marianacardoso

Hi everyone!
I went to Southeast Asia this year and wanted to start planning a new trip.
Since I want to go back to Vietnam, I've been looking at China as a possible new place to visit together with Vietnam. One reason I wanted to go to China is to go to the Guilin, Yangshou area since I loved Ninh Binh in Vietnam.

During my researches I read that China has a lot of tourists, even though they are almost all Chinese. I'm my previous trip I found that the tourism in places such as Hoi An, Luang Prabang and Sapa ruined a little bit the experience for me and my boyfriend. I was wondering how does the tourism compare with the one in southeast asia and I must add that I traveled in the rainy season.

Thank you all very muh

MmePerdu

On my last trip to Asia I combined the area of China you mention with Northern Viet Nam and it worked very well. As you say, there are some pretty crowded parts of China. Yangshuo and the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo are teeming with both Chinese and foreign tourists. However, just outside Yangshuo and still within taxi distance, there are some very nice spots. I stayed just a few miles outside Yangshuo along the Yulong River and it was quiet and pretty great. I suggest you research this area and others out of town so you can combine the quiet of the countryside with the resources of the town.

Shanghainese

Although it is teeming with tourists, going to China and missing Beijing and the Great Wall is not recommended.

JPDeM

Agree with both comments above. It also depends on when you go exactly. Be aware of Chinese holidays.

jobin

IMO, highly commercialized and polluted Beijing is easily forgotten. The Great Wall has mystic appeal to the chinese but unless you can find a spot without seventeen thousand other tourists moping along the bogus bricks, i'd give it a miss too.

If you have time and energy to search the out of the way portions of the Wall, then go there, for sure. It's a marvel of construction and ingenuity, although said at the cost of one man dead for every brick laid.

internetwiz

I loved Guilin. We didn't go on one of the tour boats, instead we had our driver bring us to a place where we went by bamboo raft. It was so relaxing and peaceful. We went by car to Yangshuo and it was definitely a case of the journey as opposed to the destination.

I too, went to Nihn Binh, and had hoped I would like it as much as Guilin, but I had food poisoning so couldn't do anything once we got there.

Guilin was one of my favorite places in China. Have fun!

shelemm

I went to the Simitai section of the Great Wall before it was closed, and there were very few people there. So I believe it is possible to visit the Great Wall and feel completely uncrowded. Your best bet is to go to a specialty website like greatwallforum.com for more complete info on all the sections.

There are other places to go for the karst limestone/river experience if you are afraid of running into tourists. Check out the maling river national park. I doubt you will come across other westerners at all.

Iowa_Redhead

<<<IMO, highly commercialized and polluted Beijing is easily forgotten. The Great Wall has mystic appeal to the chinese but unless you can find a spot without seventeen thousand other tourists moping along the bogus bricks, i'd give it a miss too. >>>

Really??? I loved Beijing and the GW. I was at the Jinshanling section of the GW a couple days before Christmas 2010 and saw only a few other tourists the entire day. The views were fantastic and it was absolutely nothing like the photos I've seen of the section closest to the city, Badaling.

Within Beijing, I loved the markets and the Forbidden City. There were a lot of people, but it's a very large city so you expect a lot of people. I don't remember feeling that places were overly crowded for the most part.

If you're worried about crowds, then I'd definitely suggest going in the off season!

anniemackie

Let your intuition lead you to Guilin and Yangshou...they are indeed breathtakingly beautiful despite the crowds of tourists. Plan your time around the arrival of the daily boats from Guilin and you will be fine. We stayed close enough to walk or bike into town and after only a day had the "lay of the land". During Yangshou' s busy hours we toured the amazing countryside by scooter. Be sure not to miss the Impressions show and if you can, try to fit in a trip to the rice terraces...a few days hiking To the high villages will be memorable, as well as the road to get there.

As for other parts of China, do your research. If you are intent on avoiding crowds entirely, venture into the less travelled provinces. We found Anhui devoid of other Westerners and, during the off-season, entirely pleasant. Advice from Shelemm and Iowa_Redhead is spot-on...

-Annie

temppeternh

> One reason I wanted to go to China is to go to the Guilin, Yangshou

Perpetually crowded, and about as Chinese as pizza, which is widely available there.

If you want to go to China, actually go to China. If you come in from Vietnam on the train to Nanning, hop off once you're just over the border to find the same karst limestone, river rides available, etc., and very rarely a foreign face.

FedFun

I just got back from China 2 weeks ago. I loved Yangshou area! I didn't see many crowds at all. We stayed outside of town at The Tea Cozy Hotel and LOVED it. The food and staff were excellent. The grounds of this very quaint hotels were so nice and I loved the views from our room. I enjoyed the caves and the river was very pretty. Make sure you go see the light show at night created by the people that did the show for the olympics. I liked exploring the countryside. I wish I spent more time in this area for sure. I liked the Great Wall Mutianyu, less crowded and the Summer Palace. But it depends on what you are looking for from your trip. I got some amazing pictures from this are.

MmePerdu

FedFun, on my last trip to China I stayed near the Tea Cozy Hotel and on my walks around the area passed it a number of times, wondered if it was any good. I never went in but, if I recall correctly, there was a wall near the entrance made of brick in a kind of herringbone pattern, close to the road, and I photographed it, I liked the pattern so much.

That's the area I recommended in my first post above. I stayed at the Outside Inn.