Travel cost; 800-3000RMB return flight/ 370-800RMB sleeper train (If available)
Accommodation; 50-80RMB/night (hostel)
Daily budget; 200RMB
Guilin, known by many Brits for it being ‘the place where that Chinaman uses that bird to catch a fish’ is some of the finest, stunning scenery that I have ever seen in my life. Guilin is actually a fairly large city in Guanxi, a province neighbouring my home province of Guizhou. From Guiyang, it is just a sleeper train ride away, and in summer 2013 I and my friends went on a weekend break there to remember.
Guiyang to Guilin 12 hour sleeper train
We caught the train on a Summer Sunday evening strait from finishing classes, we got on the train and woke up early Monday morning in Guilin. The train cost around 160RMB per person one way. We then had breakfast in Guilin before catching a bus to a halfway point between Guilin city and Yangshuo town. From here we took a short cave tour followed by a raft along the Li river towards Yangshuo. The raft took around 4 hours and we had dinner and stopped off to take photos along the way along with jumping off for a swim. The scenery on the way from start to finish was breath-taking.
Yangshuo （阳朔）
From where we disembarked the rafts we then had a short 20 minute bus ride to Yangshuo. Yangshuo was formerly a quaint little fishing town before its potential was re cognised as a beauty spot with the potential to reel in foreign tourists. Now it is a fully developed tourist town with its own foreigner street and hundreds of bars, restaurants, hostels and hotels. Yangshuo is an ideal town to spend a few days. From here, we hired mopeds for 3 days and went exploring the stunning surrounding countryside. At night we went drinking in a Reggae bar, one of many different bars along the bar street there.
Countryside adventuring
We explored the countryside by hiring electrical mopeds these were fairly cheap at only 40RMB per bike per day using our Chinese friends I.D cards as deposits. From Yangshuo you can moped to the famous butterfly cave, however, what I best recommend is just biking to a random spot along the river and stopping for a swim. When we went in late July the weather was perfect, it was hot and the water was warm as turquois. The pictures show some of what we seen there.
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