Recently Aric and I made a trip to China. I wrote a general report about our trip, China trip, Novenber 2024 , followed by detailed reports Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park , Zhang Jia Jie, the Grand Canyon, Fu Rong Ancient Town and Feng Huang Ancient Town . This will be the final report about our trip. Actually the Tian Men mountain was the main reason that Aric chose Zhang Jia JIe as a destination. But there was much more to see, so we kept the Gate to Heaven for the last day. Here is a photo taken from the Internet. The Tian character means sky or heaven, and the Men character means door or gate.

After breakfast and a morning walk in the old town of Feng Huang, we took the train back to Zhang Jia Jie. A bit more than one hour, just time enough to have lunch. Of course a bit expensive, but good quality.

This time Aric had not booked a hotel with a spectacular view, but with another advantage. It was in walking distance from the cable car station to the mountain. Here is the hotel, or to be more precise, a few floors , because the building houses several hotels. The other pic shows a map of the Tian Men mountain. There are basically two ways to do the Tian Men hike, clockwise or anticlockwise. Our plan was to hike counterclockwise, starting with the cable car we could see from our hotel. Our room was comfortable.

View from our hotel room. The building in the center is the station where the cable car starts and also the main ticket office. Although off-season, there was an amazing number of tour buses parked next to the station. At the horizon the Tian Men mountains.

Aric had planned a surprise for the evening, a visit to the 72 Qilou, often named 72 Strange Buildings. And strange it was, a kind of monumental folly. I could not find much reliable information about it. It has a Guinness world record for being the highest stilted building in the world, but the building is not stilted, only has many overhanging balconies. It must be a modern construction, although some web pages suggest that it is old.

It has become very popular with local tourists, especially in the evening when the lights are on. There are shows and many eateries. We had snack food there. The central hole in the building refers of course to the Tian Men gate.

Back in the hotel, Aric tried to buy tickets online for the following day, but could not. So we decided to wake up very early to be sure that tickets (they use time slots) would be available. It worked. There was a light drizzle, we bought rain coats, just in case . Then we went nack to bed, because we had bought tickets for the 10-11 am time slot. The weather looked a bit gloomy, we could not see the mountains from our hotel room.

We had simple breakfast in one of the several eateries on the ground floor of our hotel.

The cable car is with 7455 m the world’s longest passenger cable car in a high mountain. A trip takes 28 minutes anc ascends 1279m m.

Soon we were in the clouds, no views of the town and the mountains. The first day that we were not lucky with the weather.

Arrival at the upper station where our hike started. Above us blue sky, but we were most of the time in t he clouds.

The hike is spectacular. Cliff trails have been built with solid railings. Not scary, because most of the time we had no view. Also quite flat, not much up and down. Notice that often we could see blue sky above us.

One of the highlights of the hike is the glass walkway. We had to wear shoe covers. Because of the clouds it was not so scary, although sometimes we could look down.

This is the glass cliff walk (Internet photo probably taken by a drone). Building these cliff walks must have been very difficult.

After returning the shoe covers, we continued our walk.

Not always a cliff walk. Here a location with many wishing ribbons.

Then cliffs again. We kept taking pictures, and it was often possible to take photos without other people in it. An advantage of traveling off-season.

There was also a suspension bridge.

And a place with hundreds of love locks.

Halfway on the plateau there is a restaurant, where we had lunch. Aric used the toilet to warm his hands!

Next we visited the huge complex of the Tian Men Mountain Temple Dating back to AD 870 (Tang dynasty) it was destroyed during the Chinese Civil War and rebuilt in 1949.

It is a Buddhist temple with guardians, many halls and statues. Interesting but we were only halfway on our hike, so we did not stay very long.

The second half of our hike was similar to the first half. There was another glass cliff walk, but we skipped it.

We were still on the plateau, how to go down? The answer was : by escalator! Since 2015 there are two mountain escalators. The first one contains 7 segments and brought us down to the Tian Men gate. The second one, 5 segments, brings you down to the Tian Men square.

After this escalator you have to walk down to reach the bottom of the gate

We did it! Standing at the Gate of Heaven.

Here I am looking down the infamous 999 steps between the gate and the Tian Men square. No way that I was going down here. Hardly anybody did. Fortunately there was the second elevator.

Here we are at the square. Aric with his thumb down, because we could not see the gate. I with my thumb up, because there was coffee.

