Guilin and Yangshuo – all the green you can have!

Can you see the elephant trunk?

There is one really cool street you should definitely check out – it’s called ‘Binjiang street’, and it stretches along the Lijiang river, and if you’ll walk along it you will come across with the famous ‘elephant trunk park’, which is nice – but don’t get your expectations too high – it’s just a nice park with a little extra.
If you do go – try going early morning, that way you will see the local people doing Tai Chi and some sports, and it will not be crowded (we went at 07:30).

Lijiang park

There is another really nice (free) park called ‘Lijiang river scenic area’ – it’s very nice, especially afternoon – so you get to see it during day time and night with some impressive lights.

Plastic bamboo lookalike boats with a motor – nice but mostly for the breeze

Now let’s talk about the reason you come to Guilin – nature, nature and more nature, no?

Another simple(r) way is to book a tour via your guesthouse – it might be a little bit more expensive, but if you’ll do the math it’s not much expensive and much less of a headache (if you’ll go alone it will be not less than 130 and via the guesthouse it’s 200, with a private bus).

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.” Thomas Jefferson

Can be romantic;)

From out guesthouse a bus picked us up with a nice English speaking guide, and he explained on the way what is the route of the tour and offered another tour (see below).

Lady cleaning her house – Yu Long Cun village

This brings me to the second tour the guide offered us on the bus – which again – you can do by yourself, but I think it’s better and more convenient with a guide.

Happy seller at Yangshuo’s west street

It’s very touristic as well but really nice and cool, a lot of small stores and a lot of restaurants – Chinese and German mostly but you can find Italian and other kinds of food.

me and my Chinese name on a bone:) 亚当

There is something which is pretty nice – you can get a small ‘bone’ with your name carved on it – try checking if you have a Chinese name, or the guy there can also help you figure it out and you can make a keychain or a necklace for 30 RMB.

The fisherman with the bird, a unique sight

After finishing the west street (mostly shopping and food) we went on a small van and drove to a nearby village called Yu Long Cun, where we went on a small bamboo boat (real one, without an engine!).

The bird with a fish in its throat

Yulong river is also a little touristic but much less the Li, and it’s much nicer in my opinion.
You will see beautiful mountains, trees and green everywhere, and you will also get to see the most crazy trained bird fishing! The fisherman train the birds and the birds are diving, finding fishes and retrieving them for the fisherman. It’s truly amazing to watch, the bird doesn’t even need a word – she dives, get the fish and climbs back onto the bamboo boat to give the fish to the fisherman.

Calm people in Yu Long Cun

After finishing the boat ride we went back to Yu Long Cun and roamed a little bit.