Questions about Guilin-Yangshuo Journey

Questions about Guilin-Yangshuo Journey
Dec 2, 2009 14:32
RKUNGEL Points: Join Date: Dec 1, 2009 Status: offline	Our family of four adults is arriving by plane in Guilin at 15:00 on Dec. 23. We want to go to Yangshuo for a few days and would like to take the boat down the Li River, but are not sure if we should spend a night in a hotel in Guilin first or if we could take a boat in the late afternoon. Would there be enough daylight to enjoy the trip or would this be too cold and dark? Also, we had thought we would make Yangshuo a base and visit other villages, such as Xingping and Longsheng. Does this seem like a good idea. We definitely want to take a boat trip on the Li River and wonder if there are also trips from Yangshuo to other places which would be scenic. Then we wouldn't need to make the river trip from Guilin to Yangshuo and could go by minibus.

Dec 2, 2009 14:32

RKUNGEL
Points:
Join Date: Dec 1, 2009
Status: offline

Our family of four adults is arriving by plane in Guilin at 15:00 on Dec. 23. We want to go to Yangshuo for a few days and would like to take the boat down the Li River, but are not sure if we should spend a night in a hotel in Guilin first or if we could take a boat in the late afternoon. Would there be enough daylight to enjoy the trip or would this be too cold and dark? Also, we had thought we would make Yangshuo a base and visit other villages, such as Xingping and Longsheng. Does this seem like a good idea. We definitely want to take a boat trip on the Li River and wonder if there are also trips from Yangshuo to other places which would be scenic. Then we wouldn't need to make the river trip from Guilin to Yangshuo and could go by minibus.

Dec 2, 2009 22:43

GUEST96169

that's quite a bit of ground to cover. first, longshen (namely, the rice terrace village of dazhai), is in a different direction from Yangshou, so make that a separate trip departing from Guilin Bus Station. Longshen is north of Guilin, Yangshuo is south. You take a 2-hour bus ride to Longshen Bus Depot (27rmb p/p), then switch to a minibus for maybe a 45-minute ride to Dazhai (8 rmb p/p). At the Longshen bus depot we were met with many people offering their service as guides. One of them jumped on the minibus with us and quoted us 60 rmb for guiding us around Dazhai. We talked him down to 50 for our group of 5 people, which was reasonable. You can certainly try to go it alone at Dazhai, but the guide was a local who lived in Dazhai (Mr. Chen), and it wasn't all that bad having him taking us up and down the paths. If you leave early in the morning for Longshen/Dazhai, expect to not be back until evening. Last minibus leaving direct from Dazhai is around 4 or 4:30, direct to Guiling Bus Station, no need to transfer at Longshen again. Also, pick up food or eat breakfast before getting on the bus in the morning, as there isn't much available along the way or at Longshen.

As for Yangshuo, bus ride is about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It gets dark around 4 pm in winter, so you might want to stay in Guilin the first evening and take a Li River cruise the next morning, which may even pass by Xing Ping. Beware of louts and pushy cab drivers in Guilin - they will try to quote you a higher fare beforehand instead of the meter, or try to take you to one of "their" hotels.

We arrived by train to Guilin early in the morning and took the bus to Yangshuo, where we spent a few days. We went to Xingping by minibus (5 rmb??), and there had the option to heading back to Yangshuo on river cruise. However, we did not do the Li River cruise. We spent maybe a couple of hours walking around town and headed back on minibus. At Yangshuo you can take the bamboo river rafts. Hope this helps.

Dec 20, 2009 13:19	#2
ELLYSE Points: Join Date: Oct 30, 2005 Status: Offline	Skip the touristy and expensive Li River cruise. Go by bus to Yangshuo, then get a bamboo raft ride on the Yulong River instead, more relaxing and picturesque.

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