Guilin is one of the most fascinating Chinese cities: ready to get lost among the wonders of the prefecture and stroll along the banks of the four lakes?
The prefecture of Guilin covers an area of 28.000 square kilometers, located north-east of the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang, south of China.
We reached Guilin with a direct flight from Shanghai, due to typhoons our plane was delayed and so we arrived late at night. Outside the small airport it is not difficult to take a cheap taxi to the city, which is not far away.
Where to sleep in Guilin
The hotel where we stayed for one night is the Grand Bravo Hotel: expecting something typical, in a small city by Chinese standards (700.000 inhabitants), we were amazed to find ourselves in this Arab Emirates-style hotel: huge white marble halls, spacious rooms furnished with all kinds of worthy furnishings of Versailles.
Guilin: The spectacle of the mountains
Guilin has one of the most spectacular karst topographies in the world. The tooth-shaped limestone mountains appear in clusters or isolated as monoliths, often with caves and sometimes with holes along the way, such as the Elephant Trunk Hill or Moon Hill in Yangshuo.
What to do in Guilin
We used Guilin as a base for sightseeing longji rice fields (which I will talk about in a dedicated article) and above all to visit the main attraction of Guilin which is the Li River cruise: a path through this unique nature reserve that offers a unique spectacle in the world for the characteristics described above.
Too bad that in those days there was a typhoon over China, which raised the river level beyond the safety threshold, so unfortunately the cruise was canceled. We diverted the visit to the surrounding countryside from which you can enjoy, even on foot, the beauty of these views and we visited another great attraction in Guilin: the cave of the pipe flute.
The Reed Flute Cave: Ludi Ya
The Reed Flute Cave (Ludi Yan), one of the first four tourist sites of the city present for more than 1200 years, is a fascinating gallery of limestone formations full of numerous stalactites, stalagmites and rocks with wonderful and bizarre shapes, still rendered more beautiful by colored lights.
How to reach the Cave of the Flute of Reeds
The Reed Flute Cave is located on the northwestern outskirts of the city of Guilin (only about 4 km from the center) and you can get there easily with a cheap bus that leaves from the center, number 3 or number 213. The entrance to the cave is located south of the Guangming Hill, in the Ludi street, and costs 120 Yuan (15 € which is not cheap by Chinese standards). The cave is almost 240 meters long and the tour lasts about an hour. Along the "U" path, you can observe the strangest shaped rocks listening to the guide tell interesting stories about them and visualizing the characters described by these stories with great imagination.
Two Rivers and Four Lakes
Two Rivers and four Lakes (Liang Jiang Si Hu) form a picturesque and interrupted waterway through the city center. Cruise ships carry tourists along the route both day and night. The XNUMX-hour cruise is worth spending little money as it offers the opportunity to see Guilin's tranquil mountain and water landscape, along with traditional Chinese architecture.
The Li River Cruise
The cruise usually starts from a pier near the Liberation Bridge in front of the Seven Stars Park. The boat travels the crystal clear waters of the Li River and skirts a verdant island to the Hill of Overlapping Colors (Diecai Shan). The boat is lifted by a system of locks to the level of the city lakes: if the tour is done in the evening, this and the other lakes are beautifully lit to bring out the shape of the trees and the city architecture.
A walk on the shores of the lakes
Another way to enjoy the scenery of the lakes is to walk their banks. The walk can be done during the day, but above all it is exciting in the evening, as the lake is well lit with colored lights and from which the two splendid pagodas: the moon and the sun. Along the promenade, if you stop at 20pm in front of the exclusive Hotel Waterfall, the entire opposite side of the hotel transforms into an artificial waterfall for about half an hour. The evening walk can continue through the central streets of the city, which are not extremely chaotic but fun, and which are full of people and typical shops. That evening we stopped at an Irish Pub, to go back to basics, drink Irish beer and eat a great pizza!
After dinner we return to the hotel and the next day we move to reach a neighboring area, immersed in this beautiful nature reserve: Yangshuo.
