Arrive Sunday 28 October – Depart Friday 2 November
Emma from Wendy Wei Tours will be our tour guide: http://www.wendyweitours.com
SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER
Arrive at Guilin Liangjiang International Airport at 3.45pm on China Southern flight CZ3252. Met by driver and driven to the Old Manor House Hotel, 57 Xiatang Village, Baisha Town, Yangshuo (80km / 50 miles)
Yangshou is nestled on the banks of the Li River. It is famed for the dramatic Karst mountains that surround it.
The Old Manor House is tucked away in the heart of the breath-taking Yangshuo countryside in a village situated alongside the Yulong River, surrounded by rice paddies. The hotel is housed in two groups of 400 year old Qing Dynasty buildings which have been carefully restored. It features comfortable bedrooms that meet standards for a western Boutique hotel it also has on-site massage service, barbecue facilities, an array of activities including free Wi-Fi in public areas
Evening
Meal in the hotel restaurant
MONDAY 29 OCTOBER
Meet Emma our tour guide, go cycling in the Yulong Valley Countryside including a visit to Liugong Village. This village was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and is situated on the bank of the Li River south of Yangshuo.
https://www.wendyweitours.com/liugong-village.html
Liugong Village is one of the least visited ancient villages of the area. There are around 100 households in this village. The villagers still live a simple farming life. With over 800 years of history it has some unique preserved buildings. These include the Deyue Building which is considered the gate of the village, the Moon Pavilion and Home of Senators. The village offers architectural from the Qing and Ming dynasties in a very authentic and jaw dropping natural setting.
Near the village you will find the famous three-color ponds, consisting of three small deep ponds. The colours in each pond are different, one is bluish yellow, one is emerald and another is muddy.
The level of water in the ponds always remains equal throughout the year regardless of the water level of the Li River.
There is an ancient legend about the pond. A rich man often ill-treated his servants, so he was punished by the deity who sank his house to hell. At the former address of the house, there were formed the Three Colour Pond, each pond separately stand for the rich man’s principal room, the kitchen and the stable.
There are a few great options for a snack or lunch in Liugong. One of the small local restaurants is built on a platform over the banks of the Li-river with truly amazing views over the karst landscape at one side and the traditional Ming Dynasty village itself.
Go Scenic Drifting on bamboo raft in the Yulong River
The non-motorised bamboo rafts are pushed along by a Gondolier at a sedate pace down the course of the river and across a few small weirs. It’s a relaxing way to take in the amazing views of the Yu Long (Dragon River). Feet and ankles will get wet when you go over the weirs, so take sandals, spare socks and small towel
Walk up Cuiping Hill (Yangshuo Wuzhi Hill).
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Cuiping+Hill+Yangshuo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9mcOPlvLdAhWKIsAKHQnaBUYQsAR6BAgAEAE&biw=1920&bih=948#imgrc=QzajAX5P4cZ-vM:
Takes about 20 minutes to climb up the hill on paved stone steps and 20 minutes back down!!
At the top of Cuiping Hill get a magical and amazing view of the countryside and the Karst (tall sculptured rocks)Hills. The sheer beauty of what’s below is often the highlight of many visitors travels. Great place to use the drone!!
Visit West Street (Xi Jie) in Yangshuo city centre.
West Street in the daytime:
West street at night:
This is the oldest street in Yangshuo with a history of more than 1,400 years. Walking down West Street you will be surrounded by an array of traditional folk and amazing international elements.
Various craftworks shops, painting and calligraphy stores, backpack shops, cafes, and Chinese Kung Fu academies jostle for attention selling embroidered silk cloth, wax-painted weaving, to embroidered shoes for women. In addition, everywhere on West Street you will find bars and cafes, some run by foreigners, decorated with bamboo rafts, fish baskets, wax-painted tablecloths.
Eat at The Brew, 100 Diecui Road. The Brew” is an Austrian owned and run western restaurant established in 2008. They make their own pasta, brew beer, bake bread, make basil pesto, smoke their own bacon and duck breast and bake their own pizzas!
Go for the great burgers, grilled chicken breast with basil pesto, smoked duck or the blue cheese tagliata! The imported New Zealand tenderloin is the best steak you can get in this part of the world They also serve wine by the glass, have home brewed ales on tab, a good selection of imported beers and a full bar!
Evening
Music and Light Show “Impression 3rd Sister Liu”
The Liu San Jie is a music & light Show performed by a large cast of singers and dancers. The artist perform on rafts and floating platforms in the Li-river with a backdrop of a dozen beautifully lit karst, tall sculptured rock formations.
