Destination | Guilin
Country Code: +86
Currency: Chinese yuan
FROM THE AIRPORT
Bus: The airport shuttle bus costs 20 yuan and stops at the railway station, bus station or the Aviation Hotel. For an extra few yuan, they will drop you off at most hotels in Guilin. For Yangshuo, take a direct bus from Guilin’s main bus station.
Taxi: A metered taxi will set you back 80-100 yuan, including the highway toll. Make sure you have your destination hotel written in Chinese, or ask someone to write it down for you first.
TABLE TALK
 Cheap chic: Rosemary’s Cafe
Stop at this Western-style café for a decent coffee or a hit of inexpensive Western food before beginning your exploration of Guilin. Yiren Lu, 150m east of the clock tower
Mid-range magic: Yiyuan
Yiyuan will test your spicy tolerance, serving genuine Sichuanese cuisine – a kind of food rarely found outside China. Although chilli peppers are the central ingredient, you’ll find a range of tamer dishes as well. Good decor and an English menu tailored to foreign tastes (with heat levels clearly marked!). 106 Nanhuan Road, tel (0)773 282-0470
Gourmet: New Kowloon Restaurant
One of Guilin’s premiere but lesser-known restaurants, specializing in Cantonese-style seafood but also serving local dishes. Here you can sample the cream of Guangxi cuisine, a blend of the spicy flavours of Hunanese food and the subtler, sweeter flavours of Cantonese cooking. An Xin Island, tel (0)773 381-2229
AFTER DARK
Cocktail hour: The Coffee Shop
With indoor and outdoor seating and unintrusive live entertainment, The Coffee Shop (on the corner of Yiren Road and Zhengyang Road, underneath the clock tower) offers a comfortable and highly visible place to have a cocktail and do some serious people watching. You’ll soon discover that Chinese fashion sense is mostly non-sensible.
Live entertainment: Impression – Liu San Jie Li River Light Show in Yangshuo Using a 2km section of the Li River and over 600 performers, this show is by far the grandest and most extravagant of the live entertainment options in the Guilin and Yangshuo area. Easily incorporated into a visit to Yangshuo, the show incorporates many of Guangxi province’s unique ethnic customs, using a battery of lights to illuminate the karst scenery and performers. Tickets including transport are widely available in Yangshuo.
Late night: L.V. Club
The party crowd heads to this thumping nightclub on Zhengyang Pedestrian Street, just south of the clock tower, for a rowdy round or three on the dancefloor. Remember that in clubs like this, it’s always cheaper to drink Chinese style: one round of the same thing for the entire group. One bucket of six beers, for example, will be much cheaper than a round of six different cocktails.
HOT SPOTS
Zhengyang Pedestrian Street: In the heart of Guilin, this street is the place to see and be seen in town. With coffee shops, clothing stores, hopping clubs, street food, bars, hordes of Chinese people, and even a mini-golf bar (China isn’t what it used to be), you can easily while away the days and nights here. To the north-east of Guilin’s main square, a clock tower marks the centre of the street. Come here to experience what the Chinese call re nao (pronounced “ruh-now”) – exciting and lively places chock-full of people!
Zhongshan Shopping Street: Every night, a section of Guilin’s main traffc artery – south of the intersection of Zhongshan Road and
Jiefang Road – is cordoned off so scores of vendors can ply their street snacks, knickknacks and all the other goodies a country like China produces.
INSIDER TIPS
Culinary misadventures: China’s well-deserved reputation for culinary exotica expresses itself clearly here, as snake, rabbit, turtles, game birds and deer grace Guilin’s menus. If you’re among the more adventurous in your dining choices, simply look for cages of weird animals outside restaurants. Some upmarket Chinese hotel restaurants also serve these specialties.
BODY & SOUL
With its emphasis on slow, rhythmic movements and breathing exercises, tai ji quan is the perfect antidote for calming the restless mind and overworked body. At the Yangshuo Tai Chi Health Centre, students receive tai ji instruction in the tranquil countryside setting of Yangshuo. www.southchina-taichi.com" target="_blank">www.southchina-taichi.com
DAY TRIPPING
Li River cruise to Yangshuo: When many people think of China, they imagine what they’ve seen in Chinese paintings: farmers toiling in idyllic rice fields and raft -bound fishermen casting on meandering rivers. Yangshuo and its surrounding countryside are the embodiment of this ideal and merit at least a day trip. There are two ways to get there: take a cruise from Guilin on the most scenic parts of the Li River, or it’s a one-hour direct bus from Guilin’s main bus station. From Yangshuo, people go for scenic bicycle rides among stunning karst pinnacle scenery while enjoying the company of the friendliest locals in the country. Ask at your Guilin hotel for more information on the cruise.
IN THE KNOW
Guilin or Yangshuo?: In deciding how best to spend your time between Guilin and Yangshuo, it all depends what kind of traveller you are and how much time you have. Yangshuo offers a laid-back countryside atmosphere, and while the amenities are good, they are oft en more basic than those in Guilin. If you want a comfortable taste of Chinese city life in a beautiful environment, Guilin is definitely the better option.
Compiled by Mikey Leung
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