Xiamen to Guilin City
Our flight was 7.10am and we reached the airport at 5.30pm. Our hotel receptionist actually advised us to be at the airport by 6.10am but we decided to be on the “safe side” and arrived at the airport early. Wow at that early in the morning the airport was terribly packed with people.
From our experience, in Singapore Airport and many others, one counter usually served a particular flight. But in China one counter served many flights. Though there were many people we got our bags checked in and flight tickets printed at one of the counters, all done in less than 30 minutes.
There was still more than an hour to our flight time so we had the time to have breakfast at “Ginger Duck”. We had a rice dumpling and a bowl of duck soup served in a cute small claypot.
We were able to board our plane soon after and the flight took off on time.
The flight was just 1 hour and 40 minutes, a comfortable and short flight, just like a bus ride. Upon arriving we DiDi for a cab. We monitored our cab on the DiDi map, it was nearby but it seemed not to be moving at all. Then we got a call from our driver but did not understand what he was telling us, we just told him we were at the stated waiting point. The to our surprise, the cab driver arrived on foot!. He said his car was nearby in the airport carpark in the midst of charging! We walked with him for about 100m to his car!
The cab ride to our hotel in Guilin town was about 32km. Our driver dropped us just outside our hotel. When we checked into the hotel the staff told us that they could not find our booking! We pulled out our hotel booking and to our horror we realised that we were at the “wrong hotel outlet”.
The taxis driver had dropped us off at the wrong place!! We were really puzzled as to how this could happen as the cab booking was done on DiDi app where we stated our destination. Usually DiDi application would map out the route to the destination so how was it possible that the driver stopped at the wrong hotel outlet. We went back to DiDi app and confirmed that we did not enter the wrong hotel name.
Luckily the “Venus Royal Hotel (Guilin Elephant Trunk Hill Sun and Moon Twin Towers)” was just 400m away so we walked to the hotel on foot.
Early Check in and Tea with a View
We reached our hotel at about 10.30am and the kind receptionist allowed us to check in though checkin was actually 2 pm!
Our room had a balcony which had the iconic Guilin city view, Sun and Moon Pagodas.
Our room booking came with a complimentary tea at the rooftop restaurant. The rooftop restaurant was fantastic. It had a panaroma view of the entire surrounding. At the restaurant we could see the lake and Sun and Moon towers. We couldn’t wait for the night to fall to see both towers lighted gold and silver.
For those that did not manage to book a room facing the lake they still could get a good view of the lake at the rooftop restaurant. We chose a table located “semi outdoor” which gave us great view and provided some shaded while we had our yummy tea and bites.
From the rooftop restaurant we would see very far. The distance mountain peaks were very mysterious, the silver steel waving dome of the Guilin Opera House blended well with its surroundings and the hill with a hole was a famous Guilin Landmark. The hill with a hole was “Gulin Elephant Trunk Hill(象山公园)”, and from far it did looked like a side profile of an elephant head and its trunk.
Walking round Lake shan of guilin
From our hotel it was a short 50m walk to the Lake Shan ( (杉湖)) and there we made a trip round the lake. We saw the two twin towers (Sun and Moon Pagodas) from various angles. There was proper boardwalk and paved path around the lake and the route was nicely shaded by trees most of the way.
On Trip.com we had bought a night cruise, “Two River and Four Lakes Night cruise (Deluxe boat)“. It costed ¥400 for 2 person. We bought the cruise online instead of onsite as we were worried that the evening cruise might run out of tickets if bought on site.
Interestingly, the tickets said to board at “random dock” and that we would receive a call from a customer service staff a day before the cruise. Unfortunately no staff had contacted us and our cruise would begin some 5 hours later.
On our way around the lake we saw a “dock” with a notice of the same cruise, “Two River and Four Lakes Night cruise”. We went to check with the staff at the dock and upon viewing our online ticket she issued us two physical tickets and gave us the name of boarding dock.
When we reached the opposite of the lake we detoured left to explore “Gui Lin Shi Zheng Yang Lu Bu Xing Jie Street” 桂林市正阳路步行街. It was still early in the day and most of the shops and stores were closed. This pedestrian street would turn into a food and shopping paradise in the evening!
