Guilin, China Trip

the amazing scenery of Yangshuo

Hey everyone, sorry for the long wait. Been really busy with lots of things recently. Thus till now only have time to update my blog.

So, basically some updates of where I have been in 2014.
March - Hangzhou, China
April - Taiwan
July - Pulau Redang, Malaysia
October - Taiping, Malaysia
November - New Zealand
December - Guilin, China

I am going to update on our Guilin trip in this post. I know it was almost half a year ago, but please do leave some comments below if you enjoy reading =)

On the first day, we departed from KL1A2 at 6am and reached Guilin airport at local time 10am.

morning sunrise 

saw a turtle heading towards the sun

This trip was partially sponsored by Bagus Holiday Sdn Bhd. They were under Lohas tour group before. Hence we were quite worried due to the bad reputation of Lohas recently. But thank goodness, it went all well. The tour guide picked us up from the airport.

Besides 4 of us, there is another couple in our tour group. There was so much fun and laughter throughout the journey.

With our empty stomachs, our first stop is to try the local delicacies! Let the pictures speak by itself.

Guilin Mee Hoon 桂林米粉 - the local daily breakfast

yam with pork 芋头扣肉 - their yam is really flourish and yummy

the soup version of Guilin Mee Hoon

So, a bit of Guilin history. Guilin got its name from the Gui Tree. Due to the widely spread of Gui Tree in the city, the city is called Guilin (forest of Gui Tree). After lunch, we visited Liu SanJie Show Garden (刘三姐大观园). Situated at the scenic 桃花畔, approximate RMB500,000,000 was spent to construct the show garden of  100+ acres. The show garden is designed based on Liu Sanjie cultural essence, acting as a new leisure and amusement park for Guilin.

at the main entrance

wishing tree with hanging red clothes with wishes on it

the lyrics for the famous Liu San Jie Song

group photo in front of Liu San Jie house

the enlarged version of 腰鼓 (waist drum)

trying to see who's taller..

massing through the musical corridor. Can you play a song?

The main drum building where the leader will hit on the drum to call for meetings 

you need to jump to play the drum

kung fu posture "HA!"

maybe not so much of a kung fu posture

taking picture with the 绣球 (flower ball)

After this, we paid a visit to the Silk Factory. China has too many of these and you can't avoid them if you were joining the tour.

the cocoon and the silk

Not having too much interest in silk making, we proceeded to cruising along Li River (漓江). The whole journey takes about half an hour only. We thought that this cruising line is way too short.

The actual Li River is few hundreds kilometer long. To get the best experience of the Li River, the most exciting part is actually the journey from Guilin to Yangshuo, which takes about 5 hours. We are going to try it next time!

So, before we headed down to the river, we saw this big honeycomb.

We also saw one uncle bathing by the riverside but no picture is taken haha. We just couldn't understand how he could withstand the cold weather. 

this is the cruise we board on

Did you see an old man far far away?

the famous FuBo Hill (伏波山) - some scenes in Liu SanJie movie is actually taken from here

JieFang Bridge (解放桥) - one of the main bridge in Guilin city

cruising on bamboo rafting (竹排) is the best way to experience Li River

yay at the local landmark - Elephant Trunk Hill (象鼻山)

got a picture on my own yay!

After the cruise, we tour around the "Two River and Four Lake" (两江四湖景区).
This two rivers and four lakes scenic spot refer to the landscape located around the city, which includes Li River (the part within the city) (漓江), Taohua (Peach Blossom) River (桃花江) , Mulong Lake (木龙湖), Guihu Lake (桂湖), Ronghu Lake (榕湖) and Shanhu Lake (杉湖).

First stop: Ronghu Lake (榕湖). It got its name from this hundreds-year-old Banyan Tree (榕树). You could see from the picture that the branches are supported by artificial columns to prevent them from snapping.

the famous Banyan Tree (榕树)

Beside the Banyan tree is this South Gate that used to protect Guilin during ancient war time. Guilin used to be surrounded by river and lakes to protect it from enemies. However due to later city expansion, the rivers and lakes are now surrounded by the city instead. There are approximately 22 bridges to connect both parts of the riverbank.

Group photo in front of the South Gate

Gingko Tree (银杏树)

Moving forward, we encountered the "Nine Twist Bridge" (九曲桥), which configuration is similar to the Big Dipper constellation.

nine twist bridge (九曲桥) at back

Next up is the "Crystal Bridge" (玻璃桥), also part of the Ronghu Lake. It is the first bridge in China that is made of special crystal glass, with the size of 22.4m long and 2.64m wide. (Read further to see the picture of Crystal Bridge in lights)

crystal bridge (玻璃桥)

The Sun and Moon Tower (日月双塔), also located on Banyan Lake, are the local landmark of Guilin city. In Chinese character, sun is "日", moon is "月", and the combination of both letters is "明", which means "tomorrow will be a better Guilin".

After visiting Ronghu Lake, we continue our journey to Mulong Lake Park (木龙湖公园), which is another lake out of the 4 lakes in Guilin. Due to the location of Mulong Cave (木龙洞) at the upper part of the lake, thus named the lake as Mulong Lake.

