Guilin - a Chinese city we could live in!

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We made our flight connection from Lijiang to Kunming with an hour to spare - an hour we really needed as Kunming airport was enormous. Recently completed it is now China's fourth largest airport and we had one and half kilometres to walk from security to our boarding lounge - not an airport built for the elderly or incapacitated! We were pleased to land in Guilin after a bumpy flight (the first flight that day had been much bumpier) and as the airport is thirty five kilometres from the centre we caught a shuttle bus (20 yuan each) that took us to an airlines office in the centre of the city.

It was after dark and Guilin glowed with strip lighting which constantly changed colour, highlighting many of the buildings. The tall buildings had each floor accentuated and for something pretty tacky really it was surprisingly pretty. Even the street lights along many of the roads had poles that appeared to made from perspex which also changed colour.
Guilin is the capital city of Guangxi Province and is situated on the banks of the Li River and it is dotted with clusters of 200 meter tall limestone peaks - at night many are spot lit. It is a largely low rise city with little heavy industry - so no pollution - and today is the hub for tourists heading exploring the pretty country around the Li River and into the rice terraces of Longji - both regions we were revisiting this trip. We had never visited the city area of Guilin before and it didn't take us long to decide that it was actually a Chinese city we could live in! A taxi (20 yuan - it should have been ten) took us from the airline office to our hotel - a distance we probably could have walked in daylight. We stayed at the tiny three roomed Lakeside Inn (highly recommended but advise pre booking) which we had booked through Agoda for $25 a night. It is right on edge of Shan Hu, one of the two lakes in the city centre - they are separated by the main shopping street of Zhongshan Lu. Shan Lu is circled by a landscaped park with stone paths overhung with lots of greenery. Shan Lu also is the site of the twin Sun and Moon Pagodas, both looked stunning lit up in the evening. They are 30 meter high towers and the dark one glowed silver, the other gold.

We dropped our bags and set out to find something to eat. Surprisingly hard on the main shopping street - it was packed with shoppers and stores but seemed to be lacking real restaurants. Eventually we took the easy option and headed to the Pizza Hut - a cavernous and very busy place. The young waitress took great pains to take our order, double checking and quickly returning with our cutlery and our drinks. They had a great French white wine (first wine I've had in China) which kept me happy while we waited for our pizza to be cooked. And waited... Forty five minutes later we checked on our order to be met with blank stares then panicked faces - they had forgotten to place our order! We were starving as we had not eaten all day - the food at the airport was ridiculously expensive - so decided not to wait another half an hour or more so went across the road and had a Big Mac instead! Afterwards we explored the area around the lake, eventually finding a whole street of restaurants and street food. The city had a great vibe - and was incredibly busy with 'well' dressed locals and tourists. We didn't see any other Western faces which surprised us. The clothes being worn to our eyes was really strange - Chinese women wear so much bling (sparkles in all forms from enormous rhinestones to glitter thread on everything), plastic leather, feathers and fake fur trims. Over the knee boots, furry shorts worn with glitter tights and studded boots..... Some of the young women do look lovely but the young men are way over the top - particularly their teased hairstyles! Fun to look at though...

.We had planned to visit a few of the sights next day but somehow ended up visiting Elephant Trunk Hill (entrance 75 yuan each) which we hadn't planned - mainly because we found ourselves there by chance - and nowhere else. The hill does look like an elephant drinking water from the river. We managed to fill in a couple of hours there very easily as we climbed the hill, chatted with any English speaking Chinese tourists, and admired both the view from the top and the many colourful New Year displays throughout the park. Whilst we were climbing the hill we smelt what we though was strong alcohol - upon descending we found that rice wine is actually brewed in the large cave under the hill. Locals were lining up with five litre plastic drums to be filled and no doubt consumed over the New Year celebrations. You had to have pre paid for the wine to be allowed into the brewing area. We had a great view of the city from the top of the hill - we could see all the tourist boats heading upriver to Yangshuo and the many karst peaks scattered throughout the city buildings. From Elephant Hill we walked along the river under the shade of the dozens of osmanthus trees which overhung the footpath. We then wandered back around the lake, deciding not to pay the 30 yuan each entrance fee to climb the pagodas in the lake - they definitely looked better at night.

After circling the lake on the opposite side of the main road and checking out the remains of the city wall and gate we realised that the day was virtually over so a glass of wine and a beer suddenly had priority. The weather had turned very dull and was threatening to rain. We found ourselves back on the pedestrian lined with restaurants where we dined on a great pizza and enjoyed people watching. It started raining - the first real rain we've seen here as it mostly seems to rain overnight - but all the red lanterns and coloured lights looked even prettier with the added sparkle of water on them!After the rain stopped we walked back around the lakes again, stopping to admire a large perspex pavilion which was changing colour. All around the city skyline strips of lighting around the edge of buildings were flashing different colours as well - some of the rubbish bins even glowed...Next to our hotel was a big five star hotel which is known for it's artificial waterfall - at 8.30 each evening a flow of water cascades 45 meters over the outside of the building. Just for fun we were planning on watching it but as we were exploring the foyer (and toilets) I spotted a in hotel spa and on the spur of the moment decided to have a foot and shoulder massage. And it was great... Well worth the 78 yuan it cost. Which left Jerry to watch the spectacle on his own. He seemed to enjoy it...

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Photos

Another view of the pagodas
They do actually lean....

Bamboo
I love the gold paper that is wound around pillars and fences here