Liu Sanjie is a love story about a young woman called Liu Sanjie, which means “third sister Liu”. Her voice was so beautiful that it touched everyone. The legend is that a warlord falls in love with Liu San Jie but she has already fallen in love with a farmer’s boy from the village. The warlord does not accept this and kidnaps her but Liu San Jie’s lover and friends in the village go to free her and the couple escape living happily ever after.
TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER
Walk round Xiatang Village, the village where the hotel is situated and then drive to Xingping. Sail down the Li River on two Private motorised bamboo River Rafts – two people to each raft.
Sit on a raised platform so should NOT get wet but wear flip flops just in case!! This is the centrepiece of any trip to Guilin / Yangshuo. Amazing scenery, gorgeous Karst peaks give you surprises at each bend. Water buffalo patrol the fields, peasants reap rice paddies.
Go to a Cormorant Fisherman Demonstration
Drive to Airbnb Apartment Guilin: 301, Unit 3, Building No 3, 16 Linjiang Road
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6545316
Evening
Guilin City Lakes walking tour with Emma.
For dinner eat Street food on Zhengyang Pedestrian Street OR eat go to Mcfound Restaurant, 15 Qixing road. This is a Chinese with a few westernised options. Ribs, noodle soup, pan fried dumplings, scallion pancakes, shredded potato pancakes, fried pancakes with beef, beef with vegetables, steamed fish, fried pumkin sticks which are like French Fries, passion fruit drink, free flavoured water (with lemon and mint leaves). Squat toilets!!
WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER
Morning
Visit Red Flute Cave
This is a 180 million years old natural limestone cave with multi-coloured lighting. It has been one of Guilin’s most interesting attractions for over 1200 years
Transfer to Nine Dragons and Five Tigers Scenic Viewpoint
Visit the Longsheng Rice Terraces(Dragon’s Backbone) also called the Longji Rice Terraces
https://www.topchinatravel.com/china-attractions/longsheng-longji-rice-terrace.htm
https://www.topchinatravel.com/china-attractions/longji-old-village-cultural-terraced-fields.htm
Construction of the terraces took 650 years. It began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and continued until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when construction was completed. To build the terraces the Zhuang and Yao people faced major obstacles. First they had to clear the forest from the deep sided mountains and then rely on slash-and-burn agriculture to cultivate the first fields.
The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, between 600 to 800 metres (2,000 to 2,600 ft) above sea level. A coiling terrace line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of rice in fall, and layers of frost in winter. The Terraced Rice Fields received their name because the rice terraces resemble a dragon’s scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon
Visit Ping’an Village
https://www.chinahighlights.com/longsheng/attraction/ping-an-village.htm
Walk along the Rice Terraces from Ping’an Village to Longji Zhuang Village (45 minutes).
https://www.asiaculturaltravel.co.uk/guzhuang-village/
Longji Ancient Zhuang Village is relatively isolated from the outside world. Architectural features in the village date back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The village is on a ridge, with the rice terraces circling down to the Jin river below.
Only recently opened up to tourism, it still retains its simple and authentic ethnic looks and culture. Zuzhuang village boasts over 300 households and a population of 1,300 North Zhuang people. They belong to four tribes, the Liao Family Tribe, Hou Family Tribe, Pingduan Tribe and Pingzhai Tribe. They are from three families: Lia Family, the Hou Family and the Pan Family.
These families belong to the Baiyi or “White Clothes” branch of the Zhuang ethnic minority and are characterised by their beautifully embroidered white shirts. Villagers grow villagers grow rice and potatoes to feed the whole family: Paddy, corn, taro and bean are their favourite food. The cooked bean, porridge with meet fragments and rice in bamboo bowl are unique. They cook five-colour- rice, and all kinds of glorious rice dumping.
Evening
Dinner – Have a traditional meal at local Zhuang Minority Family’s House. Stay overnight in Dragon Hill Scenic Hotel (basic hotel and facilities) situated in Longji Zhuang Village.
The hotel is housed in a large Diaojiaolou. Diaojiaolou are traditional three storey wooden houses supported by wooden columns. The Diaojiaolou houses are built on stilts to protect the villagers from insects and snakes and it also makes them damp proof. The Diaojiaolou in the village are the best preserved, oldest and largest and oldest in the country, some date back over 100 years. Booked into two twin rooms – western toilet!!
THURSDAY 1 NOVEMBER
Morning
Tofu Making Demonstration from one of the villagers and then explore Longji Zhuang Village. Visit the village museum which is dedicated to the history, culture and customs of the Zhuang ethnic minority. The museum is full of fascinating artefacts, detailed historical accounts, and traditional dress of the Zhuang people.
The local people use stones to create the unique Zhuang stone culture. See the elaborate 57 stone bridges which surround the village. The finest of these bridges is called “Three Fish Share One Head”.
