At the end of August, I had a wonderfulfamily trip in Guilin, Guangxi Province. Guilin is a popular tourist destination featuring with karst landscape, green water, and many unique hills.There is a little child and two elder people in my family, so we exploredGuilin slowly with only one or two spots each day. Here I would like to sharemy leisure trip with you.

Day 1/ Aug 28th: Flight Zhengzhou-GuilinFM9447(08:25-10:25) and Elephant Hill Park

We took the morning flight from our city Zhengzhou to Guilin FM9447(08:25-10:25). After we settled in the hotel, we arrived at a rice noodle restaurant in a small lane: Tonglai Restaurant. It’s a small store but quite famous in Guilin.

After some rest in the hotel, we went tothe Elephant Hill Park. Elephant Hill Park is at the joint place of Lijiang River and Taohua River (Peach Flower River) and it’s a 5A scenic area. Here locates a symbol of Guilin City: Elephant Trunk Hill. It gets the name because the hill looks like a drinking elephant. In this park you can see many small elephant statues. But one of the most important things to do here is to take a photo of the big “elephant.”

The cave between the “leg” and the “trunk”of the Elephant Hill is called water moon cave. When you climb on the top of the hill, you will have a bird view of Guilin City.

Day 2/ Aug 29^th: Guilin

Today we visited Reed Flute Cave, a unique karst cave in the northwest of Guilin City. The form of Reed Flute Cave can be dated back to about 1 million years ago. It was an underground lake here at that time. Due to tectonic movements, the mountain was uplifted and the watertable dropped, turning the former underground lake into a cave. Rainwater,mixed with calcium carbonate from the mountain, seeped into the cave. Graduallymany exquisitely carved stalactites such as stonepillars, stone curtains, etc are formed in the cave. You can find birds,flowers, and lions, etc. in the cave. It’s a magnificent underground palace with the colorful lights.

Day 3 / Aug 30^th:Guilin-Yangshuo

There is a saying in China: Guilin landscape tops those elsewhere, and Yangshuo landscape tops that of Guilin’s.Yangshuo is the most expected place during our trip this time. We decided to take the 3* cruise to Yangshuo, thus we could fully enjoy the views along Lijiang River. The cruise departs at 09:30, and we checked out from the hotelat 08:00. It took us about one hour from our hotel to Mopanshan Pier (pier for 3-starcruise).

Along the river, you can see magnificent karst hills, bamboo groves, crystal water with rocks and plants, and rocky shoals. My words cannot express the beauty of this scenery! Highlights alongthe way include “Nine Horses Fresco” Hill, Yellow Cloth Shoal, 20-Yuan BillHill, and Xingping Ancient Village, etc.

How many horses can you find in this “Nine Horses Fresco” Hill?

In the evening, we visited the famous Wes tStreet. West Street is a landmark and a commercial center in Yangshuo. With many shops, bars, and restaurants here, it attracts a lot of travelers from all over the world. We tasted bear fish here, which is a famous cuisine in Yangshuo. A special thing for Yangshuo Beer Fish: the fish was not scaled when cooking. Come and try if you haven’t tasted fish with scales before.

Day 4 / Aug 31^st:Yangshuo

Yangshuo is a small county, and many scenic spots are in the villages. It’s very convenient to visit each spot by riding scooters. Today we rode along the famous Ten-Mile Gallery in Yangshuo countryside and visited the Moon Hill scenic area: Big banyan tree and the moon hill.

The Big Banyan Tree was planted in Sui Dynasty, and it’s around 1500 years old now. It’s said it is as old as Yangshuo County. The tree is 17m tall, and 7.05m in girth. A single tree can also make aforest.

We went to a village nearby and had a simple lunch. Here we tasted another famous cuisine in Yangshuo: Stuffed fieldsnails. The chopped pork and snail meat are stuffed in the snail shell, and then be stewed. They can also cook stuffed tofu puff, stuffed bamboo shoots,etc.

Unfortunately, it rained during our lunch time, so we waited a long time at the restaurant. The rain finally stopped at16:00. Then we continued our trip to the Moon hill. You can see the big cave on the Moon Hill when you see from afar. It gets the name because the moon-shaped cave. From different point of views, you can see the different shape of the “moon”.

