Guilin - A mini Europe in China
We arrived in Shenzen at the crack of dawn, on the first day of the Spring Festival. Our worries that we would be swamped by hordes of holidaying Chinese, thankfully, was unfounded as the lines at the immigration and at the airport were thin. After taking a short one hour flight from smoggy Shenzen, we arrived in Guilin where the air was clean, plenty of greenery and sparsely populated roads. A picturesque town, in the Guanxi province of China, the town has some very beautiful country parks and caves with some extraordinary limestone rock formations. We stayed at the Eva Inn hotel http://www.evainnguilin.com/ which is highly recommended and faces the beautiful Li River. Insist on a river facing room and you will not be disappointed. Facilities are decent and the breakfast quite filling. Behind the hotel is a cobble stoned road teeming with Chinese holidayers and lined with gaily decorated cafes teeming with red lanterns.
Guilin is a favourite holidaying destination for the Chinese with the mandatory sprinkling of backpacking foreigners. Being a favourite destination also means the place has become a touristy and expensive evident from the steep entry fees at the country parks and traveling
costs. Still, the food is to die for.
A few rounds of the local beer, some mouthwatering dumplings and lovely beef noodles drained our exhaustion away. Being the Lunar New Year, the streets were lined with stalls selling all kinds of trinkets and some delicious food stalls. We had an Indian dosa lookalike which was quite tasty. Come evening, fireworks lit the sky with crackers bursting till the wee hours of the morning accompanied with the acrid smell of sulphur and gunpowder. Made us feel right at home during Diwali! 
The city is quite walking and bicycle friendly and you could spend the entire day tramping up and down some of the numerous limestone cliffs that dot the city. The country parks are quite well maintained with numerous lakes, pagodas, statues, museums, trails. The roads very wide and well kept and we were amazed at the quality of infrastructure in these places which could give some of the larger cities in India a run for its money Food to be tried: the Li River beer fish which is highly recommended and is extremely tasty. Tips: Carry enough cash as credit cards are very sparsely used, though that is changing slowly. The voyage down Li River.
The boat ride from Guilin to Yangzhou along the Li River is one of the highlights of the trip. A road journey of around an hour takes about four hours on this meandering river stretch and is a favourite tourist attraction. We took the morning ferry which started at 9:30 in the morning (hotel pickups start around 8am) and reached Yangzhou at around 1:30. Apart from the minor glitches such as hustling 
for a window seat at the ferry, the ride down the river is memorable. Guilin was just recovering from a cold wave when we visited and the weather was cold in the mornings but the afternoons are gorgeous. Lunch is served on the boat with the option of ordering some river fish, crabs and snail (expensive though!). There are two kinds of boats that ply on this river. One is the bamboo rafts (literally!) with some deck chairs lashed on to a bamboo raft and an outboard motor. This can be quite freezing and uncomfortable too. The other are the large
boats with enclosed cabins and these are recommended. Insist on the English version (which in plain speak would translate as the slightly more luxurious one). There is a viewing deck from the top and you could see the river bed for miles around. Tariffs are open to bargaining and we were able to knock back ours by 15-20 percent. to about 360 yuan per person. The cliffs bordering the river are big tourist attractions and all are imaginatively labeled such as nine horse hill and the man on a donkey hill. As a local saying goes “ 30 percent of what you see is through your eyes, 65 percent is through your heart and the rest 5 percent is what your travel guide tells you.” Having said that, the cruise offers some of the most gorgeous scenery. One of them has even made it to the back of the 20 yuan note!
Yangshuo is surrounded by limestone karsts and on one side flows the beautiful Li River. It also hosts the famous Sanjie Liu show which is performed on the river and involves more than 600 actors. After a brief stroll from the ferry pier we were met by our kind host, Mr Wei who runs the Yanghuo cultural house. http://www.yangshuo-study-travel.com/ Highly recommended as the hosts are very kind and dished up various kinds of home cooked food for us everyday. Mr Wei is also quite versatile, adept at Tai Chi and Chinese calligraphy, and offers classes in them. Yangshou is a literally a two street town and we spent quite a lot of time walking in the tourist quarters. The best way to see in and around Yangshuo is via bicycling and we managed to do that around the countryside for a good few hours. Sat at a spot by the river and spent a good hour or so watching boats gently float past bearing tourists on a cool bright day. Gorgeous! We also got to know some of the other folks who were staying at the guest house and had quite a good time at the Sanjie Liu show. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangxi/yangshuo/impression-sanjieliu.htm
While the to do list in Yangshuo may be pretty slim, it is perfect for a relaxing holiday. One can spend hours just sitting on the riverfront, digging away into delicious fish and watching life go by. Next time, we surely will! 
Of course, as it happens, none of our trips are without its moments of anxiety. This time around on the way back to the airport to catch an early morning flight, I managed to forget my new Nikon D90 camera back at the guesthouse. Thankfully, realized it within 20 mins and sped back to get it. Our cab driver could give Schumacher a run for his money. Another fun moment was at the immigration center at Shenzen where we were greeted by mile long queues as it was the last day of the holidays. But being Indian, standing in queue is probably second nature to us. Our first trip to the mainland has whetted our appetite and we are looking forward to return again!
Of course, as it happens, none of our trips are without its moments of anxiety. This time around on the way back to the airport to catch an early morning flight, I managed to forget my new Nikon D90 camera back at the guesthouse. Thankfully, realized it within 20 mins and sped back to get it. Our cab driver could give Schumacher a run for his money. Another fun moment was at the immigration center at Shenzen where we were greeted by mile long queues as it was the last day of the holidays. But being Indian, standing in queue is probably second nature to us. Our first trip to the mainland has whetted our appetite and we are looking forward to return again! 
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