Family Travel Secrets – Experience in Yangshuo by Giuseppe and Maura

In case you missed the first part of the article, with their visit to Guilin, click here.

After Guilin and some online researches while organizing the trip, we discovered that one common suggestion made by all the travellers who have been there before, was to reach the city of Yangshuo navigating the Li river and then sleep at least one night in the countryside. We decided to follow those tips and booked 2 nights in Guilin and 1 night in Yangshuo.

From Guilin to Yangshuo on the Li River

The plan was to take a cruise on the Li River to arrive in Yangshuo, where we had to spend one night. It is possible to choose between two cruises: the Deluxe boat where they take you on a big boat and you cross all the river for 4 hours or the Bamboo boat, where you navigate on a small part of the river for 50 minutes. Because we thought that 4 hours were too much and that a small boat would be better, we decided to take the short trip (that is also the cheapest choice). They picked us up at 8:00 from the hostel and we arrived at the pier after one hour driving, we then started the bamboo boat tour…..on a PLASTIC bamboo boat!!

The 50 minutes on the boat were great anyway, we shared the boat with a British couple and we had the opportunity of watching beautiful landscapes from the water. We actually thought that the duration of the experience was perfect and that 4 hours on the boat would be repetitive. After leaving the boat we then took a golf cart who brought us in a village next to the river and finally we got the last transfer to Yangshuo.

Arrived in Yangshuo we had to reach our hotel that was 5 km far from the city; we then had the brilliant idea of accepting the service of two guys on a motorbike. For 40 RMB and after some stops where our drivers had to ask for the right way to take, we managed to arrive at our hotel in the very countryside. We couldn’t choose a better place to stay, in fact the Yangshuo Outside Inn is the perfect place, owned by a Dutch guy who decided to renew old houses and make a cheap resort: quiet, next to Yulong River, with a cheap restaurant who makes both oriental and occidental food, English speaking staff and……..bike rental for free!!

Around Yangshuo’s countryside

The day before we ended our day with a SILENT and relaxing dinner at the hotel in order to rest a bit for some excursions around the area the day after. We then decided to use the bikes offered from our hostel and ride around the countryside. It has been one of the best experiences in China; we had the opportunity to see real farmers working on the fields, cows walking on the streets and enjoy a quiet and calm atmosphere, something that is really rare in big cities.

There are no specific places to see in the area, so we just rode around because in every places you can always enjoy a beautiful view on the Yulong River, smaller and less crowded than the Li River, with a similar panorama. The government recently made a path just next to the river for bikes and hiking, so we decided to follow the path and to stop on a pier where we took a ride of 40 minutes on a REAL bamboo boat; compared to the boats on the Li River, here you have a more relaxing experience because the boats are for two people and are controlled by a guy with a oar without engines. We paid 100 RMB per person for the boat and 15 RMB for the transportation of the bikes at the arrival point.

Once arrived at the destination we continued our journey to the “Moon hill”, a 350 mt high hill with an hole inside. The access to the hill is 14 RMB and there are 800 steps to go up where you can enjoy the best view on the area. We then continued our ride back to the hotel to take our bags and go to the airport where at 22:30 we had a flight waiting for us, destination Shanghai. To arrive at the airport we shared a taxi with 2 other guests of the hotel and we paid 90 RMB per person, another way to reach the airport is the shuttle bus from Yangshuo for 60 RMB.