Jenbel

A friend and I are going to Guilin for three days in early September and we were looking at options to do tours in the area - there are some companies where we could prebook before we go (e.g. http://www.chinahighlights.com/guilin/ ) - are there any known issues, recommendations, or will pricing and options be more competitive if we leave it until we arrive? How easy is it to get around without the tours? We were thinking one day for going to Yangshao, one day for touring in the district, and a day just bumming around Guilin without doing tours....

Thoughts/advice welcome please!

PTravel

We did a small tour in Guilin because we got a heck of a deal from Hong Kong that included air fare and hotel (the Sheraton, as I recall). However, I really don't think a tour is necessary -- the sites are easily seen on your own and you can arrange for a taxi to take you around.

jiejie

Spending time in Guilin is a true waste of time--it's not even that nice of a city and has residents that are collectively some of the biggest Chinese lowlifes anywhere in the country. Reed Flute Cave, Elephant Rock, etc. are silly tourist traps that all tour agents use to waste your time. Use Guilin for a transport hub only, and get to Yangshuo toute suite. Avoid organized tours and avoid the Li River tourist cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. Just go to Yangshuo and set everything up there when you arrive--tons of local agencies can help you out and without the excessive markup. This area is very well set up for independent tourists and you can find a decent number of English speakers around. Yangshuo is quite small and walkable--the big draws are the small boats and rafts on the river, biking and hiking, nearby village markets, etc. You will easily find plenty to fill your available time, and then some.

I recommend booking accommodation in advance and having them pick you up at Guilin Airport and drive you directly to Yangshuo (1 hour or a bit more, excellent roads). You are not required to book tours or activities through the hotel, so don't allow yourself to be unduly pressured. At night, central Yangshuo can be rather boisterous until midnight so if you want peace and quiet, book a place somewhat outside the West Street area of town. Budget travelers can take the airport shuttle bus from Guilin Airport to Guilin City, then taxi 5-10 minutes to bus station and get a public bus to Yangxhuo (many, many every day). Cheaper but the extra transfer time will add another 1-1.5 hours to your arrival time in Yangshuo. Try this website for ideas to put together your own to-do list:
www.yangers.com

jiejie

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mnredfox

Speaking from experience? I haven't been there, but will take you for your word.

BTW, is it Chinese touristy or foreigner touristy?

jiejie

Yes, speaking from experience. Guilin is full of both kinds of tourists, including large groups. But that isn't the dealbreaker, as many other China locations I'd call worthwhile to visit also are full of large groups of both kinds of tourists. IMO, here's the crux of the deal with Guilin:

1) Guilin for centuries has been famous for its scenery. It might have been charming 500 years ago when the poets were writing, but now it's just a big city. In 2011, we have to work with what we've got now, and most of the REAL scenery and attractiveness in this area lies further away from Guilin city, such as Yangshuo area or the Longsheng Rice Terraces area. Guilin has just been very, very proficient at misleadingly marketing itself as the repository of somebody else's good stuff. The Li River Cruise on the big tourist boat is horribly overpriced and for a good part of the way to Yangshuo, doesn't have particularly great scenery, and traps you into a huge herd experience. Guilin tourism officials have been milking that one for years. Far better to get to Y and then arrange your own private boat or raft excursion to fit your time frame and spent only at the best parts of the river.

2) Guilin's own attractions are mediocre at best, and are geared to the flocks of Chinese tourists. Are you really so enamored of a rock formation that looks like an elephant that you want to pay RMB 100 for the privilege of gazing at it? A cave tarted up with Christmas-style lights? For foreigners with any sort of sense, Guilin city is both a time- and money-waster. Guilin doesn't have the historical sights that allow one to put up with the general unattractiveness of Xi'an City, nor the setting of someplace like Hangzhou.

3) An unusually high proportion of scammers and chiselers in the city. Both individuals on the street and organizational. There's just a mentality there, and it's not just limited to the tourism sector. You really have to be careful about taking anything at face value from locals there, so try to have advance data on activities and services from multiple independent sources who have no interest in profiting from your wallet.

4) Remarkably unfriendly natives, when compared to pretty much everywhere else in China that I've been. From the bus station staff, to the ordinary people in the park, to the internet cafe/gaming room I visited, it was just a weird sullen vibe all around. I felt most unwelcome, which is highly unusual for me in China. After all these years, I'm pretty good at Chinese "vibes" and Guilin's got one that makes you eager to move on. The nicest people I met were at the Air China office behind the Sheraton, where I needed to make a short-notice flight change. Yes, when Air China staff = a City's friendliest natives, you know it's bad.

None of this applies to the smaller towns outside of Guilin City, so use Guilin as your transportation entry/exit by air, rail, or bus...then head out asap on ground transport to the surrounding areas that have better scenery, better air, a relaxing vibe, and better people.

