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In the province of Guangxi, north of Guangdong, is the beautiful city of Guilin. 3 friends and I took weekend trip to Guilin in November (yes, I realize I am really behind in my blogging…I’m trying to catch up!). Guilin is an absolutely stunning city. It is located along the Li River with beautiful rolling mountains lining the banks. The city also has quite a western feel, with a layed back atmosphere and many western stores. The bus we took was an overnight sleeper bus that took about 13 hours. There were 3 rows of bunk beds on the bus so about 40 people could sleep on the journey. The beds were very thin and a little awkward to sleep on, but traveling on this kind of bus turned out to be a cheap and convenient form of transportation.
The Sun and Moon pagodas in central Guilin. These two pagodas stand in a pond in the middle of the city, and are easily seen throughout the city.
A view of the pagodas lit-up at night. The Sun Pagoda in yellow and the Moon Pagoda in silver. These left beautiful reflections in the pond.
This is called “Elephant Trunk Hill” because from certain angles, it looks like an elephant leaning down drinking water from the river. We hiked up this mountain to see beautiful views of the river and the city.
A view of Guilin from atop Elephant Trunk Hill with gorgeous rolling mountains in the background. These are beautiful mountains which circle the city and line the banks of the Li river.
We rode a bamboo raft down the river to see the mountains that lined both banks of the river. he bamboo raft held 4 people plus one driver, and there were dozens of rafts floating down the river.
These mountains and river are the same as seen on the back of the 20 kuai (dollar) bill.
