A stroll on Guilin Zheng Yang Pedestrian Mall, and doing an evening boat ride

After settling into our hotel, and finally managed to get a mobile phone number,  we strolled along the key pedestrian area of Guilin, Zheng Yang pedestrian street (正阳步行街).

I was scheduled to go on a 2-day tour with a private driver to Zi Yuan  (资源) and Ba Jia Zhai (八角寨) . The person however was trying to pull a fast one but cutting the trip to one day but still charging me the same rate. Feeling annoyed, I cancelled the trip and decided to do day trips from Guilin instead.

Back to Zheng Yang pedestrian street. From the guidebook, this street existed over a thousand years ago, but of course it is now a modern looking shopping area.  Several good restaurants were located in this area and we ate at Ah Gan Restaurant and Macau Restaurant during our stay here.  Of course it was a good place to buy souvenirs and snacks.

We booked a 9:10 pm night cruise along the Lijiang and Tao Huajiang and 4 lakes (两江四湖) .  It cost Y190 but we had a small discount when booked through the hotel travel desk.

This is how the boat looked like.  The seats were generally comfortable, although we had the seats that were facing the other direction.

The cruise offered us an unique view to see the Lijiang and Taohuajiang in a lit-up manner, even the underneath of the bridges were well decorated with paintings or poetry.  It should be relaxing trip if the crowd could observe the peace and quiet, and listening to the guide (in Mandarin)

 Performances at some area, but rather touristy....

On the whole, it was an enjoyable trip and the price was reasonable.   For those who did not want to take the ride, you could still enjoy the night views of the pagodas and the bridges on your own explorations.

Go to Main Page: Guilin Trip 2015