This is a Wind-Rain bridge located just in front of the village’s administrative office. These bridges have been delicately carved with images of lotuses, swords and the eight trigrams of Bagua theory.
Other things to see are: the Longquan Pavilion, the Site of the Military Camp, the Clean and Honest Politics Stele (Lianzheng Stele) and several water mills.
Travel to Daxu Old Town a well preserved, ancient village, great example of traditional Chinese architecture and culture, includes local house visit. Daxu Old Town dates back all the way to 200 AD. It is one of four ancient towns in Guangxi Province.
Daxu features a 2.5-kilometer street paved in bluestone with well-preserved traditional houses and shops, mostly from the Ming and Qing dynasties, lining each side. As a visitor, Daxu Old Town lends itself perfectly to taking leisurely strolls amid heritage buildings, sampling the local food, and learning about the traditional culture and customs that have been kept alive for thousands of years.
Most of Daxu Old Town’s residents are from the older generation and live simple, peaceful lives, working traditional trades, such as bamboo-weaving and shoemaking.
Longevity Bridge is a must-see while in the town; this stone arch bridge was constructed in the Ming Dynasty and is a scenic place to stop and enjoy the Li River and perhaps take pictures of Snail Hill
Travel to the top of Yaoshan Mountain on a very scary two person open cage chairlift
Yaoshan Mountain received its name from a Yao emperor who built a temple at the top of this mountain in the Tang dynasty.
Yao Mountain is the highest and largest of Guilin city’s mountains (within a radius of 20 km), and can be seen as a prominent landmark from many places in the city and suburbs. Although not a typical karst peak the ascent and summit afford spectacular views over the karst formations of the Guilin landscape.
A 1,416.18 meters long cable car track connects the top and bottom of the mountain. You travel in two person open cages – scary!!
You can come back down the mountain on a tabogan run. The 1,000m sloping track curves around the hill 18 times, allowing riders to see different sceneries as they travel down. You sit on a sledge with a brake. There are beautiful views of rocks, flowers and brooks on each side when coming down the mountain on the slide
Visit Ming Dynasty Tombs
https://www.topchinatravel.com/china-attractions/guilin-jingjiang-king-tomb.htm
These Tombs are the most famous attractions in the Guilin Yao Mountain scenic area. It is a mausoleum for a Ming Dynasty royal family – the Jingjiang Family. Eleven generations of the family are buried in the tombs. The 300 well-preserved tombs making up the biggest ancient tomb group in south China.
Visit Elephant Trunk Hill (656 feet high) which is the symbol of the city of Guilin
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangxi/guilin/elephant.htm
Elephant Trunk Hill got its name because it looks like an elephant drinking water from the river. It is said that Elephant Trunk Hill is the embodiment of a God Elephant, who used to be the mount of the Emperor of Heaven. It was separated from the Emperor in a war and stranded in Guilin with severe wounds. A local couple saved its life and took good care of it. This animal fell in love with the life there and decided not to return to the heavenly palace. Since then, it never left this place and at last became Elephant Trunk Hill.
There are a number of places of interest around the hill and also some ancient constructions, they are: Water Moon Cave –this is a semi-circular cave between the elephant’s legs and trunk. The cave is not very large, but there are more than 50 inscriptions on the wall, with the earliest one dating from the Song dynasty (960 -1279).
Puxian Pagoda – This brick tower was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) to worship Samantabahdra one of the four most reputable Bodhisattvas. There is a line-carved figure of him on the north side of the pagoda
Yunfeng Temple – on the southwest slope of the Elephant Trunk Hill, is one of the famous ancient temples of Guilin. It was once the dwelling place of Monk Jianzhen, an eminent monk of the Tang Dynasty. This scenic area was once the frontline of the Taiping Rebellion (1851 – 1864), a mass civil war in China. The second floor of the temple serves as an exhibition gallery, reviewing this history with historical relics like battle flags, weapons, and cannonballs.
Evening
With Emma visit the Xicheng Night Market, Xicheng Pedestrain Street. Local specialty products are widely available; these include hand painted paper fans and clothes with local characteristics.
Visit Shagshui Street, which is a newly-developed part of the Zhengyang Pedestrian Street. The buildings in the street are built in northern Guilin style. It is popular for food snacks from all over China at moderate prices as well as some foreign foods.
FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER
Driver pick us up at 11am and take us to the Guilin West Train Station, to catch the 1:38pm G311 Bullet Train to Hong Kong arrive at 4.54pm (3 hours 16 minutes). Booked into First Class seats in Carriage 2, seats 15A, 15C, 15D
Coleman Adventures- North Coast 500 