Visit Guilin – Plan Li River Cruise

Visit Guilin : Plan Li River Cruise

After a memorable visit to the Reed flute cave and a lucky upgrade to the Hotel room, we were all ready and set for one of the most memorable river cruises we have ever done – The Li River Cruise.

As with planning anything in China, this was nothing different- A daunting task when you are looking for the best experience at the optimal cost. After loads of research, we zeroed in on this company who provide one way cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo – Click here.

Our driver was on to time to pick us up from our resort and after an hour’s drive (quite some traffic) we were at Mopanshan Pier. The Cruise terminal has quite a long queue as all boats depart at 9/9:30AM. A quick security baggage check and a 50 mts walk take you to the pier. There are quite few boarding points and quite a lot of boats departing. The ticket has the pier number for boarding, the boat number and also the allocated seats.

We had opted for a 3 star cruise with a set lunch box and the boat was set to depart at 9:30AM. The boarding for the same begins at 9AM.I am not sure why it’s called 3-star cruise but it’s just fine! The cruise has 2 tiers of seats and the top deck for viewing. There are also washrooms (Squat) and cafes. If you have any luggage – there is an allocated place where you can dump it. We weren’t allowed on the top deck when the boat initially set sail. After some safety announcements (in English) we were finally on our way on this 83KM – 4 Hour cruise through the fairyland. Now nothing could hold us back from going to the top deck to enjoy the very much heard of Li river cruise.

All the boats sail in a sequence one behind the other with tourists scrambling for the best place on the top deck. Don’t get rushed as their energy levels won’t last for the next 4 hours and best bits of the cruise come later in the trip. Slowly but surely the curtains were raised on this amazing landscape and to add to it all, the foggy/misty day added to the scenic quotient.Gorgeous Karst peaks give you surprises at each bend of the limpid river under the blue sky.

The river generally has three sections. Various attractions like peaks and villages along the river have interesting descriptive names, which calls for much of your imagination to make sense of it.The first part is from Guilin to Yangdi, the second from Yangdi to Xingping, and the last section is from Xingping to Yangshuo.

Few of the highlights include – Daxu Ancient Town, Crown Cave (Guanyan), Xianggong Mountain, Xingping, the Nine Horses’ Images on the Mountain, Wangfu Rock etc. Beautiful and impressive fairy tales endow those sceneries.

For example, Wangfu Rock is the symbol of the pure love of a wife to her husband. This couple was stranded on the bank of the river and almost starved to death. So the husband climbed to the top of the mountain to check whether there were any other boats that can take them back. Unfortunately he fell down from the mountain and died. When the wife found this, she killed herself next to her husband. Their bodies became stones and one of the stones is always staring at the other. Here comes the name of this spot.

Finally lunch is served as we approach the Ninehorse’s hill. It’s a packed English lunch with cheese&Ham sandwich, Jam bun, chocolate, chips and water – Very good meal.

The Nine Horses’ Images on the Mountain is the expression of stunning beauty. It was told that nine heavenly horses secretly slipped to Xingping, attracted by its beauty. They lingered on without any thought of getting back, so the lord of heaven sent another fairy to look for them. In order to avoid this, the nine horses went into the mountain forever, making this beautiful scenery.

By this time most of the tourists were downstairs exhausted and the top deck presented best time for some amazing pictures. Chinese tourists and their love for photos and creativity of poses is simply exemplary though can get annoying at times and irk your nerves.

Finally at 1:30PM the ship pulls into Yangshou Pier. Words are not enough to fully present this experience – A 4 hour cruise which just flew by in minutes with memories etched in you for a lifetime.

It’s quite a walk from the pier to the famous West Street and carrying a heavy backpack doesn’t make it easy at all! With over 1400 years of history, the west street is lined with shops selling local items, cafes and western styles bars including a German beer pub, Pizza place which also surprisingly had a separate Indian menu and an in-house Indian chef. What better way to unwind – A Beer, Chicken Tikka and memories of the beautiful landscape.

We had an evening flight out of Guilin to our next destination – Shanghai. So we had to make our way to the airport – we decided to have a crack at using the public mode of transport. Read more about using a public bus from Yangshou to Guilin – Click here.

More flavors of this awesome experience –

If you have any questions around this please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you at the very earliest.