Hi guys,
At the last minute we have decided to change our itinerary. We are now cutting out the Yangtze River cruise and heading to Guilin/ Yangshuo instead.

As we are leaving next week for our three week trip. I would be grateful to get any tips.
We are (will be) flying in from Xian and flying out to Shanghai. We have 4 days to play with. - Guilin or Yangshuo.

I have just seen some great reports about a hotel in yangshuo called the Mountain Retreat Villa. However I can find any where to book this on the internet or any tel number? Can anyone help?

I have also posted on Trip advisor to see if anyone there can help too...
Thanks
PL -

We are going to be in the Yangshuo and Ping'an area the 2nd week of May. This is our plan, you may get some ideas from it. We'll be using a local guide so we won't get lost in the rice fields!

Day 1 1/2 day after we arrive from Shenzhen. Driver and guide will pick us up at Guilin airport and drive to Ping'an area.
Hike the Ping'an Terraced Fields.
From Ping'an to viewpoint #1 ("Nine Dragons and 5 Tigers"): 45 minutes up, 25 minutes down. From Ping'an to viewpoint #2 ("Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon"): 20 minutes up, 10 minutes down.

P.M. in Ping'an

Day 2

We will hike from Ping'An village to Zhuang village around 2 hours trip.

On the way back to Yangshuo , we'll go to Yangti, then take the bamboo raft from Yangti to Xingping (This stretch of river is regarded as the most scenic on the Li River .)The driver will pick us up from Xingping then drive to Yangshuo.

We are staying at the Li River Retreat in Yangshuo. http://www.li-river-retreat.com/

Day 3

Mountain bike to Liugong village along Lijiang river. Have a farmer lunch and take a boat back in the direction of Yangshuo and stop along the way in Fuli town. Back to Yangshuo.

This evening go to the San Lujie light and sound show.

Day 4

Go to Dragon Bridge along the Yulong river. Go by mountain bike or car. If we're pretty tired out, we'll go by car and maybe even walk a part of it. Have lunch in a farmer restaurant. Take a Bamboo raft from Dragon Bridge to the 600 year old village. 20 minutes hiking in the rice field and visit the village. It's also possible to go to the Yangshuo cooking school.

Hope this helps you with your planning.

Powerlady:

In Yangshuo/Guilin I second the recommendation by Images above, for the light show...amazing. We also visited the terraced rice fields for which you can get a driver/guide. We used JadeLeo in Guilin..excellent service. late model sedan, friendly and informative, fun guides.

Here are some of my selected pix of the area..

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuartto...inAndVicinity#

Stu Tower [email protected]

note; best viewed by clicking on "slide show", setting the interval for 5-6 seconds...
stu

Thanks so much for your photos Stu! I enjoyed them.

Thanks guys for your replies.
and thank for the lovely photos.

Images I think we may have the same itinerary roughly.
Since I first posted yesterday, I contacted Lilly Lu (recommended on this site) who has just sent me an email with a suggested itinerary that is nearly identical to yours.
As we have only three full days in Yanshuo (4 nights), I am not sure if we can fit in an overnight in Ping'an village - although I would love to.

My rough plan is as follows:
Sunday:
Fly in from Xian to Guilin in the evening.
Get car to drive us to Yangshuo village.
Overnight in Yangshuo

Monday:
Drive to Dragon Bridge. Then bamboo raft. Moon hill and maybe caves and big banyan tree park.
That pm - watch the Sanje Liu Light/Sound show

Tuesday:
Drive 3hours to visit Rice terraces of Longji.
Ping'an villages. Then Longsheng, then onto Dragons Backbone rice terraces
Drive back to Yangshuo at evening time (would love more time in the Rice terraces).

Wednesday:
(a)Drive to Xing Ping - to visit the local market (market is on days ending in 3/6/9 only). Boat cruise to 9 horses mountain
Hike to Yangdi along the Li River
In the PM - watch the cormorant fishing display by the locals.

Or
(b) Bus/ Car to Yangti, then local boat from Yangti to XingPing. Market in Xing ping and return to Yangshuo. In the PM - watch the cormorant fishing display by the locals.


Thursday
Leave for Guilin in the morning.
Half day tour of Guilin
Board flight to Shanghai in the evening.

Out of this itinerary - I have had to cut the scooter/ mountain bike trip to Liugong village and the boat trip to the town of Fuli followed by an afternoon hanging around Yangshuo - with a cookery class etc...

Do you think I have the best itinerary - or should I really cut my time in shanghai to have extra day in Yangshuo?

I menat to add....
At present I have only scheduled a Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon and most of Tues in Shanghai - and from this I was hoping to use one of these days to go to the Watertown if Xitang (so only 4ish days in Sahnghai)??

Cna I really afford to sacrifice one of these days i Shanghai to see more of Yangshuo? oh soo difficult to cut things out...!

All help from fodorites appreciated.

PL

> Cna I really afford to sacrifice one of these days i Shanghai to see more of Yangshuo?

Or should you in fact cut back on the Yangshuo time in order to see somewhere that is actually in China as opposed to some tourist Never-Never Land?

See this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-vs-guilin.cfm

Peter N-H

Powerlady,

What dates will you be in Yangshuo? We're also using Lilly Lu as our guide.

I haven't heard of anyone who hasn't enjoyed the Yangshuo area.

> I haven't heard of anyone who hasn't enjoyed the Yangshuo area.

Then you haven't read the link given above.

Ah, Peter, Peter, hyphenated Peter...in your own inimitable <i>modus operandi</i> you continue to rule as China's very own resident maven...as if Fodorites who don't follow your exact recs, will never experience the joys of "true China"..what a shame. I'm sorry you're so unhappy with SanJie Liu...what does it take to please you, ol' boy?

Stu T.

Magnolia Hotel is Yangshou is fabulous. Book it through Sino Hotel. A bit noisy but everything else is wonderful. Hands down the best hotel I stayed at in China. Check out my trip report. I would consider removing Guilin from my trip. I didn't really like it there and Yangshog and Ping'an's landscape is the same! Have fun Yangshou is a great place to visit.

Regardless of how people brag, Yangshuo is for backpackers only, imo.
I won't want to stay in any of the hostels in Yangshuo.

Daewoo Sheraton in Guilin is the place to enjoy life, centrally located with a "walking street" lined with restaurants nearby.

The city square and nite market are within walking distance.
Other than the places jadele stated above, I always get a foot massage in Guilin.

There is a waterfall show from the roof of waterfall hotel next to the city square at 8:15pm everynite. It is free.

Powerlady,

How was your trip? We'd love to hear about it!

Yes I'm going next Friday to Guilin and Yangshuo and would appreciate any report that you might have.

Power Lady...hope everything went great for you...love to read a report or see your pics.

..Hanuman, if Power Lady doesn't return to the forum before you leave..take a look at my Guilin/Yangshuo.terraced rice fields above...might give you a preliminary feel for the exciting area. Enjoy


stu

Stu,

Thank you for the link and I've seen your photos before while I was searching the forum about Guilin and Yangshuo. It does help tremendously!

Stu,

One question - what is your opinion about staying in Yangshuo? Should we stay in town or outside of town? I've heard that it's quite a noisy city so any comment will be appreciated.