It was almost 5 pm and our plan was to stay until the evening, hoping that the lights would be switched on after dark. We sat down and walked around. Sometimes the gate was a bit visible for a short while. And there were nice tress with autumn leaves.

Many people were doing the same.

At exactly 6 pm, the lights came on. First simple white lights, but soon a light show started.

We are very happy with this picture. For a while the gate was visible. so scenic.

Around 7 pm we left the square, still had to walk some distance to another cable car which brough us down, followed by a bus back to where we started. Mission accomplished, we hiked more than 10 km, more than 15000 steps. But only 11 flights climbed. I was very happy that I could mange it

We rewarded ourselves with a sumptuous dinner. Cauliflower with Pork, Dry meat and Sausage fried and Fried Prawns.

Next morning we had breakfast with local noodles and checked out.

At the airport we noticed a local KFC. We had to try it of course.

Ready to board. End of a fantastic holiday trip.

The next destination on our China Trip 2024 was Feng Huang, one of the most famous old towns in China. Feng Huang means Phoenix. After breakfast in Fu Rong we took a taxi to the station and boarded the train to Phoenix, where we arrived 43 minutes later. Nice countryside with padi fields.

We took a taxi to the entrance gate of the old town, where a lady from the hotel staff was waiting for us. She brought us to the hotel, only a short walk away.

Another room with a view! On the 7th floor, no lift, the lady asked me if climbing the stairs was no problem for me ;-). I managed 😉 .

The lady gave advice how to spend our time, there is a lot to see and we had only one day. We went out for food, instead of going to a restaurant, we bought snack food. Delicious prawn crackers and later very nice corn cakes

We followed the road along the river, admiring the houses on stilts that are chacteristic for the Tuija architecture. The Tuija are a recognised minority in China, living in this region. More information about them can be found here.

A pleasant walk, beautiful weather

A statue of a running man (not a phoenix) and a decorative water wheel.

We walked until the water wheel and took pictures of two bridges. There are many more across the river. The first picture, looking backwards, shows the bridge we passed on arrival. The other picture shows two bridges we were planning to visit later, after sunset. Notice in front of the bridges there are two stepping-stones crossings!

Nore pictures, walking back to pur hotel. No wonder that Phoemix is a very popular tourist destination in China. The many cruising boats let visitors explore the town in an easy way.

We wanted to be back in our hotel not too late, so we could look at the scenery when it got darker, hoping that the lights would come on. Our room had the luxury of a private balcony.

Another bridge.Zoom photo from our balcony.

The sun sets early and it gets dark fast. Two photos one at 5:57 pm, the othet one at 6:27 pm. At 6 pm the lights came on, so beautiful.

Around 7 pm we went out again for another walk

Also here in Phoenix there were many people who rented a traditional costume. The package often included a photographer who instructed the ladies hwo to pose elegantly 😉 .

Again we had snack food as dinner. The restaurant fare (pork and more pork) got boring. These are potato cakes, so tasty that we took two.

The bridge we had photogtaphed earlier was now brightly lit. On a platform in the river a lady was dancing and singing.

The second bridge, for motorised traffic gave us a nice vier of river and town.

We walked back, using one of the stepping-stone crossings.

Delicious pork sausages for me and smelly taufu for Aric.

The next morning we had time enough to visit the old town at the other side of the bridge. It was still quiet except when a tour group was passing.

Looking for a breakfast place, Aric found a beef noodle stall. Nice after so much pork.

Here are some photos of the old town.

We visited the Thean Hou temple. An impressive complex. Many phoenix sumbols

The Queen of Heaven and Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Taoism and Buddhism.

We continued until we reached the main signboard of the town,

Many nice houses.

Embroidery and needle work are a speciality of the region.

Walking back to our hotel.

Crossing the bridge from the other side.

Checking out with a last look of the view we had.

After checking out and leaving the hotel we came across this wedding procession. Not real, a show for tourists, but quite interesting,

The third day of our China Trip we took a train to Fu Rong. But first we had breakfast in our hotel. A nice hotel, friendly staff, but the breakfast was a bit simple. After two times noodles, we had a few equally simple plain pau with a glass of soy milk and an egg.

A taxi took us to the Zhang Jia Jie railway station. A big, modern station, with a McDonald’s, where we had coffee and snacks to supplement the meager hotel breakfast.

There was a large number of massage chairs and we had time enough to try one out. The massage was strong, sometimes almost painful.

