Guilin Self-guided Tour

 
Ziyuan locates 98km away from Guilin, and the bus is available at Guilin bus station (Tel: 0773-4311330) at the cost of CNY14.00 net per person. Standard buses run every 20 minutes from 06:00 to 17:40 every day while deluxe buses depart only at 07:40, 09:20, 11:20, 13:20, 14:40, 16:40 daily. We suggest you start in the morning, then you can visit the sites in the afternoon. Otherwise, you have to stay one more day in Ziyuan. If you have your own car, you can also drive from Guangzhou to Ziyuan directly, the road condition is good and this may be much cozier.

Once you are in Ziyuan, we suggest you find a hostel to leave your luggage and travel light in the afternoon. Here we have some hotel information to share with you. One is Lang Dong hotel (3 stars, Telephone: 0773-4318888) and the other is Dan Xia Hotel (Telephone: 0773-4311488). 

 
This afternoon, visit the Baoding Waterfall, which is one of the ten famous waterfalls in China. The admission fee is CNY30.00 and it opens from 08:00-17:30. You can take a microbus (CNY3.00 per person) which runs from Ziyuan bus station to Shangliang, and has a stop at Baoding. Besides the waterfall, you also can visit the Baoding Mountation, Baoding Lake, Baiyun Temple and Virgin Forest. Then back to Ziyuan the same way.

 
The second day's visit leads you to river drifting in Zijiang River and Bajiao village. There is no bus available to Xijiang River, and the most economic way is to take a tricycle to the No. 1 port to board the boat. The motor boat is CNY90.00 per person, and it is CNY500.00 if 6 persons charter one pneumatic boat. This river drifting is 22.5km long, and the water level is 3.2m. 4 hours' drifting will bypass 31 bends and 45 sands and there are also about 130 sites can be visited. During the drifting, you also can stop to visit the local folk performance.

In the afternoon, take bus from bus station which runs from Ziyuan to GuaLi, get off at MeiXi stop and then change a tricycle to Bajiao Village. If you charter a car, it will cost you about CNY150.00 for round way. Climbing the mountain from the left side, you can visit many sites along the road and if you go up from the right side, you can get to the TianGong Temple directly. The admission fee for Bajiao Village is CNY40.00 per person and it opens from 08:00-17:30.

Travel to Tianmen Scenic Area on the third day to visit the Island of Peach Blossom and Virgin Forest. It is 25km away from Ziyuan and you can charter a car to get there.

If you still want to drifting, we suggest another route for you, Wu Pai River drifting. Compared with the Zijiang River Drifting, Wu Pai River drifting is more breathtaking and irritative. It is also renowned as the Hukou Waterfall in Shaanxi Province and the Tiger Leaping Gorger in Lijiang. When drifting, the scenic spots along the river side is no longer important, the only thing which holds your breath is the fun of drifting in bold and unconstrained river stream. The fee is CNY138.00 per person and it opens from 08:00 to 16:30. You can take a tricycle to the No. 2 port to get on the boat.

Back to Ziyuan, you can stay overnight or take bus back to Guilin City in the same day.