Originally Posted by
Peter_N-H
Guilin really has very little merit. The discussion on Yangshuo seems to be going round in circles, but if you like made-for-tourists experiences then go ahead, although the arguments above seem to recommend finding it acceptable by staying there yet avoiding it.
If you're looking for authenticity at Yangshuo you're 20 years too late. Creature comforts, yes; scenery nearby, no (and there's yet more karst further east towards Wuzhou as well as in the south of the province around Longzhou); uniqueness, no, since Dali and Lijiang and Jinghong would be three other examples of small towns now lined with pizza parlours and where foreigners are treated as part of the attraction for Chinese tour groups.
There are, however, tens of thousands of other villages yet to go through the transition to a tourist-oriented cultural equivalent of fast food.
Most other places on the way would actually be cheaper than Yangshuo since not tourist-targeting resorts, and unlike Yangshuo, actually on the way to Hangzhou.
I think you've got a lot of good stuff to say.
What I meant in my comments about Yangshuo is that there is a choice of hotels/hostels and from what I gathered, they were generally more to western standards than the more out of the way places. Also, when going to somewhere scenic, I almost never stick around the city itself all day. I don't see a need to wander the streets all day when I can, as people have been doing about 20+ years there, jump on a bike and ride around the area there.
I am missing how you think there is no scenery near Yangshuo. Ok, there may be more in other places. But to argue that there are only creature comforts and not scenery nearby is ignorant and wrong. Or is it that your whole point is based on that adding a city somehow made the scenery no longer authentic?
I think it is good that there are thousands of villages that aren't tourist oriented yet, but I don't yet see why they need to be searched out and visited. Is it the mystical draw of a traditional village? Is it taking a more complex trip to out of the way places? Do the backroads around Yangshuo get crowded in the summer? The fact that there aren't westerners, western style bars and eateries, and that people don't generally speak much English?