Day 5 / Sep 1st: Yangshuo

Today we rode along Yulong River toJiiuxian old village. Yulong River is a branch of Lijiang River; thepicturesque countryside view along the river composed of houses, green ricefields, blue sky and the green water and hills attracts everyone.

Jiuxian village is located at Baisha Town,and it’s about 10km to Yangshuo county. It took us about 1h by riding thescooter. Jiuxian Village not only has beautiful natural scenery, but it is also an ancient village with over 1400 years’ history and rich cultural heritage.Currently there are 44 old buildings here that tell the history and culture ofthe village. Li family and Mao family have lived here for centuries and thereare Lis ancestral Hall and Mao’s ancestral Hall in the village.

In Li’s Ancestral Hall, there is an old photo on the wall that tells the story of General Li Xing Zhong. There is a bullet board with names of those who passed the National College Entrance Examination, and also a donation list. These fully shows the function of Chinese ancestral Hall: to worship the ancestor, to cultivate the next generation, etc.

Day 6 / Sep 2^nd: Yangshuo

Ruyi Peak scenic, located in Gaotian Town,was opened in 2020. You can arrive at the mountain top by cable car in 15minutes. Ruyi Peak Scenic Area include three peaks (Ruyi Peak, Yuanbao Peak and Xianglian Peak) and two valleys (Caixi Valley and Baihua Valley). These three Peaks are connected by two bridges, which makes Ruyi Peak a natural garden on mountain top. There is a 360-degree viewing platform on the top of Ruyi Peak scenic area. Here you can have a Panoramic view of Yangshuo Karst landscape, the hill forest of Yangshuo, like bamboo shoots, lies in front of you.

Day 7 / Sep 3^rd:Yangshuo-Longji Rice Terrace Field

In the northwest of Gulin City lies another famous scenic area Longji Rice Terrace Field. Longji Rice Terrace Field islocated on Longji Mountain of Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County,about 80km to Guilin City. Longji Rice Terrace Field encompasses five villages; people living here are mainly Zhuang ethnic people and Yao ethnic people. This time we planned to visit Ping’an Zhuang Village.

Ping’an Zhuang village is 1200m above sea-level and is home to over 100 Zhuang households. People live in their traditional tilted wooden houses and works in the rice terrace fields for centuries,while now it become a national tourist attraction with worldwide tourists coming here every day.

There are two scenic spots in Ping’anvillage, where in the late afternoon we visited the seven stars around the Moon scenic spot. When climbing to the top of this spot, you can have a bird view ofseven small round rice paddies and one moon shaped rice paddy. You will forgetall the troubles in front of the vast rice terrace fields.

Day 8 / Sep 4th: Longji Rice Terrace Field

In the morning, we had a hike to Longji village, another Zhuang Ethnic village. Walking in the mountain path, we can closely observe the rice paddies. They have perfect irrigating system. They build a water reservoir on top of the mountain and the water flow down each layer of the fields. There are different water pipes for the wastewater. You can see passion fruit and Siraitia grosvenorii in some fields. They are very welcomed in recent years in some drinks. Many local people start to plant passion fruit and Siraitia Grosvenorii, as they can sell at a good price.

Longji village is an old village with over 400-year history. There are five century-old houses here, the oldest one was built 250 years ago. In the village you can also find some old spots such as the stonegate, “three fishes share one head” print and Taiping water van that show the history and culture of the village.

After coming back to Ping’an, we climbed to the other scenic spot of Ping’an: Nine Dragon and Five Tiger. There are nine small mountain ridges and five round fields here, hence the name.

In addition to the beautiful scenery, the hardworking people here also attract me. From the layers of rice paddies, we can learn how hard their life was in old times, and how diligent and talented they are to make the small village a nationwide scenic area. If you haven’t come yet, then I strongly recommend Longji Rice Terrace Field to you. Come and enjoy the tranquility and peace of the village, and the amazing scenery of the mountain!

Day 9 / Sep 5th: Back to Zhengzhou by flight FM9448（18:00-20:00）

We enjoyed our morning time in Ping’an andthen take bus to Guilin airport at the noon. A happy end for our holiday.

Yours Truly

Penney Shi - Charmission Travel