Originally Posted by
kr3m
Thank you for your information about Yangshuo. Guilin seems to suck bigtime, and it doesn't feel "fruitful".
My travel plans are for 20 days in China, but after reading a bit more about Yangshuo it doesn't seems as the "unique" experience which i thought it would be. I kind of only want to go there because of the beautiful surroundings.
The only thing written in stone is Hong Kong, Hangshuo and Shanghai. Anyplace near which will give me some good views and nice food (i don't want to be killed, it should be cheap, easy to acces and "on the way" from HKG to Hangshuo).
Very thankful for the help on this subject
Yangshuo will offer you the beauty, but the city itself isn't anything spectacular.
As you've noted, Guilin doesn't seem the best choice--I went to Guilin from Yangshuo and didn't see a reason to stay more than the minimum. However, when traveling in the area, it is pretty much a necessary evil since it is a regional travel hub.
Here are some other options:
This might be something to do if you keep Yangshou, since it is somewhat close, but I went to Ping An, part of the 'dragon's backbone' rice terraces. pretty impressive, though I'm not sure where the growing season is in June. Chances are it will be very green.
I didn't visit, but it was a major consideration for my trip:
Chongquing/3 gorges/Wuhan along the Yangtze. From my understanding, there are numerous river cruises of various lengths, and some of the more luxurious ones only cruised in the daytime, IIRC.
Anyway, here are some photos of some of the cities talked about throughout the thread.
http://picasaweb.google.com/m.j.crnk/China#