Guilin

This summer, I only had a week for vacation before starting my new job. The place that we chose to go was Guilin, heaven on Earth. If you are ever contemplating on whether to visit China or not, then I say yes and go to Guilin. It is the most beautiful place ever. Here are some of the moments that we captured.

Train Trip: 26 hours
We decided to splurge and get the soft sleepers. It was totally worth the extra money. If you are going to travel by train in China for more than 12 hours, then buy soft sleepers.

I was on the top bunk of the soft sleeper compartment. If you travel anywhere in China for more than 10 hours, I highly recommend the soft sleeper.

Ryan likes to try taking self-portraits of himself

These were some of the girls from the Nanjing branch. They were also heading to Guilin for a vacation. They however only got the hard sleepers.

These were the other two guys in the same sleeping compartment as us. The guy in the black shirt snores like crazy.

view from the train window

 

Day One: Explore Guilin and hike Seven Stars

The park near the hostel that we stayed at.

I also love bridges

It was nice to see clear blue sky for a change instead of the city smog.

I love pathway pictures.

We found a little teashop while exploring and decided to stop and get some tea and fruit.

This woman was playing the zither. It was like we were having our own personal concert.

If you notice the pavilion on the top of the hill there, that is where we hiked up to.

The view of the river near the hostel that we stayed at

By the time that we got to the top, I was freaking tired. It wasn’t that far, but in extreme heat it seem far. By the time that we got back to the hostel, I was bright red with a bad sunburn.

The top view of Guilin city

I love how green it was

A bridge that Ryan noticed on the way back down the hill

These are called the Twin Pagodas. (Sorry for the bad quality, I took this one with my phone)

Day two: Cruising down the River

Getting on the raft on the Li River

This was our tour guide

This was our raft driver for the Li River. We were on a motorized raft that could sit 4-5 people.

Trying to get proof that both of us were there together 😉

Along the way we saw the area that they used as the image for the back of the 20 yuan.

A waterfall!

We were on the raft with a father and daughter who were from Europe (I put Europe because I can’t remember what country they said they were from, it might have been Holland)

Nine-Horse Hill

On the way back, it started raining.

The bus ride between the two raft cruises (Li River and Yulong River)

Yulong River

This guy is a cormorant fisherman

Untying the cormorant so it can go fishing

Taking the fish out of the mouth of the cormorant.
(The cormorant’s neck is tied so that it can’t swallow the fish)

Petting the water buffalo

We decided to be a sucker and do one of their photo shots.

The quality is not very good because it is a scan version of a laminated picture.

It’s a great place to get wedding photos.

Dragonfly

The water felt so good and you could actually see through it, even if you can’t tell by the picture.

Our driver for the real bamboo raft on the Yulong River

We had a little dip that we went down

Carefully on the front edge of the raft.

After our cruise down Yulong River, we took a bus to Yangshuo

The shopping street of Yangshuo called West Street

So many different vendors. I would love to go back and do some more shopping.

Day three: Longji Rice Terraces

I had to get Ryan in his natural element (camera in hand)

We went with a small group of people (There were 6 of us all together: a guy from England, a girl from Ireland, a girl from Australia, and two others from America)
I am showing this picture because it shows our group hiking up on the hill. I forgot to get a group picture)

A worker carrying some wood back to the village.

Ryan was so happy to see birds

A view from one of the village on the hill

A guy spitting out food for his ducklings

I don’t like spiders, but I love this picture that Ryan captured of the spider web

Getting up close and personal with the rice plants

I know I only ended up showing two bird pictures, but Ryan actually took alot more

I love pathways

At the end of the day, we went back down to the main village and found a teashop while we waited for the rest of our group since we hiked a different direction.
At the teashop was an adorable girl with her grandmother. The teashop was owned by the little girl’s father.

This is one of the women from the Yao ethnicity, who are famous for having very long hair.

She was nice enough to unwrap her hair so we could take a picture. This is the part her hair that she has not cut.

She is wrapping the additional hair that she has cut before back with her other hair, so she can wrap it back up onto her head.

Day four: Chilling out close to town, so we can take the train later that day

The front lobby of the hostel
The staff was so friendly and nice

Chilling out in the hostel

You can tell I took this one with my phone and not Ryan’s nice camera

One of Ryan’s professors would take self-portraits in the bathroom mirror whenever he went on vacation. Now, it seems that Ryan wants to try it too.

If you ever see these steamers in China, most likely they are selling baozi which are one of my favorite Chinese food.

This is a cicada, which is found in most parts of China. You will usually found them in tree making a very loud sound that sounds more like electric alarm. The interesting thing about them is that some Chinese people believe that it is a symbol of rebirth. However, sometimes you will find these bugs cooked on a plate.

I love this guy’s hat

I think these women were practicing for a performance.

While walking around the lake, we came across this shop where some people were practicing traditional Chinese instruments.

I think it a tai chi lesson

She was doing a very beautiful dance with the fans.
That’s the great thing about walking around parks in China. You’ll usually found people dancing or doing tai chi, especially in the morning.

I extremely enjoyed our trip to Guilin, if though I got sunburnt on the first day. I just wished we had more time there. It was so beautiful. Definitely a most see!