Behind us is Diecai Hill (叠彩山). It is formed by the layering of rocks, leading to its name where it means green colours in between layers.

Mulong Lake (木龙湖)

Mulong Lake (木龙湖)

At Mulong Lake Park, we also get to watch the Asean Countries Show (东盟十国表演秀). Maybe we are from Malaysia, we don't find the dance any attractive at all. 

After this, we watched the Dream of LiJiang Show. It is an indoor acrobatic show which I personally thinks that it is quite good, strongly recommended. Due to the cold weather before that, the camera wasn't working thus no picture for this show.

At night, we stayed at the 4-star Guilin Bai Gong Hotel (佰宫酒店).

Next morning, we went down to Yangshuo after visiting the Pearl Factory (桂和珠宝) and have our buffet lunch at MinZuFengWeiLou Restaurant (民族风味楼). Our tour guided hinted us "ada pencuri" (meaning 'got thieves') while we walking towards the restaurant.

After lunch, we went to Yangshuo. Driving through this 1.5 hour of bumpy road made it hard to fall asleep. Along the way, we saw the undulating landscape of Guilin with much of awe.

The bumpy road to Yangshuo

The undulating landscape of Yangshuo

Firstly, we visited the village of local minorities (原始部落).

At the Butterfly Spring Park (天籁蝴蝶泉), there was performance of the DongZhai and Miao villagers.

at the Butterfly Spring Park (天籁蝴蝶泉)

a turtle head and a camel back

a bottle at the far end

The stone butterfly-like stalactite where the butterfly park got its name from.

at the hanging bridge 

hollow stone has a different sound

火焰山

lots of walking and climbing in China

Our one and only dinner in Yangshuo! Very very yummy...

Finally, at LiuSanJie Show! This show is only available at night. Directed by Zhang Yi Mou (张艺谋), it uses the natural landscape as background to do the show.

at the main entrance

at the main door

Due to the tiredness from these two days trip, we skipped our visit to the "West Street" (西街) which has the longest street history in Yangshuo.

Night, we stayed at the 4-star New FuAn Hotel (阳朔新富安大酒店). It faces the main street, you definitely can't miss it. Most importantly, it is very close to the West Street if you want to walk there.

Next morning, we went to Silver Cave (银子岩). Our tour guide told us that Silver Cave is much prettier than Lu Di Cave (芦笛岩) and we trusted her. Here are the pics!

at the entrance of Silver Cave

I got someone to carry me on a chair throughout the tour

yam-like stalactite 

golden-key-like stalactite

mirror image inside the cave

christmas-tree-like stalactite

single-tower stalactite

twin-tower stalactite

4 generations stalactite

art-gallery-like stalactite

ginseng-like stalactite

After visiting the Silver Cave, we continued our journey to Yulong River (遇龙河)

learning how to row a bamboo raft using a stick

the black bird is a fish-eater eagle (鱼鹰)

the amazing scenery of Yangshuo

haha this is a must try - yam cooked with maltose sugar :D yumm!!!

On our way back to Guilin, we saw the famous Mon Hill (月亮山). It is a hill with a natural arch.

At night, we visited "Zhengyang Pedestrian Street" (正阳路步行街). It has a good reputation of “the first commercial shopping street in western China”, which is exactly 666 km long (666 is one of the luckiest number in Chinese culture), stretching from South Binhu Road to East Jianfang Road.

the clock tower at the intersection of ZhengYang pedestrian street

The "Sun and Moon Tower" (日月双塔) is a true charm during night time. We grabbed the opportunity to take a family picture with them!

And also the tallest man-made waterfall at 漓江大瀑布饭店 that is recorded in the Guinness World Record.

Our trip with the tour guide finally ended the next morning. We stayed a few more days to visit places that are not included in the itinery.

the view from our hotel room - a breathtaking view of Guilin

During the first lunch on our own, we tried this tomato chicken soup (番茄鸡) at 小辣椒饭店 at 尚水街 which is just 5 mins walk from our hotel.

such yummy and hot tomato chicken in this cold winter... >.<

At night, we took the evening cruise along Li River to enjoy the night city view. We departed from six horse jetty (六匹码头)

there are six horses at this jetty

Due to the difference of height along the river and lakes, our cruise need to enter a box and wait for the water level to reach the water level of next part of the river / lake.

inside the water leveling box

there are 22 bridges in Guilin, and this one above is one of them

taking picture from the cruise with the Sun and Moon Pagoda 

Crystal bridge at the back

 Too hungry while waiting for our photos, we grabbed something quick from the stall nearby.

From the jetty, instead of taking cab back to hotel, we tried out their tricycle (a motorbike with a passenger tent at rear).

Next morning, we went to have a walk around the city...

We were waiting for fireworks displays despite knowing that there wouldn't be any at this small city. However when 12am strikes at 01.01.2015, we were really lucky that the hotel opposite put on fireworks at their main entrance, and we could see it from our hotel room!

getting ready for any possible fireworks

we are lucky! happy new year 2015 peeps!

Entered 2015, it was also the day we say goodbye to Guilin. It was a magnificent trip with great company and picturesque scenery. A must visit if you can. Just bear with the dust to Yangshuo that will do. Ciao!