Guilin 2015

[edwyn66]

I just got back from Guilin and it was a fruitful trip for great photo! The weather was just nice to go in April. I couldn't find a tour book at Popular bookstore so I ordered online and luckily they arrived 1 day before my departure date. I went there alone with my XT-1 and 2 lens, namely the Carl Zeiss Touit 2.8/12 and the Fujifilm F1.4mm. I took Tigerair and they only fly on Saturday. Anyone wish to go the next best time to go is September. I will be happy to answer any queries on transport arrangement in Guilin.

 

[31stAugust]

I just got back from Guilin and it was a fruitful trip for great photo! The weather was just nice to go in April. I couldn't find a tour book at Popular bookstore so I ordered online and luckily they arrived 1 day before my departure date. I went there alone with my XT-1 and 2 lens, namely the Carl Zeiss Touit 2.8/12 and the Fujifilm F1.4mm. I took Tigerair and they only fly on Saturday. Anyone wish to go the next best time to go is September. I will be happy to answer any queries on transport arrangement in Guilin.

View attachment 7674

View attachment 7675

View attachment 7676

View attachment 7677

Hi

Nice pictures. Can share how you travel? Thanks

 

[edwyn66]

Guilin has 3 main area with lots of scenic place for photography. 1) Guilin (main city) 2) Yang Shuo （阳朔）and 3) Long Sheng (龙&#32988.

If you have limited days like 4 days 3 night there, I will suggest you book your hotel based in Yang Shuo. There has a big concentration of old town, river cruise, mountains, etc. But that will means you have to fly to Guilin, then immediately get a bus ticket at their bus interchange to Yang Shuo which is about 2hrs away.

Long Sheng is north part of Guilin, also about 2hrs from the main city, to me is a must visit to the 2 villages namely 大寨 and 平安寨. I stayed only 1 night at 平安寨. The main highlight for photography there is the 龙脊梯田. Though April was not the best time for great pictures (However the weather was very nice, day time average 21 degree and night time about 18 or 19 degree). The local told me to go before or after 端午节, which is 1 week before or after June 20. By then the padding field steps are all filled with water, you get breath taking pictures during sunrise or sunset. 2nd best time to go would be after September 24, according to the villager. By then the crops has turn yellow and they say it's very beautiful and at the same time the tourist is not as heavy compared to other months.

The pictures I shared was taken from 老寨山. If you decide to climb this mountain make sure it was not raining and you have enough rest and water plus a torch light (should u decide to take sunset pics). This mountain is considered dangerous but if you are careful and with the right shoe you will make it to the top like I did. Locals told me few person already fell to their death in this mountain. Along the way up there are tombs too. But once you get to the top it was all worth it.

For my April trip I was based in Guilin main city and stayed at 好地方江景酒店. Pretty good hotel and good location too. Just around the corner you get a walking street with lots of food and shopping and 24hr convenient store.

 

[edwyn66]

Raft for cruising the river.


Thousand years old opera stage.

 

[edwyn66]

Taken at 老寨山.


Taken at 老寨山.


龙胜平安寨


龙胜平安寨


Must try 竹筒饭.

 

[Roy19]

<img src="http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7720"/>
Taken at &#32769;&#23528;&#23665;.

<img src="http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7721"/>
Taken at &#32769;&#23528;&#23665;.

<img src="http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7722"/>
&#40857;&#32988;&#24179;&#23433;&#23528;

<img src="http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7723"/>
&#40857;&#32988;&#24179;&#23433;&#23528;

<img src="http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7724"/>
Must try &#31481;&#31570;&#39277;.

Very nice pictures. Can you share how do you get about in Yangshuo especially to the scenic places to shoot? Thanks.

 

[edwyn66]

I guess I will share how I moved around in Guilin for the benefit of members who wish to go there. I took Tigerair and arrived around 10 plus a.m. From the airport they have bus that take you to Guilin central area. I have no idea which stop should I alight, I took a chance and alighted at the first stop and from there it was only 10 mins taxi ride to my hotel.



