as its background image.
Snacks inside the cruise
Inside the cruise ship, they also serve traditional seafood snacks and lunch. Deep fried crabs is one of the local delicacies.
Yangshuo (阳朔)
At the end of the river cruise, we reached Yangshuo, a resort town and another another major tourist attraction. There are a couple of things to do in Yangshuo. One is walking through the West Street, a popular street with shops on both sides. The other is to climb the nearby mountains. If you plan to do the later, you would likely need to stay overnight at Yangshuo. Since we were only doing a day trip, we just enjoyed ourselves wandering on the West Street.
Along the West Street, there were numerous shops selling souvenirs and a few historical buildings. If you need food, there are many restaurants and bars nearby. There was also a KFC if you only need a cold drink and a place to take a break from the heat. If you are hungry, you can also try a local delicacy: fish cooked in beer.
Shiwai Taoyuan (Shangri-La Theme Park) (阳朔世外桃源)
In Yangshuo, we joined a tour to learn about the ethnic minorities in the area. The tour bus took us up the mountain to Shiwai Taoyuan (Shangri-La Theme Park) (阳朔世外桃源). It was basically a learning center of ethnic minorities. We sailed around the area on a boat with a local tour guide. Along the boat ride, different ethnic groups were introduced and they performed little dances for us. After the boat ride, we sampled Long-life Wine, a local non-alcoholic specialty, and visited some Song-dynasty ruins and shops.
Afterwards, some of us felt that it was a bit touristy. That's probably true, but it was pretty amazing anyway, especially for the kids.
Other attractions
There are other Guilin attractions that we did not go, e.g. the Elephant Trunk Hill. The reason was that even though it's already mid-September, it was still too hot to do any hiking.