Actually, that was my first trip to Guilin. Last trip from Beijing, we decide to explore other famous cities like Guilin which famous for its nature landscapes while visiting China. There was an old Chinese saying "Guilin's has the best landscape in the world!" and heard from my best friend experience, it was a beautiful place. I had high hope for this.

Since we are unfamiliar with China and its domestic transportation, less English information then from Beijing we used the same local travel agency for visit Guilin. Based on my experience in Beijing which was good, so we believed great times also would happened when we were in Guilin. We pre-booked the tour in Beijing then got it easily by phone for more detail.

Yangshuo with River and Karst Hill as Background

So it was only a couple of hours flight from Beijing to Guilin. Since Guilin is famous for its Li river then we could not leave the city without a short trip along the river right? In fact, Li River so famous that if you are familiar with traditional Chinese paintings, you will find that many has used these mountains as subjects or backgrounds. So we did take the boat and enjoy the view along the river.

The 90 km journey from Guilin to Yangshuo took a good two and a half hours. The boat trip itself was quite pleasant, tour guide always guided us along the way and at the same time gave us a little explanation about the view. We had some camera were ready to capture amazing nature landscapes that we did see along the river. After a boat journey, we arrived at the dock where everyone got off. We arrived at Yangshuo, a small town nearby Guilin.

West Street, Most Popular Street in Yangshuo

We walked through villages, along the rivers and everything we was look just perfect. This was what I always wanted to see, unspoiled landscape and locals. Although the weather was a bit cool but we enjoyed almost everything we did in Yangshuo within limited time. Really want to go back next time for spend and explore more in near future without join a local tour, just travel independently. I could image that Yangshuo was just THE place to see, whatever the weather. If I was summarized our Guilin tour, I would say a trip to Yangshuo by boat passed through Li River by far the most fun and scenic tour ever! Yangshuo has lived up to my expectations and more. Next trip, I would like hire a bike and cycle around, enjoy the beautiful backdrops and fields.