The location was pretty good, behind the hotel has a 24hr minimart, a massage shop, food street, etc. Room was pretty spacious with a balcony.





From my hotel I visited &#20004;&#27743;&#22235;&#28246;, about 20 mins walk from my hotel. This place I would recommend you to visit at night. They use colored spot light to light up the trees, fabulous place to take picture. You will need tripod as well as 8x nd filter to get the long exposure to get picture like below:



This place lights out at 11p.m. I spend 2 hrs there looking for different angle to capture the twin tower. Below is my favourite:



To be continued.

 

[edwyn66]

I also visited &#20239;&#27874;&#23665;, about 15 mins walk from my hotel. It's an easy mountain to climb. Nothing really spectacular. The highlight was the ancient buddha curving on the walls.



On top of the mountain is pretty winding and you get a pretty good view of Guilin city.

View attachment 9228

I also visited &#23591;&#23665;. It not advisable to walk there although you can, better to take a taxi, about 20 mins ride. Less than SG$5 I think. It was pretty tall mountain. I took the cable car up. You wouldn't want to do it if you are afraid of height. There are "unofficial" track that you can hike up the mountain, but I guess it will really exhaust you. There was not much area that you can move around once you are at the top. I would recommend you to time you trip so that you reach the top around 4-5pm.

View attachment 9227

You can choose to take the fun way down hill by taking the &#23591;&#23665;&#28369;&#36947; which is 1000 meter long. I didn't try that. The normal ticket I think is RMB90 for to-and-fro cable car ride.

View attachment 9230

To be continued.

 

[charlatan]

Very nice pictures!! May I know the rough cost for the trip?

 

[edwyn66]

Hi, the air tickets you can check on tigerair website, I did a search today and price has gone up, S$500-700 to travel next week or October. Hotel was S$60 plus per night, my hotel was just next to Sheraton Hotel. The taxi driver initial don't know the location of my hotel. I show her the map and she recognised Sheraton. Remember to pick a hotel with free wi-fi. It was hard to find prepaid sim card in Guilin cos the government is restricting such sales already. Only China citizen can buy, I only manage to find a shop on the third day that sell such sim card. It is important for me to have a local sim card so that I can use the Baidu map in my phone to navigate like google map. For the cruise down the Li River, you can engage a local tour package which was below S$100 for a day trip down the Li River. I would recommend that so that you get to know how to travel around than the next few days you can go on your own already. Food is no issue since it's cheap. I will cover more in my subsequent post.

 

[edwyn66]

I was just wandering area around my hotel on my first day then I saw &#38742;&#27743;&#29579;&#24220;, one of Guilin city main attraction. For this place it's hard to get good picture. It has a mountain inside call &#29420;&#31168;&#23792;, easy to climb. Lots of wall carving of poems on the way up since it was frequent by the scholar during the ancient time. Imagine during those days a 12 story tall building is already consider quite tall. It's opening hour is 8.30am to 5:30pm. However I stayed at the peak until 6 p.m. waiting for the sunset, but the staff was already chasing me out (politely) cos the doors to the mountain will be locked after official hours. All in all don't quite get good pictures there, unless I can go in before sunrise, which was not feasible. If you are a fan of Chinese caligraphy maybe the wall carvings will interest you. If you want good picture I'll say you can skip this place since the official entrance fee is RMB130. Below are some pictures of this place.

 

[edwyn66]

After I booked the day tour at a tour agency near &#38742;&#27743;&#29579;&#24220; the next day a bus pick me up at my hotel, then it went to a few more hotels to pickup the rest and from there it was a two hours bus ride to Yangshou &#38451;&#26388;. It was a tight schedule as the raft will leave the harbour at 10plus morning. If we are late then got to wait another 2 hours plus for the next raft schedule. So if the tour guide ask you to meet at what time you better take it seriously. We got on the raft and it was a pretty nice experience, almost 1hr plus ride down the Li River. Albeit the wonderful serene experience was marred by the sound of the motor that drive the raft. It's mandatory to wear the safety vest.

