We arrived in Guilin on Sunday, November 9th and stayed for 3 days. A tour guide/bus picked us up from the airport. Our tour guide’s name was “Lisa”. She was nice and very attentive to our needs. And trust me, my group was needy! After checking into the Guilin Bravo hotel, which was a pretty nice hotel, we went downstairs and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was blah. Guilin is famous for their rice stick noodles, but they only served it for breakfast at the hotel. After dinner, we had “free” time so we all decided to walk to the nearby shops and we picked up a few souvenirs and Natalie scored a pretty pink coat from one of her great aunties.

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. The only item that was good was the Guilin rice noodles. After breakfast, our tour guide came to meet us at the hotel lobby and we went off on our first tour site: Chengyuan Palace. The place was old with a lot of history. We spent all morning here and then had lunch at a local restaurant that catered to tour groups it seemed. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a quick bathroom break (Natalie couldn’t go at the restaurant b/c she wasn’t used to squatters!) then we headed over to see some caves. The formations inside the cave were beautiful and they had lights to highlight certain formations that looked like vegetables or flowers or animals. The tour was given in Chinese, so I didn’t catch much of it, but they made it sound very poetic.

The next day we checked out and went to another part of Guilin. We had a 4 hour cruise down a river with beautiful scenery of the Guilin mountains. At the end of the cruise, we were dropped off at a tourist shopping area and then walked over to our hotel. That night, we watched an outdoor show that told stories of the traditional lives of the people of Guilin. The show was produced by the same guy that produced the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The next morning, after hitting a few more tourist traps we were dropped off at the airport – said good-bye to Lisa and flew back to Guangzhou.

Natalie’s new pink coat. She originally wanted a dress, but it didn’t fit.

A sidewalk vendor selling various cooked meats. That night, we saw a restaurant that advertised Rat specialities!

Tyler found the Pringles and wouldn’t let them go. He held them til he fell asleep. Talk about comfort food!

Chengyuan Palace

Bunny sitting over a well

At the Chengyuan Palace, we climbed to the top of a hill via ~270 stairs. It was tiring, but very refreshing at the top. Gong gong got half way and felt sick so he went back down.

Nat catching her breath at the top.

At the top of the hill, we got to dress up in traditional outfits and had our photos taken. Natalie was all over it, but Tyler was too busy running around.

Tyler was lucky, he got carried up and down the stairs.

At the bottom of the hill, there was this guy who did Chinese Calligraphy on scrolls or fans. You give him your name in Chinese and he writes a poem about it. A bunch of us lined up for these! I got a fan for myself ($35 Yuan)

Caves

Gong Gong at Elephant Hill park

River cruise

The back of the boat was the kitchen. They used a hose and pumped water from the river to wash the dishes.

I bought Natalie a Panda bear and she’s since replaced bunny with it.

Making silk

Girls dressed up in traditional Guilin outfits handstitching accessories

Tyler rubbing some buddha belly to get lucky

The outdoor show. Even though the show was outdoors, there were “no smoking” signs, but the darned Chinese tourists still smoked!

On our last day, Lisa brought us to an herbal shop where we got to have a foot spa in some medicinal herbs. Then they try to sell you all these improve your health drugs. bleh.

Tyler getting a free ride at the airport

After 10 days of being in polluted smokey air, Po Po remembers that she brought masks with her! It didn’t come at a better time. The airport was being painted and there was no air ventilation so the fumes were very heavy.