Guilin is a small-ish city (pop 4.9 million.. qualifies for small-ish in China) 1500km south west of Shanghai. We took the 18 hour overnight slow train which was a very pleasant journey of random English conversation, noodles and hard-bed sleeping. Highly recommended.
Guilin itself is a delightful scenic city on the Li river. One of the must-do’s is the Two Rivers and Four Lakes cruise, probably best viewed at night but I prefer daylight photography for this sort of thing so it was after lunch for a 75-minute cruise. (about 25BGP each). Starting point was Riyue Shuangta Cultural Park – home of the twin Pagodas – sadly closed due to flood damage.
Where there’s a park, there’s people. Throughout the trip people are out posing in traditional costume or undertaking elaborate selfies – best thing is to join in with the photo taking.
To get the 4L/2R cruise, just keep walking to the ticket office, English was spoken and tickets for the cruise were bought using the Alipay. The cruise itself is very relaxing, there’s lots to see and the scenery is striking. I do however prefer photographing some of the more random goings-on – boats, selfies and other peoples’ cameras.
The cruise covers the following – though I lost track of where we were and frankly wasn’t bothered. The scenery, the vibe and the people were of more interest.
The Two Rivers:
The Li River (漓江 Li Jiang /lee jyang/)
The Peach Blossom River (桃花江 Taohua Jiang /taoww-hwaa jyang/)
The Four Lakes:
Chinese Fir Lake (杉湖 Shan Hu /shan hoo/)
Banyan Lake (榕湖 Rong Hu /rong hoo/)
Osmanthus Lake (桂湖 Gui Hu /gway hoo/)
Wooden Dragon Lake (木龙湖 Mulong Hu /moo-long hoo/)
I’ll need to go back sometime and pay attention.
Photos taken on the Canon 6D with 28-80mm 75-300mm zooms and the 85mm 1.8 prime.
Late Developer 