As mentioned few days ago we encouraged some friends that were travelling the world or some countries in Asia recently to prepare an article about their experience, so we could put it online on our blog.

We have already few articles fresh from the oven, and the first one is from our friends from Italy, Giuseppe and Maura, whom we’ve met in China some weeks ago.

We really loved their writing and their experience, and hope you, reader, enjoy just as much. So, ladies and gentlemen, Giuseppe and Maura!

Guilin experience, by Giuseppe and Maura

In our 2 weeks trip in China we decided to add Guilin in the “to do list” that actually became our itinerary. Why Guilin? Because it’s a famous city which has become one of the most visited places by both oriental and occidental tourists, thanks to its strategic position next to different natural attractions such as the Rice terraced fields and the beautiful landscapes of the Lijiang (usually just called Li) and Yulong rivers, that are so famous to be used on the 20 Yuan banknote (beyond Mao’s face, of course 🙂 ).

Arriving in Guilin

Guilin belongs to the Guangxi region, in the South of the country, far from big cities and inside the Chinese countryside. Our previous stop was in Xi’an from which is possible to reach Guilin by train (around 18 hours) or by plane (2 hours) landing in Guilin Liangjiang International airport. Due to the fact that we didn’t plan other stops between the two cities and that we had a quite intense itinerary, we have chosen to fly with Air China. Our experience with flights in China has been good, anyway talking with some other travellers at the airport they told us that their previous flights were delayed, especially if you are flying at the end of the day.

We took the flight at 18:40 from Xi’an and we landed around 20:30 at Guilin airport where we reached the city centre by taking a shuttle bus (20 RMB, 50 min), we then get off at the last stop and then took a taxi to reach our hostel (30 RMB).

Rice Terraced Fields – Dazhai Village

Arrived at the Cyan Box Hostel we booked a tour to the Rice Terraced Fields of the Dazhai village for the next day. I strongly recommend to stay in this hostel because it’s really cheap, clean, with an English speaking staff and a lot of tours organized with convenient prices!

The day after the driver picked us up at the hostel at 8:00 and we started our tour with other 3 travellers. It takes around 3 hours to arrive at the Rice Terraced fields and once you get off from the Van, you have around 4 hours to walk around the Terraces; you will meet the driver again at the end of the day and he will bring you back to Guilin.

From the parking lot there are two ways to go on the top of the Terraces; as you can probably imagine if you have been in China, one way is to take a cable car, the other way is to hike. Due to the high price of the cable car (around 110 RMB return trip) and to the fact that we like to hike if it is possible, we made the hard choice to walk all the way up! Yes, it is hard if you keep in mind that rice needs humidity to grow and that was impossible to climb 2 steps without being wet like after a swim. Anyway the view is totally worth all the effort you make to go up: during summer it is possible to see the fields completely green and the shapes that you can see are absolutely amazing, of course in every season you will have different colours of the fields.

Once we arrived on the top we could try the famous bamboo rice (it is rice cooked and then grilled inside bamboo branches), that is really famous in the area, and after eating and resting a bit, we managed to go down by taking another path which allowed us to pass through some small villages and walk inside some fields. After 3 intense hours by car, we arrived in Guilin safe and ready for the next day!

Before going to sleep we just walked a bit on the city of Guilin, that hasn’t much to see except for the lake in the city centre where you can enjoy a beautiful view on the two pagodas.

By Family Travel Secrets: don’t miss the part 2 of this amazing journey of Giuseppe and Maura. This time exploring Yangshuo and navigating through Li and Yulong rivers.