PTravel

I agree with jiejie's take on Guilin and, particularly, about the attitude of the people there. It's the only place in China where my (Chinese) wife and I experienced overt hostility. I love China and have always been treated warmly and well by the Chinese people I encounter there -- with this one exception.

Blue Tiger

I’ve been to Guilin and Yangshuo about five years ago. I went with a person who used to live in Yangshuo.
Well the elephant rock is nothing much. I do not remember an admission charge.
The Reed Flute cave is” hokey” with lots of artificial lights. There is a zoo near the cave.

Guilin is famous for Guilin noodle soup Experience it at a local vendor. We had two bowls of soup and two cokes for the sum of 8 Yuan. Yes 8. The can spice up the soup to your liking. Took a night cruise around Guilin it was quite pretty with all the colored lights on the water. It was a nice evening.

The boat trip down the Li River is very commercial, but the scenery is nice to me. There are MANY boats going down the river. At the Guilin airport you can book the boat. I am sure there are many cheaper places to book the trip. It was well worth the trip. I would take the boat trip it was about 250 Yuan, so it’s little expensive. You can get some local cooked shrimp that they have for sale on the boat.
The boat will take down as far as it can go down the Li River (depending on the water level), then by bus to Yangshuo. I would get off at Yangshuo and not take the tour bus back to Guilin.
In Yangshuo there is the famous West Street with stalls of merchants selling everything you can think of. This is where you can bargain and bargain.
There are western style restaurants if you have not had a hamburger in a week.
Yangshuo is great for hiking and walking. They did not have taxis in Yangshuo, some mopeds. When you leave Yangshuo there are many buses that will take back to Guilin.

Loren Pechtel

Yeah, I liked the scenery, also.

anacapamalibu

Great location, its free and no film permits required.

Worked for my buddy Rafi.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiAnte...10/CZGBDveXxgA

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiAnte...11/hjk0PfVD1Ms

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiAnte...14/HE52iwPUEIM

mnredfox

Large tourist groups? All Chinese? Oooo, my favorite. I can't tell you about how fun it was competing with the mobs running up Taishan.

Too bad about Guilin, I know historically it's supposed to be quite a charming place. Leave it to the Chinese to commercialize it.

BTW, great review so thanks! ^

Jenbel

Thanks for the additional information - we are kind of tied into our accommodation (points whores us, so I'll let you guess where we might be staying ) in Guilin, but we now know how to take steps to improve the experience. On reading up on Guilin, we'd realised that a lot of the stuff did seem pretty crap - like the Reed flute cave and the elephant thing, so had planned to skip those anyway, hence the question about tours, because the plan was to spend more time out of Guilin.

jiejie

Realistically, there is a limit to what you can do if you want to stay in Guilin and do daytrips--the best experiences the area has to offer is simply not going to be easily doable. You have to make the decision as to whether using points which "forces" you to stay in Guilin is worth it. If it were a personal friend needing to make this decision, I would tell them either forego using points and pick independent accommodation in the Yangshuo area and make a visit to this area of China worth the effort, or just forget Guilin entirely and use the points in a different Chinese city that is more amenable to good daytripping. My 2 pence.

johnathome

We are headed down there next month. I made a trip to Guilin many years ago and remember it as just another city in China. I plan on staying in Guilin for 1 night since we get in late afternoon and didn't want to subject my son to a long drive to Yangshuo right away. It is a good 1+ hour drive south of Guilin and there are plenty of outdoor things to do. Yangshuo is also much cheaper (simpler hotels) so no Shangri-La or SPG.

Jenbel

we're not using points, we're earning them and retaining status - added to that I believe our accommodation is already booked on a pre-paid rate - it's certainly booked, but I'm not sure whether it's refundable or not. Added to that, I have to say, my experience of Chinese accommodation (with the exception of the White Swan in Guangzhou) does not make me want to hurry to stay in Chinese hotels without some very clear recommendations as to what are good four and five star properties - I've always preferred staying at international chains in the hinterlands of China, in part because they are more used to catering to western, non-putonghua speaking visitors. Call me a wuss, while I love visiting China, but it is not the easiest tourist destination so I want an easy and comfortable hotel experience wherever possible, and not be struggling to find menus in english, staff who speak english and english language tv channels so I can relax when I am in the hotel. If that means my choice of holiday destination is not quite what you would recommend - and I do appreciate your thoughts on the subject, even though you chose to answer a different question from the question I originally asked, then so be it.

One more thing - just an alternate view really. If you have never experienced a Chinese regional city, then the first Chinese regional city you experience will still be worthwhile doing, won't it? I remember the first Chinese regional city I encountered (Qingdao actually, with Chongqing as my second - now there's a contrast!) and because they are very different from many other parts of Asia, and profoundly different from the UK, and even from Beijing/Shanghai, they are still worth experiencing. Even from the 'safety' of a western chain hotel