I need to organize photos and figure out how to post (I don't have an online blog or flickr account or whatever--am a techno-dunce on this sort of stuff). Longsheng Terrace group north of Guilin (Guangxi province) is nice, but Yuanyang is way more impressive. Bigger, steeper, higher. And way fewer Chinese and foreign tourists since it's just more effort to get there.

Note that weather in Kunming and weather in Yuanyang are two separate issues at most any time of year. You can have beautiful weather in Kunming and the same time have rain (or fog) in Yuanyang. And vice versa, which is what happened to me on my return day from Yuanyang (picture perfect) to Kunming (grey, cold, raining) and that weather switchover didn't happen until about 30 km from Kunming.

FWIW, hiring a private driver out of Kunming is really expensive and since you go down the same roads whether in public or private transport in about the same amount of time, it's probably more cost-effective to take public bus down to Jianshui and Yuanyang, then just hire a locally-based driver at each of those locations to get better value for your money and your time. The locals also know the roads and current road conditions better than a Kunming-based driver. Any hotel in Jianshui or Yuanyang can set you up with a local pretty much on the spot, though you can always arrange in advance if you want. Best to do some advance research and show up with your list of sightseeing stops, have them help you organize a logical route. I've priced some 4-day packaged tours to this region ex-Kunming that basically covered the same thing I did, and they are asking about 5-8x the price I spent, per person. Somebody's getting a lot of markup/profit, as in this region, there's only a limited number of ways you can spend your money! If you look at my total excursion cost (one person), for a couple traveling together the incremental would only be about 50% more (mostly for bus tickets, food, entrance fees) as the rooms I had were all 2-person capable and the taxi/private car part also would stay the same. So, roughly RMB 2200 for two people to be perfectly comfortable on this 4-day trip. Let's say you splurge on hotel (relatively speaking, as the Ritz Carlton and the Westin haven't made it down this way yet), or drink a lot (!!!), or buy lots of souvenirs and kick it up to RMB 2500 for 2 people for 4 days.