Sights

Introduction

Guilin is located in the North East of Guangxi province. Guilin is a small city by Chinese standards with approximately 600,000 inhabitants.

The scenery around Guilin has been described as the most beautiful under heaven and attracts many visitors each year who come to admire this beauty.

Guilin is an ideal city to start your Li River cruise to Yangshuo. Generally these cruises begin from the Bamboo wharf  just outside Guilin. Most hotels in Guilin can arrange the transfer from your hotel to the wharf and the boat cruise.

The main downtown area of Guilin has been redeveloped and is now a very pleasant city.

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Facilities

The city of Guilin is a modern Chinese city which has many facilities for overseas visitors. There is a large range of quality hotels and there are some budget hotels as well. There are plenty of good restaurants and local noodle stalls. Guilin Mifen or Guilin rice noodles are very popular, tasty and cheap.

However, Yangshuo's facilities have improved markedly in the last couple of years and more visitors go straight to Yangshuo and use Guilin as a traffic hub and only stay long enough to take the bus to their next stop. Connections to Yangshuo and Longsheng are very frequent and cheap.

Some more frequently used hotels are:

Universal hotel - Standard 3 star hotel, situated on the Li River and next to the center of town

Sheraton hotel - 4 star hotel, also situated on the Li river. Catering mainly for more up-market clientele

Restaurants.

Guilin has a great range of restaurants, from the street stalls selling noodles and simple Chinese dishes to the fancy restaurants in the big hotels.

We have two favorite restaurants here:-

For Chinese dishes, The Yi Yuan restaurant is fantastic. They do mainly Sichuan style dishes. Some are spicy and some not, but they have a very large menu to cater for everybody.

For western dishes, Rosemary's cafe is the place to go. This small restaurant in the downtown area serves up great western meals, cold beers and great music.

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Guilin Sights

For those staying in Guilin, there are some sights, but generally, these are not worth staying in Guilin any longer than you have to.

One major landmark in Guilin is the new Waterfall hotel located in the main square of Guilin. On most nights the outside of the hotel becomes a massive waterfall, with water pouring over the top of the hotel. This is an amazing sight.

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Getting Here

By Plane

Guilin has an International airport with flights from/to Hong Kong, Japan, Macau and Korea internationally and almost every main city in China. The airport is located about 30kms from the city center. The airport is served by the airport shuttle bus which can drop you off at the railway station or the Aviation hotel. This costs 20 Yuan. For an extra fee, they will drop you off at most hotels in Guilin. A taxi from/to the airport usually costs 80/120 Yuan with the meter turned on and including the highway toll.

By Train

Guilin has two train stations. Guilin Bei (North) and Guilin stations. Most trains pull into Guilin station. There are daily connections with many cities including Kunming, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xian and Beijing. There are also twice weekly trains to Hanoi in Vietnam.

By Bus

Long Distance buses from Guangzhou and Shenzhen pull into the Guilin main bus station. Buses from Longsheng and Sanjiang also stop here.

Express buses from Yangshuo terminate at the Guilin Bus station. Cost of the bus is 14 Yuan

Regular local buses from Yangshuo terminate at either the railway station or near the Hong Kong hotel. Cost is 10 yuan

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Moving On

To Yangshuo

Express Bus. This one leaves from the bus station in Guilin. It leaves every 20-30 minutes from 7am till 8pm. tickets cost 14 Yuan per person and you buy these at the ticket office. The trip takes a little over an hour.

Local bus. This one leaves from the railway station forecourt every 10 to 15 minutes till about 9.30pm each day. The price is 10 Yuan per person and there is no charge for your luggage unless it is taking up seating space. The ride takes 1hour and 20 minutes approximately and will take you directly to the Yangshuo bus station near the famous West Street. Some touts will try to get you dropped off beforehand at a petrol station. Stay on the bus till the end, this way, you will be in the center of Yangshuo

To Longsheng, Pingan or Longji

Buses to Longsheng leave regularly from Guilin's bus station. Tickets cost 16 Yuan and the trip takes just over 2 hours. On arrival in Longsheng, you may want to continue to Pingan or Longji as these are very beautiful towns where you can admire the beauty of the rice terraces, local ethnic minorities and the very friendly hospitality of the local people. Buses to Longji and Pingan are not as frequent so you should arrive to Longsheng early.

To Sanjiang (For Chengyang or Guizhou province)

Buses leave from the Guilin main bus station at 6:30, 7:10, 13:30, 14:45 and 16:00. The trip takes about 3 hours and costs 21 Yuan.

By Train

Guilin is generally a very good hub for trains to all over China. Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Kunming, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are all served by trains from here. However, places like Chengdu, Chongqing and Yichang do not have any train connections

Flights

Guilin's Lingjiang airport is an international airport. There are daily flights to/from Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There are many flights from Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming and other major cities

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