Due to the timing of the day it's lousy light for pictures. So I just took some casual shot for record purpose. It you want a better experience down the Li river, I recommend you get a &#24072;&#20613; contact that do rafting for tourist at www.taobao.com. Just search for &#28435;&#27743;&#28418;&#27969;. Or you can search www.mafengwo.cn under Guilin to get a recommended contact from it's user travel blog. Such &#24072;&#20613; are independent operator and they can pick a better timing and do it at a slower pace, like off the motor for a quiet drift, got off at certain location for you to take picture. One of the spot along the river was where they take the picture featured on the back of the RMB20 dollar bill.

 

[edwyn66]

During my 2nd trip down the Li river which I got ticket from another tour operator, I requested one way trip and asked them to drop off at &#20852;&#22378;&#21476;&#38215;. My plan was to take pictures around this ancient town, climb the &#32769;&#23528;&#23665; and then head to &#35199;&#34903; at night, a famous walking street at Yangshou. Below are some pictures from this old town. However I will recommend another 1000 years old town call &#22823;&#22313;&#21476;&#38215; which I didn't manage to cover during my last trip. To me &#20852;&#22378;&#21476;&#38215; is slowly losing it's charm as it gets more modernized. Cars parking outside the old house just spoiled the composition. Another must visit place called &#26472;&#25552; which sadly I didn't manage to cover also, but it's accessible from the bus interchange at Yangshou.



This dish is call &#21860;&#37202;&#40060;. A must try dish in Yangshuo. You pay much more if you have this fish at &#35199;&#34903; cos that place is tourist haunt. The fish was cooked with beer, not a single drop of water was used (supposingly lah).

 

[edwyn66]

I was about to climb the &#32769;&#23528;&#23665; and it started to drizzle. So I went into this hostel below and ordered pizza and cuppacino. Good thing that I did that, turns out I really need the extra energy to get up this tough mountian. There's no proper hand rail along the way up, the pavement was funded by a Japanese who owns a restaurant at the foot of the mountain. Along the way up there are tombs of the locals and you really need a torch light on your way down if you only started to make you way down around 6.30 p.m. If not you might have taken the path that leads to the tomb... Not advisable to climb this mountain after heavy rain. Cos the pavement can be slippery and I have heard local told me few old folks who collect waste fell to their death in this mountain, including a Taiwan photographer. I suspect the photographer was at the same place where I took the picture but he ventured too far out and lost his footing...

When you reached the top there is a &#20013;&#26085;&#21451;&#22909;&#20141;. But that's not the vintage point to take the 360 degree U-turn Li river. Towards the left side there are rocks that you can climb up and from there is where I took those breath taking shots that I posted at the beginning of the thread.

The hostel where I had my pizza and coffee.


Inside the hostel.


Wood fire for cooking the pizza.


My pizza!

 

[edwyn66]

Lucky for me the rain stopped after my feast at the hostel. So I began my conquer for this mountain. The last hurdle was a ninety degree vertical metal ladder that you have to be careful, not sure if anyone was maintaining it, the middle part has a step which already came off but was held together by metal wire... One thing to note is the rock that I mentioned earlier that you need to climb further to get to the best vintage point for picture, I saw mini centipede crawling around, not sure if there are big ones but watch where you stand.

Entrance to this mountain, very near to the harbour where they park the raft.


Tripadvisor signage!


On the way up. U can see a tomb on the left side.


Taken from the &#20013;&#26085;&#21451;&#22909;&#20141;.


The centipede I mentioned.

 

[vaevictis]

Nice series, lovely scenes from the mountainous regions.

 

[Nikonzen]

Amazing looking place! Thank you for sharing sir.