guilin or yangshou
 

We are just about done planning our trip to China. Everyone on this site was so helpful. We can't decide between staying in Guilin perhaps at the Sheraton or staying in Yangshou. We will definitely go on the li cruise and perhaps rafting and night fishing. We plan to be there for 3nights 2.5 days. Is Guilin very tourist like? We will be going to Hong Kong from there. Thanks for your help.

Yangshuo! Yangshuo!! Guilin is very touristy and a lot of their so called sites are in Yangshuo anyway. Spend at most one day in Guilin if you must!

Have to say it never even occurred to me to stay in Guilin.

Yangshou is the place. But doubt you'll find a Sheraton there. Or maybe you will. Is there now a Sheraton (or similar 5 star international chain hotel) in Yangshou? anyone know?

Loads to do in and around Yangshou - recommend especially hiring a bike and going for a wander. The land is flat so pedalling is not a problem!!!!!

Have fun.

I love Fodors. Everyone is so helpful. I guess we will stay in Yanagshuo. Does anyone have a hotel or b and b recommendation? I promise to post a trip report when I return.

if you want to do complete Li River cruise, you should stay in guilin one night for next morning li river cruise, Guilin you can stay in Sheraton hotel, there is no 5 star hotel in Yangshuo, the best one is Paradise hotel, it is building a five star hotel near riverside in Yangshuo. when you get to Yangshuo, then you could stay 2 nights in Yangshuo, I am local of Yangshuo, Guilin, any more info, you can contact me directly. In Yangshuo, Light and sound show, cormorant fishing, rafting are must-do.

Definitely stay in Yangshuo. The scenery is fantastic and there is tons to see and do. There's really no need to stay more than one day in Guilin. I recently returned from a trip to China last year and Yangshuo was probably my favorite stop.

Based on the recommendations, we plan to stay in Yangshou. Recent reports say the Paradise Hotel is overpriced and run down. I see wonderful reports on the Magnolia Hotel. Is this hotel in a good location? Is it easy to get to the main part of Yanshou from Magnolia. I think we will go to Xing Ping to take the shorter boat from there. thanks

Take a look at the Li River retreat website. This is where we plan to stay after reading all the boards. www.li-river-retreat.com The website has great info even if you decide to say somewhere else.

We are family of 6 (couple with 3 grownup children and our daughter boyfriend) and traveled to south of China, Guilin, Yanshuo and nearby places.
Landscapes are magic, people are welcoming and warm, and food is testy.
Places that everybody must visit. The sailing from Guilin to Yashuo on Li River is unforgettable experience.

We had a guide, his name is Leo Jade and he made our tour the real pleasure.
He organized everything in the most polite and seamless way built very good itinerary with all major highlights and found good and inexpensive accommodation. He tackled with all the transportation (most of the time we had the local driver with a minibus).
Leo’s English is good that is very important in China and he even was so kind to teach us some Chinese and help our children to prepare the second part of their exploration of China, buy train ticket and provide useful tips. His is very punctual (not like us  ) and his prices are very fair. I’d not hesitate to recommend Leo to everybody traveling this area.

Just to add leo's contact:
Jade Leo
No.16, Lijiang Road, Guilin, China
Mobile number: 86-13086737586
Tel: 86-773-5845096
Fax: 86-773-5845096
Email: [email protected]
See the natural scenery at www.guilinprivatetours.com

Hmmm. Someone's first and only postings to the board revive a two-year-old thread in order to promote a known spammer (incorporating such amazingly detailed contact information) whose spam has been removed from this site on multiple occasions and continues to appear regularly on other sites. In short, this is precisely the kind of 'guide' you should avoid, and that you certainly don't need for tourist-seething Guilin and Yangshuo, packed as they are with independent travellers who have just done whatever you might want to do, and only with a map, a guide book, and not a word of English. Guilin has so long been a tourist destination that it is the epicentre of Chinese tourism chicanery.

Before making claims that accommodation was cheap and prices reasonable it's necessary to do things independently and find out what really might have been paid without the kick-backs that all guides in China extract from hotels and restaurants, and to have a feeling for real costs outside the tourist bubble.

I'd not hesitate to recommend that everyone avoid encouraging spammers and steer well clear of those mentioned in fishy postings such as this. You'll note that the English does not appear to be that of someone for whom it is a first language. Indeed, note assorted grammatical errors common to Mandarin speakers...

Good Catch Peter. This was my original post from two years ago. I not only noticed the, well, poor english but I used jade as a guide -nice man but I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending him. His English wasnt very good. First thing he did was take us to a ridiculously expensive restruant in Guilin. We had flown in and were hungry, which he didn't account for. Anyway, he did take us to some interesting sites but it was a tediously day due to the English. I'm not sure if this is a spammer or just a friend of Jade ( the guide)