Day Trip to Guan Yan (冠岩) Caves and Gu Dong (古东) Waterfall, Guangxi Province

We had our breakfast in our room and were getting ready to our trip to Crown Cave and Gu Dong Waterfall.   It took sometime for the our coach to pick up all the tourists from the various hotels.  Guan Yan was an hour’s drive from Guilin, and part of the road in April was undergoing upgrading works.


From the car park, we had to wait for the golf cart to bring us to the entrance to the park entrance, and another car to the cave proper.  I was told later that the vehicles were controlled by the minority tribes and the authority could not do much about it.

We descended 30 metres (about 12 stories) down the Guan Yan cave by an elevator and started our journey. As seen in the picture, we could see the view of the caves when going down.  The queue for the elevator was not long on our day of visit.












After wandering the cave for about 15 minutes, we put on life jackets and took a 700 m boat ride in the dark.   Remember to bring a torchlight, but seeing nothing in the dark was another experience too!


The scenery after getting off the boat was the best.

The last part of the journey was taking a toy train ride where you get to see nice stalactites during the 10 minute or so journey.  It was then back to the elevator and a boat ride back to the entrance of the park.

We had lunch at the car park area.  We joined in the Y20 per head set lunch with a group of 10 people.

My verdict of Guan Yan Cave:  It may not be the best caves that I have seen, and the waiting time for the transport dampened the mood of the visit.  The operator however had made it interesting by introducing elevator, boat and toy train rides during the 90 minute visit.  Overall I would give it a 7/10 rating.

On to Gu Dong waterfall next, less than an hour's drive from Guan Yan Cave.

Frankly speaking, the waterfall was not impressive. It was rather small and you could climb to the top in about half an hour. Some chose to climb the waterfall itself for which you had to pay Y15 for the rental of straw shoes and the helmet.  It was not a difficult climb it seemed.

Ascending the waterfall, you would come across a suspension bridge and you descend from the other side.  The whole climb was not really taxing  and most people should be able to accomplish it.  You could also take

Overall, I found this sight alright, nothing spectacular.  I paid Y260 for this day trip but if you searched around, you could get it for around Y140 to 160.  I would say Guan Yan is worth going whereas Gu Dong Waterfall was just so-so.  Climbed the waterfall to add some excitement.

Dinner at Macau Restaurant back at Zheng Yang pedestrian street which served similar quality food as Ah Gan Restaurant.  Probably the staff were busy, the service was indifferent.  Both restaurants are located across each other.

Go to Main Page: Guilin Trip 2015