Livia and Family's 3 Days Savoring Landscapes in Guilin & Yangshuo

As students in my generation, we all learnt about an article named Guilin’s mountain and water is the best out of China in our primary text book. As time goes by, I went to many places but still have Guilin in my bucket list. Until 2019 winter. After almost 12 months pregnancy and parenting. My husband and I were plan to go out with my 3-month-old daughter.

Guilin Trip

Chinese Article about Guilin Landscape

We took high-speed train to Guilin (considering when the flight takes off may lead my young baby ear pain and cry) which takes 6 hours. Our kid was quiet and sleeping most of the time, so this one way is peaceful and happy. But on our way back, the air conditioner temperature get high while she didn’t eat enough. So she was keeping cry and felt uncomfortable. It’s very lucky our carriage only has several persons and they are so nice and didn’t complain about us at all. We tried our best to calm her down and finally it worked.

Tips: Take flight from Chengdu to Guilin would save you a lot of time. And from Chengdu to Guiyang only takes 3 hours, if you are interested in Guizhou scenic spot, you can make a layover in Guiyang, then continue to Guilin.

When we arrived in Guilin is only 15:00 in the afternoon, so we took a taxi and checked in the hotel. Guilin is a very small city, surrounded by isolated mountains and don’t have any tall building. We live in 8th floor and can see most of the city view from our window. Our hotel Lijiang Water Fall Hotel is one of the landmarks of Guilin for it has waterfall show at 20:30 every day, which last 15 minutes. It’s an old 5-star hotel. Average room, great breakfast and best locations. Another good choice is Sheraton. It’s right next to Zheng yang pedestrian street which is the local city center. And right in front of the hotel gate is the Sun and Moon Pagoda. You can spend RMB 280 to take a night cruise to see whole Guilin scenery. And the Elephant Trunk Hill is also only 300 meters away.

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Family Visited Guilin Downtown

Guilin Trip

Livia Stayed at Guilin Lijiang Waterfall Hotel

Guilin Trip

Livia Enjoyed Night View at Two Rivers & Four Lakes in Guilin Downtown

We firstly took a taxi to Reed Flute Cave, it’s a small cave with amazing landforms. There was a Chinese-speaking guide in the entrance and gather many people together then start to visit. There wasn’t many steps and the road are plain, with the light in it, I didn’t get much trouble to walk with kid. But the Chinese guide moves too quick, so we choose to see it by ourselves after 20 minutes around. The whole cave takes 40 minutes .

Tips: In Guilin, there are many caves seems alike. If you have been to Reed Flute Cave , there is no need go to other similar place again. Like gold water waves in Yangshuo.

Guilin Trip

Livia Visited the Gorgeous Reed Flute Cave in Guilin

Guilin Trip

Livia Visited the Gorgeous Reed Flute Cave in Guilin

After the visit we had dinner in a restaurant recommended by local driver, then went ahead to Elephant hill. It’s closed at 22:00. When we got there, the hill part was closed, only the water side zone was open. We waited for several minutes and saw a simple cormorant show which was included in the entrance ticket.

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Family Visited Elephant Trunk Hill at Night

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Family Visited Elephant Trunk Hill at Night

In the next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast for half hour which directly lead us missed the last Li river cruise departure at 09:40 in Mopanshan pier. It’s a big pity for me one of the reasons I came to Guilin is to collect the place picture of CNY 20 note. I was plan to collect all of them. This is very popular among young people now. They are The Great Hall of People in Beijing; The Potala Palace in Lhasa. The Guilin scenery from on Li river; Kui Men in Yangtze river cruise; Mount Tai in Shandong province; The Three Tower scenic spot in West lake.

Tips : you can book the Li river cruise tickets with your hotel reception 1 day ahead , they will arrange bus to take you there.