The high-speed train (300 km/h) took us in 23 minutes to Fu Rong, a distance of 80 km. You have to book seats in advance.

From the station we took a taxi to Fu Rong Ancient Town. where we had booked our hotel. You have to pay an entrace fee for this town, even when you stay there. A hotel staff took us from the entrance on a short walk to the hotel and showed us our room. A room with a view! Aric had found the only room in town with a spectacular view of the waterfalls that made the town famous.

Imagine, I took this video from our hotel room window. I was stunned and almost got a bit emotional.

Here is Aric enjoying the room with a well-deserved cup of tea.

But we went out soon, because the weather was nice. The waterfalls are the main attraction of the town, but the town itself is also very attractive. It was founded in 202 BC by the Tujia people. Fu Rong Ancient Town has a charcteristic architecture and it would be easy to spend more time than we had..

The left picture shows our hotel. We walked down to the river. No lunch, just bought some snacks here and there. Still relatively quiet, it became more crowded in the afternoon. Visitors like to stay until it gets dark and the lights are on.

A lower view if the waterfalls. We followed a path behind the waterfalls.

I have marked with a red cross the location of our room (top left corner)

Some locations are very popular, especially for tour groups. These two photos are taken from about the same location. One a bit lower, with many people, the other one higher up.

We continued walking the path quite far, before we returned the same way.

Here is the Tujia Shelter Bridge. The lady is not a local, but a tourist dressed in a traditional Tijia costume! Hundreds of them visit Fu Rong and rent a costume. includint make up etc tp parade in the streets. Nice, but also a bit funny.

We didn’t use the bridge but crossed the shallow stream on stepping stones.

Back in our room we relaxed with a drink. Aric with the local wine, I had my fire water.

Watching the village and the waterfalls while the sun was setting and the lights came on..

Later we went out again for dinner. There are numerous eateries in the ancient town, but the hotel reception had warned us that they were touristy and pricey. Better go to the modern town. So that’s what we did.

We found an acceptable restaurant. With different preparations of pork, tofu and a mixed mushroom dish. Not bad.

After dinner we walked around in the old town. The bridge was brightly lit and crowded with visitors. Many of them dressed in local costumes.

My Chinese Zodiac sign is Monkey and I am reading at the moment the Monky King novel, so when I saw Pigsy, my companion on my Journey to the West, I wanted my picture taken with him. He was willing, but asked for a donation, via a QR code 😉

The next morning we went out for breakfast. The streets were now deserted, but one restaurant was already open, serving nice rice tofu, a speciality of Fu Rong.

Back in our hotel we had a last view of our room and the waterfalls, before checking out and going to our next destination.

Another interesting day.

Our second day was a bit less strenuous. Still a lot of walking but less up and down. Our target was the famous Zhang Jia Jie Glass Bridge. We had breakfast again in our hotel, same as the day before, simple noodles with some condiments. Cloudy, less cold.

We took a taxi to the entrance, were surprised how quiet it was, bought tickets and took a shuttle bus to the beginning of the bridge.

Here is a scale model of the bridge. The bridge was opened in 2016 as a tourist attraction and at that time it was the longest and tallest glass bottomed bridge in the world, 430 meters long, 6 meters wide, and suspended about 300 meters above the ground.

We had to wear shoe covers to protect the glass.

Here is the bridge.

Before crossing the bridge we first had a cup of coffee.

The bridge was designed to carry up to 800 visitors at a time. But the crowd was so enormous (see the Internet photo) that after two weeks the bridge was closed so the authorities could take measures to control the crowd. Probably it will still be unpleasantly crowded during peak season, but during our visit it was perfect.

The first steps on the glass are scary, but you get used to it fast. It helps that the glass is slightly opaque.

From the center of the bridge you have a spectacular view of the canyon, 300 meter below. After crossing the bridge, you can just walk back to the entrance. Or you can take the elevator down to the canyon. The more adventurous option is to use a zipline (flying fox) to the other side. You can see the ziplines in the picture next to the elevator.

After you get used to the glass bottom, it becomes very enjoyable. The river below is clearly visible.

After crossing the bridge we returned the shoe covers. Then it was time for a snack and a drink.

Then we walked down to the zipline station.

The real daredevils can bungee jump from the bridge. If you look carefully you may notice a cable hanging under the center of the bridge. We did not see any action during our visit.

I was a bit concerned wether they would allow me to use the zipline at my age. But they didn’t even ask me how old I was, just helped me in my seat and fastened the safety belts. I went first, Aric took a picture of me.

