A cruise down River Li (Lijiang)

A trip to Guilin is not complete without the mandatory cruise down Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo. Whilst the limestones have been around here for millions of years, the river was made famous in the whole of China when a movie called "Impressions of Liu San Jie" was filmed in the 60s. You can also see the landscape at the back of a RMB20 note. The cruise takes about 4 hours downstream.

The scenary at the back of a RMB 20 note

The authorities are serious about tourism but spelling needs to improve

Getting ready to board the boat

As we got ready to leave the pier in Guilin

The drive from Guilin city to the pier takes about 30 minutes. Most boats leave the pier at 9am and as many as 10 or more boats could be leaving within a short time of each other and the place could be somewhat chaotic.

Some nice view along the way

A boatman peddling some souvenir items

Many boats behind and in front of us. It's like a floatilla

A small boat selling fresh seafood to the kitchen of another boat

See the kitchen at the back of the boat (bottom)

Another seller of seafood, this time, snails

A "bamboo" rock formation

Nice hills

Bamboo boats are replaced by plastic pipes (white color)

River policemen on their patrol

Do you see the cat?

Nice view and so many small boats

The boat was has 2 levels and the top is for viewing. Although the sun was shining, it was not too hot and with the breeze, it was actually very nice. One could just enjoy the view and breeze the whole cruise and taking endless pictures. They also had a area for sitting upstairs.

However, to enjoy the seating upstairs, one has to "purchase" drinks and snacks or else you will get the death stare and silly comments. Of course the drinks and snacks would not be cheap. Can drinks are RMB 20 each and each plate of seafood was RMB 50. We told the waitress that two of us can't finish so much of seafood and the reply was, no problem, they can give us a combination of the 3 items in a plate for RMB 100. Go work out the math. One thing for sure, she was very nice to us after this.

The 3 seafood items were all deep fried. All of them were meant to be eaten whole, with the bones and shell. Well, at least both my wife and I had our fair share of calcium for the day.

A snack of prawns, crabs and fish from the river

A closer shot of the crab

The fish was crunchy

So was the prawn, all eaten whole

Beautiful limestone hills

A simple buffett lunch is provided on board

Ducks aplenty along the river banks

What tips?

Arriving into Yangshuo

After almost 4 hours, we arrived at Yangshuo. I will make another entry for Yangshuo. It was a nice leisurely cruise. The weather was perfect and we also made friends with a German couple and found their travel also very interesting.

Until the next time, cheers.