From the pedestrian street we turned into the main road., there we made a stop at “ChaGee” a famous tea chain to enjoy some refreshing ice Jasmine tea. After the tea break we returned to our hotel at the other side of Lake Shan.
Lake Shan was a scenic lake and we saw many locals fishing by the lakes despite many “NO FISHING” signs about. Its seemed that China authorities were pretty flexible on “violation” which accounted for the many fishing hobbists by the lake.
We enjoyed our walked around the lake, over the bridges and on the heavily shaded road of Guilin Town. After 3.5 hour of round the Lake Shan walk we were back in our hotel for a nice rest before heading to the lake again in the evening.
两江四湖 Cruise(Liang Jiang Si Hu)
At about 6.45pm we started our walk from our hotel to the Sun Moon jetty (日月湾码头). It was a 350 m, 10 minutes walk and our cruise started at 7.30pm. We intentionally came out early to enjoy the night scene of the lake.
Both the pagodas were beautifully lighted up. One golden tower and a shorter silver tower. Standing side by side these towers enchanced the beauty of the other. We certainly felt that these pagodas looked absolute stunning in the night.
The Sun Pagoda was 41m tall and had nine stories, it was the tallest bronze pagoda in the world. The Moon Pagoda was shorter of the two, 35m tall and had seven stories. Both the pagodas had octagonal base. The Moon Pagoda was build on an island in the Lake while the Sun Pagoda was built out in the water.
It was a busy night and there were many visitors walking around the lake. We waited at the Jetty for our “Two rivers four lakes night crusie “to began.
Our cruise guide ushered us into a small boat. The boat had enough seating for about 30 of us and a small deck where we could stay out door for photography. This evening cruise would take about 1.5 hours.
The crusie took us on a route to visit two rivers and four lakes. The rivers were River Li, River Taohua, and the lakes were Lake Mulong, Lake Gui, Lake Rong and Lake Shan.
We were pretty excited as the night scenery of the whole place looked fantastic. Our cruise started and the first destination was to go nearer to the Sun and Moon Pagodas. Then it was down the rivers and lakes sailing passed many beautifully lighted bridges, one looking more fabulous than the others.
The river sides/banks were beautifully lighted too, and there were gazebos with beautifully oriented dressed fairy ladies playing some chinese instruments. It was liked floating passed a stages. Wow we loved the way the lakes/rivers became a performing arena.
We came to another section of the river where we saw condor fishing performance. It was so unique to have fishermen with their cormorants balancing on lighted bamboo raffs putting up a performance for tourists passing by.
The cruise did not have a single minute of boredom, there was always something to see on the left, on the right, infront and behind.
Near the later part of the cruise we had to disembark, crossed a road to another jetty to boarded another boat. This seconnd boat took us down the Li River. We supposed that there was no water connection to the Li River or the connection was too far away.
On Li river, our boat went upstream via a river lock and it sailed all the way to Elephant Trunk Hill. Generally we felt that this part of the cruise on Li River would be better to be explored in day light then the scenery would not be shielded in darkness.
Lovely Dinner at our Hotel
Our cruise ended at about 9pm and the 1.5 hour cruise ended. We could either go to back to “Zheng Yang Pedestrian Street” for dinner or go back to the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. We decided to return to our hotel and have a quiet meal.
Our accommodation for the night
We booked our hotel, Venus Royal Hotel (Guilin Elephant Trunk Hill Sun and Moon Twin Towers) on Trip.com. We specifically selected a room with a balcony that could see the Sun and Moon Pagoda in Lake Shan. It was also just a short distance from Lake Shan. We only had one day/night in Guilin Town and we wanted to stay right at the center of activities.
The hotel came with complimentary tea upon check in and also free breakfast for two the next day. The cost of the room for a night was ¥560.
Our room was large and had a huge balcony that overlooked Lake Shan. The toilet in the room was big and compartmentalised and there was a bathtub too.
Breakfast was served in the rooftop restaurant the next day. The was a good spread/varieties of food.
We enjoyed the space, quietness and food for our breakfast with a view!
Other Accommodation in Guilin Town