There are six parallel ziplines, we didn’t even have to queue. Everything is very well organised.

Cameras take pictures of the trip. So here we are, ready to go. Look at our faces.

And here we have almost arrived. Click on the picture to see the video taken. What an experience!

To descend to the canyon there is a series of slides. Gloves are given and a protective cover for your bum.

I found on the Internet a YouTube video of the zipline and the slide Worth watching.

After we had arrived at the bottom, we looked up and saw the bridge, high above us.

The last part is a relaxing mix of a boat ride and a walk back to the entrance.

A well kept walkway, but mind your head!

Very scenic. Beautiful colors of the water.

There is even a small cave we had to walk through.

We kept taking pictures.

A second boat ride tbrought us to the entrance from where we took a bus back to the town.

We deserved another nice dinner and tried this restaurant.

I tried the local fire water. Very strong (52 %) , not bad.

Enjoying our food. Young bamboo shoots and a wok with pork, chicken abd veggie.

Another spectacular day.

In my blog China trip, November 2024, I gave some background information about our trip with a selection of the many pictures we took during that 8D7N trip. In this post I will be more detailed.

On 6 November we took a Grab to KLIA, where we checked it with Batik Air, because they have a direct flight to Zhang Jia Jie. Immigration now has a special gate for MM2H, no queue. There was time enough to have breakfast.

The flight took about 5 hours. When we booked, we had ordered lunch, which was quite good

Aric had booked a hotel in Wi Ling Yuan town, near to the main entrance of the Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park, our destination for the next day. A taxi was waiting for us, arranged by the hotel. China is quite advanced nowadays, with an almost cashless economy.

The hotel reception was very friendly and gave us suggestions about what to do the next day. We had a nice big room, the table on the left is a Mahjong table 😉 . The room had aircon that could be switched to cooling or heating. Very useful, we needed the heating 😉 .

From the roof terrace we had an impressive view of the mountains. The Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park is famous for its thousands of quartzite sandstone pillars, many of them hundreds of meters high. A real stone forest.

The local cuisine is mainly based on pork. The hotel suggested a suitable restaurant, where we had our dinner. Braised pork,  stir-fried young lotus roots and veggie. Not bad. Walking back to our hotel we did some shopping for our hike the next day.

Breakfast was included and served on the roof terrace. It was very cold, less than 10 degrees, but we were prepared, had brought fleece and jackets.

The park entrance was not very far from the hotel, but we took a taxi anyway, because we expected a lot more walking in the park. Although off-season there were still many visitors.

A ticket gives you four days access, because there is a lot to see. But we had only one day, so we could only visit a few highlights. Left the map given to us by the hotel with some of their markings, right a map near the park entrance.

The transport in the park is very well organised. From the entrance a bus brought us to the lower cable car station. Of course we started already taking picture from the cable car, although there were reflections. The first pillars!

A view of the cable car, taken from the upper station. Very impressive scenery.

There were many groups with their tour guide, armed with a flag and a noisy microphone, so it was not always easy to take pictures.

Here is a part of the stone forest

Aric was hoping that there might be autumn colors and we found some, around a pagoda..

More stone forest. We were very lucky with the weather. Aric chatted with a Taiwan guy who had visited the park a few years ago, and had not seen much because everything was in the mist.

We had to climb up and down a lot. Stunning views everywhere.

The park is very well organised, there are toilets and places where you can have food and drinks. Buses shuttle between places of interest. Sometimes we had to queue for a few minutes, but in many places there was no waiting time. That must be very different during peak season.

More pillars, more views

The picture below was taken from the Internet, you need a drone to take it. It is named the First Bridge under Heaven, 2 meter wide, 5 meter thick and about 400(!) . meter above ground level. It’s a natural rock bridge and we crossed it.

The bridge leads to a shrine, covered in red wishing ribbons. We bought two for our own roof garden 😉

Using the shuttle bus we visited another part of the park.

The rock pillar below apparently inspired the creator of the Avatar movie for the floating mountains in that iconic movie. The pillar has now been named the Avatar Hallelujah mountain.

More views, we kept taking pictures while it became slowly darker (sunset around 5:30 pm!)

At the end of our long hike we descended by elevator! The Bailong elevator brings you down 326 meter in 1 minute and 32 seconds. Opened in 2015 it was the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. A bus brought us back to the entrance, where the pagoda was now brighly lit.