Guilin Trip

Guilin Landscape on the Back of 20 RMB Chinese Banknote

Guilin Trip

Landscapes in China on Back of Chinese Banknotes

So we changed our plan and directly drove to Yangshuo, it only took 1:30 hour to arrive. As we booked hotel Yangshuo Mountain Retreat inside Yulong river zone, so we have to go to a bus station and tell the people the hotel we booked. Then they arrange a small shuttle bus send us to the hotel. Each person charge RMB 20 , and the hotel paid for it.

Tips: If you booked a hotel inside the scenic zone, you can call the hotel 1 day ahead, and the hotel would register your car number and put it to government system then your car can directly drive into the scenic zone after the parking sensor automatically checked.

Guilin Trip

Livia, Her Busband and Little Baby Stayed at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat Hotel in Yangshuo

Guilin Trip

Livia, Her Busband and Little Baby Stayed at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat Hotel in Yangshuo

We had lunch in hotel, tried the local beer fish and didn’t thing highly of the taste. And we tried it again the next day in another chain store named ‘Xie Da Jie Beer Fish’, feel so much better. The fish is from Li river and charge RMB 220 around per kilogram. Then we walkd around 30 minutes to Ten-mile Gallery and visited the Big Banyan Tree. It’s a small place famous for a Chinese movie ‘Liu San Jie’ which is the inspiration of the evening show ‘impression Liu San Jie’. Take another 15 minutes’ walk, we got to Moon Hill. It took 1 hour around to up and down the mountain. At the top of the mountain, you can get a paranormal view of Yangshuo. It’s the nearest place to see the sunset.

Guilin Trip

Ten-mile Gallery and View from Moon Hill in Yangshuo, Guilin

In the evening, we went to ‘Chunji Roast Duck’ to have dinner. The duck was so crispy and one of my favorite is roast duck fried rice. It’s so yummy and I will try again in the future when I back to Guilin. Then we went to see the ‘impression of Liusanjie’. It uses the Li river and real Mountain as background, the music and light are gorgeous, but as the performers use local dialect, it’s hard for us to understand what they are sing about. After the show, it’s hard to get taxi, so we wait for several minutes the drive to West street. It’s the Yangshuo county center and I found many familiar hotels were next to it. This street is also called ‘Yitian’. So if you see any hotel with location ‘Yitian” would be close to West street then.

Guilin Trip

Yummy Food at "Chunji Roast Duck" Restaurant in Yangshuo

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Family Enjoyed Impression Sanjie Liu in Yangshuo

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Family Enjoyed Impression Sanjie Liu in Yangshuo

We had a peaceful night. In the morning, we rent a motor bike to ride along Yulong river. We planned to take Bamboo raft, but as our kid is below 1.1 meter so we have to give it up. We took some walk and ride along this river, felt the country side atmosphere and tried to escape from city chaos. Yangshuo is a good place to relax and if you have enough time, it would be better for you stay 2 or more days to feel the slow life here. In the afternoon, we take a taxi drove 1 hour to Yangshuo railway station to catch the train back to Chengdu. Our short stay came to an end.

Tips: Even it’s named Yangshuo railway station, but it’s very far from Yangshuo county.

Guilin Trip

Guilin Rice Noodles Served at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat

Guilin Trip

Livia and Her Little Baby Enjoyed Sightseeing at Yulong River, Yangshuo

Guilin Trip

Livia Admired the Typical Karst Landscape at Yulong River

Guilin Trip

Livia Admired the Typical Karst Landscape at Yulong River

And the most important lesson I learnt from this experience is I have to book a car and guide when I go out with my kid. We took taxi here and there so many times.

All in all, this is a very nice try to take my young daughter out, even we met many situations out of our expectations. I will try to take her to many other places in the future and become an experienced mom and travel advisor.


Travel with Me

Hi, I'm Livia. Are you interested in my 3 Days Family Guilin & Yangshuo Tour? Feel free to contact me, and I will be glad to tell you more stunning stories about the places I have visited. Or, if you want to customize a tour on your own, I'm always ready to help at any time. With my passion, knowledge and understanding of the essence of travel, I promise I will try my best to make the tour memorable and meaningful for you.

Livia
Travel Consultant
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Travel Consultant

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