Guilin Spotlight Experiences
Immerse yourself in the idyllic landscape like an artist swimming in inspiration. Discover quintessential rural China by experiencing the daily life of a local villager. Knock on the doors of an ancient town and hear the residents’ old stories. Our spotlight experiences in Guilin will show you another side of China and enrich your understanding of this beautiful country.
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Discover the Best-Kept Secrets of the Li River
Duration: 5 Hours
Skip the 4-hour Li River cruise on a boat shared with about 100 tourists. Instead, you will enjoy a private drive in the mountains east of the Li River and see the idyllic scenery along the way. Discover the most beautiful village, which is neglected by the tourists on the cruise boat, and the unique karst formations in the central region of the World Heritage Site.
Starting from your Guilin hotel, you will reach a quiet village on the bank of the Li River after a 45-minute drive. Stop at a pretty pavilion and take some nice photos of the peaks on the opposite side of the river.
Continue to drive up the mountain. Stop at a high viewpoint to get a breathtaking view of the limestone peaks and the river. Then reach a village that has a lake surrounded by limestone peaks. Afterward, get off the main road to drive around the hills covered with orange trees.
Drive among a cluster of limestone peaks. Find the most beautiful village on the bank of the Li River, which could be the last best-kept secret in the area. Have a leisurely walk alongside the river and say hello to the villagers. Touch the old walls of their houses. It is as though you are in a traditional Chinese painting and not just a passerby like the tourists on the boat.
Continue to drive to the famous Xingping ‘Ancient Town’ to see the most famous views of the Li River, which you can also see on a 20 yuan note.
Be a Chinese Villager
Duration: 2.5 Hours+
Some say that if you want to see the real China, you should go to the countryside. To experience the daily life of the local farmers will let you see what you cannot see in the big cities.
In the morning, you will experience what it's like to be a local villager working in the fields. Then you will take a ferry and a local farmer's taxi (a kind of motorbike with three wheels) to the local market in Fuli.
First, you will drive through the villages near Yangshuo. You might meet someone on his way to the fields with a water buffalo or someone working in the paddy. Say hello to them and they will be happy if you would like to take part in to help cutting the grass for their herd or plowing the fields.
After saying goodbye to the villagers, you will continue to drive pass the rice paddies with the beautiful mountains in the distance, and then take a ferry and a local farmer's taxi to the market in a small town on the other bank of the Li River.
Your guide will show you around to explain the different types of food and show you the local people's daily necessities. In this comprehensive market, you will see the real lifestyles of the people living in this rural area of China.
Discover the Folk Culture of South China in Daxu
Duration: 2.5 Hours+
Located 18 kilometers southeast from Guilin, Daxu is an old town along the Li River with some original buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912). An important trading port back in its heyday, Daxu Ancient Town is now almost forgotten by the outside world.
Yet something interesting can still be found here: as you walk around this small town, you can find some small traditional Chinese clinics, old residential houses with elegant wooden carvings, and elderly craftsmen still busy with their traditional work.
Let's knock on their doors to discover their lasting stories of Daxu. You can have a chance to experience traditional Chinese medicine, such as cupping therapy, and visit an elderly gentleman's house to see his fun collection of daily-use items that have been used by others over the last two centuries.