We had walked 11 km, 16000 steps and climbed 44 flights. Time for a well-deserved dinner.

Pork again, tofu and long beans. I had a funny fruit as dessert. It is called Kiwano, I thought it was typical Chinese, but found out later that it is native to South Africa.

We could have walked home, but decided to take a taxi 😉 . What a day!

In 2019 Aric and I traveled abroad several times, to China, France, Italy and Singapore. After that first came COVID and later Aric was busy with his laundry shop. So it was only after 5 years that we could make a (short) trip together, again to China. The trip was planned for the first week of September, but both of us got dengue and we had to cancel it last minute.

Now we booked again, for 6-13 Novenber, hoping that the weather would still be acceptable. Our destination this time was the North-Western part of Hunan province. The most famous attraction is the Tianmen Mountain, receiving about 4 million visitors annually. But there is much more to see. In this Google Earth map I have marked the places we visited.

We took many hundreds of photos. In this blog I will just give an impression. More detailed blogs will follow later.

We started with the Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park, since 1992 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Famous for its quartzite sandstone pillars, many of them several hudred meters tall. Sometimes called a stone forest.

Fascinating landscape. One of the pillars is now named Avatar, apparently it inspired the makers of the Avatar movie to create the floating mountains in that movie.

A rewarding long hike. 10.6 km, 16000 steps, 44 flights climbed !

The next day we visited the Zhang Jia Jie Glass Bridge. This glass-bottomed bridge was opened to the public in 2016, It is 430 m long and suspended about 300 m above the ground.

First steps on the glass are scary, but you get used to it.

You can just walk back on the bridge but you can also continue in a more adventurous way. Using a zipline to cross back high above the canyon. Then use a slide to go further down. Quite an experience!

At the bottom of the canyon, you follow the river, partly by boat, the rest walking.

The next day we took a high-speed train (300 km/h) to Furong town. The old town is famous because of its location around a number of waterfalls. From our hotel room we had a perfect view.

Together with a crowd of (mostly local) tourists we walked down to the falls. You can even pass behind one of them.

We enjoyed our room, with the night view of the falls. Later we went out again for dinner. Still many day-trippers. The next morning it was very quiet.

Our next destination was Fenghuang ancient town (Phoenix), again by train. Phoenix is a traditional Chinese town, located on the banks of a river. Also here we had a room with a beautifull view.

Traditional houses on stilts, cruise boats on the river. We also enjoyed the view from our own balcony.

In the evening the town was brightly lit. We walked quite far along the river, crossing on one of the bridges and back using stepping stones. The next morning we walked in the old town to the iconic sign board of Phoenix.

The bext day we took the train back to Zhang Jia Jie. Our hotel was conveniently located at walking distance from the ticket office for the Tianmen Mountain. Although off-season, there was still an amazing number of tourist buses, so we were even a bit worried if we could get tickets.

In the evening we took a taxi to 72 Qilou, a bizarre “folly” of gigantic proportions. Imitating the Tianmen Mountain. Originally meant to be a hotel (?) it is now a popular tourist attraction with many eateries.

The next morning we woke up early to buy our tickets (7 am!) for the Tianmen Mpuntain . The weather had been excellent, but now it was cloudy with some drizzle. We started using the cable car, with more than 7 km one of the longest in the world.

We walked mostly in the clouds, above us there was often blue sky. One of the attractions is a glass walkway.

The clouds made it less scary.

The cliffside paths are also spectacular.

The Tianmen Mountain Temple on the top is a Buddhist temple.

It was another long hike. 10 km, more than 15000 steps, but relatively flat, only 11 flights climbed.

When we reached the Tianmen cave (a natural arch), we used escalators and stairs to reach the bottom of the cave.

From there you can descend 999 steps to the main square. But that would have been too much for me, instead we used another series of escalators.

We felt happy that we had made it. Sometimes the gate was visible for a short while.

We stayed there a couple of hours until at 6 pm the lights came on.

Mission accomplished!

We visited Guilin in March 2019 and in my blog post about the trip I wrote that it was a first impression with only a few pictures of each day. “Planning to write three reports, but that will take time.“. And indeed it took time, more than two years.

But at last here is a report about one of the highlights of those holidays, the famous Terraced Rice Fields of Longji. They are located about 80 km north of Guilin and consist of three separate regions. We decided to visit the Jinkeng Terraced Fields which “enjoys the largest amount of Rice Terraces in Longji” . In this rather inaccurate diagram it is the rightmost region.

