Our second stop on the trip: Guilin. Technically, we arrived in Guilin as our first location, since it is where the train station is located, but we decided to go to Yanshuo first and then head back to spend a day in Guilin after. Unfortunately, our time in Guilin was short, since we ended up spending a longer time in Xingping, which was definitely well worth it. We didn't arrive in Guilin until late that night.
Guilin is located in the northeast of the Guangxi Province, situated along the west bank of the Li River. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. Yanshuo is actually considered one of the many districts in Guilin.
In terms of food, Guilin is famous for their thick rice noodles. The noodles can be eaten dry or in soup, with a few small toppings. These rice noodles are not quite up my alley, but they were cheap and fast.
Our hostel: Wada Hostel. It had the same community feel as The Old Place Hostel. The front desk of both hostels were both very accommodating and helpful in planning our trips. We were specifically in Guilin to see the rice paddies, but the trips with the hostel don't leave until around 8am; however, our train leaves at 5pm and it takes 3 hours one way to get there and then back, so the hostel helped us find a ride and guide for 6am instead, which worked out perfectly.
Once again, our rooms were better than expected. The girl's room was three beds to a room and the guy's had a dorm style room.
Guilin also has a few night markets, but the staple foods at the night markets consisted of chow fun (pictured above-fried thick noodles), 炒饭 (fried rice), and skewers of all sorts.
Longsheng Rice Terrace- This is technically not located in Guilin. It is actually located in Longsheng County about two hours from Guilin. The fields are built on an elevated slope reaching from the river to the mountain tope, so ideally, this is a hike to the top of the mountain. Since we went during Spring, the mountain was supposed to be filled with layers of water and sun, but it poured on the day we went, so there was no sun in sight.
From left to right: Phil, Sondre, Jae, TT, me, Garrick, Marissa
After a long, soaking, but successful day, we headed back into Guilin to take the soft sleeper train to our next stop. (if you want to know more about soft sleeper trains, see my Huangshan post).
Next up: Pandora! (from Avatar) aka Zhangjiajie
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