just cruising....

Guilin and the surrounding areas have many naturally beautiful attractions to visit, and top of the list has to be the scenic Li River. With its jagged-shaped hills slicing into the sky, clear water and lush vegetation, it is a true heaven on earth. Having been here before in 2018, when it was full of people, we took the opportunity to visit again together as a small group. We were lucky with three things-the weather was excellent, there were no tourists and also COVID travel restrictions had just been removed completely. It proved to be perfect-timing indeed, as we will unlikely be able to experience such a unique set of circumstances ever again. To get here, you will definitely need a private car. The best thing to do is stay in Guilin and rent your own car for the day, or just hire a driver-which is what we did here. It is around a 2-hour drive here, so definitely suggest arriving early at around 9am for this special sightseeing attraction, although there was nobody here when we came. Usually large tour groups can take a large boat up the river, but this wasn't available on the day we came, so we rented two small boats for our group of 5 people. Each boat seats 4 people, so we had to pay for the 3 empty seats at 63¥ per seat, but was well worth it, considering we had the whole place to ourselves! It is also worth mentioning not to eat around here as it tends to be expensive, just drive around 10km away and eat lunch elsewhere. Another thing is that you can combine the Li River with several other attractions on the same day, therefore maximizing your time and money. Definitely, I would recommend visiting here, usually it's one of the busiest tourist destinations in China, but we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to have it to ourselves for just one day! #tripblazers #mytripvlog #2023travelwish