In Jinkeng Aric had booked the Panorama House Hotel, high up in the hills. It could only be reached on foot, so we left our main luggage in our Guilin hotel, and took only small backpacks.

We used public transport to travel from Guilin to Geping, where the ticketing office for Longji is located. After buying an entry ticket the bus brought us to the cable car station in Jinkeng.

There we rented a small van to the Tiantou Village, where the trail to the hotel started. But first we had lunch in the hotel/restaurant hat belonged to the van driver 😉

While he was preparing our lunch, we waited in the restaurant. It was off-season, will be more crowded during peak-season. It was cold, look how the school boys have their private heating.

The lunch was ok, a bit porky. After the lunch the driver/cook and I warmed ourselves a bit.

Near the village there is one of the famous viewpoints of Jinkeng. There was one other guest in the hotel, who knew the way, so we followed him..

It was only about 500 meter to the viewpoint, where a large viewing gallery had been built. The views were fabulous. It is called the Large-scale Thousand-Layers Terraces (千层天梯) .IN the Google Map at the end of this blog it is viewpoint no 2.

Here are a few more pictures.

After taking many more pictures, we walked back to the village and started our walk to our hotel. Here is a picture looking back to the village.

From far away we could see our hotel already. The weather was nice, the path well maintained, it took us about one hour.

When you enlarge the picture, you may be able to see the cable car, far away.

Not far from our hotel we passed another viewpoint , visible in the right picture. It is called West Hill Music (西山韶乐) (Viewpoint no 1 in the Google map)

A short final climb took us to the hotel and its rustic reception, where we checked in for our two night stay.

Here is the view from our balcony. Worth the climb 😉 .

Quite cold. Good that there was some home-brewed liquor in the restaurant to keep me warm.

I think we were the only guests in the hotel. Here we are waiting for our dinner.

We needed warm clothes. For dinner we had pork rice in bamboo, stuffed tofu and veggie. The cuisine is very local.

Next morning, view from our balcony. Very scenic with the clouds, although it did not bode well for the weather that day.

Later it cleared up a bit.

Our plan for the day was to walk to Viewpoint No 3 near the cable car station. Easy walking, a clear trail.

It started to drizzle, good that we had taken our umbrellas. Aric is in two of these pictures, I am in the third one. An advantage of traveling off-season is that we did not meet a single soul on the trail.

Halfway during our 2 hour hike.

Approaching Viewpoint No 3: Golden Buddha Peak (金佛顶)

You can reach this viewpoint by cable car

There are many viewing platforms.

View of Golden Buddha Peak (金佛顶)

Because of the easy access, there were quite a few visitors here. Pity that it rained.

We took the cable car down.

Beautiful views from our cabin, during the descent.

The cable car is mainly used by day-trippers from Guilin or Yangshuo. But to fully appreciate the beauty of Longji, it is better to stay a couple of days..

There were some simple eateries near the cable car station, where we had a basic lunch. We could add the condiments ourselves, not a bad idea 😉

We took again a van to the TIantou village, and from there we walked up to our hotel for the second time.

Boring? Not at all. Not sure if the farmers had started the irrigation or that it was just because of the rain, but many of the rice terraces were now covered with a layer of water. The water reflected the sky. Breathtakingly beautiful. Almost impossible to select pictures, because they are all so impressive.

Of course we took pictures with ourselves in it 😉 Here we are. We have done it!

We had dinner again in our hotel, and breakfast the next morning. They had done their best to prepare local food, it was quite eatable, we had chicken including the head !

Before we left , we enjoyed one last view from our balcony. Isn’t it breathtaking?

A few more pictures of the hotel before we started hiking down.. It must have been a major job to build it so high in the hills without access roads.

We had decided to walk back to the cable car station via a different route, passing small villages. The people here belong to a minority group, the Red Yao. Many ladies still wear the traditional dress.

Approaching Dazhai village.

At a souvenir shop in the village we bought some cushion covers.

From the parking near the cable car station, we took the bus back to Guilin. The map of Jinkeng was not very useful, I marked a few locations on Google Earth to give an impression of the region.

When you zoom in on Google Earth, you can see the intricate pattern of the terraces. This screenshot shows clearly the unique location of the Panaorama Hotel.

Our last visit to China was in 2015 with our friends Pat and Roger, I published four reports about the trip, there was so much to see 😉 This time the same problem, I took almost 1000 pictures. Planning to write three reports, but that will take time.

