On a first trip to China, many clients will head to Beijing to discover the dynasties that built the Forbidden City. They might also visit Shanghai to see the soaring skyscrapers that define today’s go-go economy. But, if they’re lucky, they’ll also have a chance to slide into Guilin in search of the landscapes that have been painted onto rice-paper scrolls for centuries.
The instantly recognizable scenery is that of hundreds — probably thousands — of karst limestone crags jutting up from miles of flat fields that are split by the Li River. Guilin is pockmarked by these stela (vertical stone columns), which can soar hundreds of feet.
“Guilin’s scenery ranks first in the heavens,” said Bai Yang, a guide who showed me around the city on a recent visit.
Yang told me that the saying is even etched by a famous calligrapher onto a mountain at the edge of the city.
Although its name hardly slips off the tongue for most Westerners, Guilin was one of the first places China developed for tourism following World War II. It is an easy add-on to itineraries that include Shanghai or Hong Kong, connected respectively by air (2 1/2 hours) and high-speed train (three hours, via Shenzhen).
The city buzzes at a modest, friendly clip, with lakes and pagodas diluting the commerce. From my window at Sheraton Guilin Hotel, I enjoyed watching elderly couples who ballroom danced and practiced tai chi in a park running alongside the river. About 60 miles north of Guilin is Longsheng, which, like Guilin, is located in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Province, one of the country’s five autonomous regions. Here, the local government has more legislative rights (ostensibly in the interest of local minority groups). Travelers may notice that women living here look very distinct, wearing colorful dresses and sporting long, black hair.
Local women often dress in traditional regional attire.
Credit: 2018 David SwansonLongsheng is also known for the Longshen (or Longji) Rice Terraces, a series of step-like fields that have been cultivated for approximately 700 years. The paddy fields wrap mountains that ascend to more than 3,000 feet and cascade like steps into the valleys.
Many visitors will see the rice terraces as a day trip, like I did. I loved hiking on the steep, unmarked trails that snake alongside the fields, revealing one gorgeous view after another. I would have preferred spending the night in one of the rudimentary but charming guesthouses in a village such as Ping’ An, but I’ll have to save it for a return trip (which I’ll schedule for May or June, when the summer rains have flooded the fields).
But perhaps Guilin’s most well-known attraction is a cruise on the Li River, winding through a mostly unpopulated countryside. During my cruise, at one river bend, a fellow guest pulled out the Chinese 20 Yuan note, and we matched the toothy limestone profile off the ship’s bow replicated on the currency.
The four-hour cruise disembarked in Yangshuo, a town packed with both Chinese and tourists but still appealing for its bamboo raft rides and cycling through the karst-filled landscape.
Twice each night in Yangshuo, the spectacular Impression Sanjie Liu outdoor show uses the Li River and its sandbars as a stage, with karst mountains as a backdrop and a cast of 600 performing a classic love story for an audience of some 3,000 people. Afterward, most of the crowd maneuvered into idling motorcoaches to drive back to Guilin.
But not me. I, for one, was happy to be sequestered in Yangshuo for the night.
The Details
Visit Guilin
www.visitguilin.org