Here is a first impression, just a few photos for each day of our visit with a short description

Friday 1 March

We had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3am to catch our Air Asia flight to Guilin! The airport of Guilin is brand new. As it was cold and drizzling, we took a taxi to our hotel in the center of the old town and we had our first Guilin food, quit porky 😉

In the evening we went out to have a look at the twin pagodas, one of the (modern!) tourist attractions of Guilin.

Saturday 2 March

Cold and grey weather, we decided to visit the Reed Flute Cave, one of the many caves in the region. A showcave, with gaudy colors.

The cave is located on the outskirts of Guilin and a real tourist attraction with guided tours.

Sunday 3 March

We left most of our luggage in our Guilin hotel and took a bus to Longji, with its famous terraced rice fields. The hotel Aric had booked, was located high up in the hills and could only be reached on foot! It was still off-season, there were hardly any other guests. We were lucky that the weather was quite good this day.

The view from our balcony was spectacular and worth the steep climb 😉

Monday 4 March

The weather was foggy with intermittent drizzle. Good that we had brought our umbrellas. We walked two hours among the rice fields to the cable car station. Then we took the cable car down to the bus station, had lunch and walked up again to our hotel.

An iconic picture as a reward !

Tuesday 5 March

Originally we had planned to stay three nights in Longji, but two nights was enough. We walked back to the bus station following the footpath, passing picturesque villages. The local people are still wearing traditional dress.

Back in Guilin, we had enough time to visit one of the Guilin landmarks, the Elephant Trunk Hill. Because of the frequent rains, the water level was high, impossible to walk under the trunk.

Wednesday 6 March

Before leaving for Yangshuo, we spent the morning, visiting the Jingjiang Princes’ Palace, a kind of Forbidden City in Guilin. We climbed an isolated limestone hill within the compound, with a nice view of the karst hills surrounding Guilin.

Yangshuo is the main tourist center of the Guilin region. About one hour south by bus. Aric had found another romantic hotel/homestay, with a balcony overlooking the river. You can see the town on the other side of the river, the water level was so high that the usual crossing by ferry had stopped!

Thursday 7 March

Raining the whole day, we decided to have a rest day, had lunch in a local shop nearby and asked our hostess to prepare dinner for us, the local speciality, fish in beer sauce.

It was a nice meal, notice the people at the back, playing cards, with a electrical heater under the table… 😉

Friday 8 March

The weather was a little bit better, but still very misty. We decided to visit XingPing, a small town, north of Yangshuo. We walked along the Li river and climbed another steep limestone rock. Good exercise, but no view 😉

The traditional way of fishing is by using cormorants to catch the fish. Nowadays mostly a tourist attraction.

Saturday 9 March

Not yet sunny, but no rain, so we hired a bike, to explore the surroundings of Yangshuo. One of the attractions is the Moon Hill, another steep climb, but the view was fantastic. Many tourists here and eateries along the road. We tried a local speciality, pork with yam. We are not very impressed by the local cuisine, but this was eatable .

The landscapes are impressive.

In the evening we went to the Liu San Jie musical show. The show is based on the legend of Third Sister Liu, in 1961 a beautiful movie was made about her, which you can view on YouTube: Liu Sanjie

Sunday 10 March

Slowly the weather was improving. We went to Gongcheng, hoping to see the peach blossom, but not expecting too much, because of the cold weather. Not easy to find the place, first a big bus, then a smaller van, finally a three-wheel taxi.

With the help of our friendly lady-driver we managed to find a few nice spots with blossom. Not really clear if the season was over or not yet started.

After this excursion we took the bus back to Guilin. A bit reluctantly, because now finally the weather was nice. The water level in the river had gone down, riverboats were operating again.

Monday 11 March

Our last day was the first day with beautiful weather. First we walked along the river.

The rest of the day we spent in the Seven Star Park, the largest park of Guilin. There is a lot to see, caves, limestone outcrops (like the Camel hill) , temples, etc.

We climbed one more hill, with a view. No jackets needed 😉

After a long, nice day, we enjoyed the sunset from our hotel room, with a glass of local firewater .

Tuesday 12 March

Before going to the airport, we had the traditional noodle breakfast. Near our hotel was a popular shop, people were queuing, and had their bowl of noodles often just standing outside. I love all kind of noodles, but this was not my favourite.

Back home. We were a bit unlucky with the weather, but still a memorable trip.