Longji to Guilin Hike and Bike
Cascading hand-carved rice terraces; remote hikes to Yao and Zhuang villages; winding mountain descents; riverside cycle or raft, the famous Guilin limestone karst landscape, Guilin Mifen noodles.
Itinerary at a glance
Day 1 arrive Guilin and transfer to the rice terraces in time for a sunset cocktail on the deck of our traditional timber guesthouse.
Day 2 Hike through the fields harvesting vegetables for a chicken soup with the rice farmers in the fields, stopping for a p-lough of the rice fields along the way. There are great hikes to more remote villages , and those with the energy can hike out in the afternoon or return to our comfortable mountain viewing guesthouse/ home stay to mentally prepare themselves for cycling down the backbone.
Day 3 Full day cycle, mostly downhill through pine and bamboo then along the Yi River – with options for rafting the last leg of our ride into our countryside guesthouse. Lunch on your first proper bowl of countryside Guilin Mifen. The rafting is fairly tame, and hilariously random, a fun and relaxing end a days brilliant cycling.
Day 4 Country back roads and farmers pathways through small villages and market gardens, small tributary streams of the Li River under gorgeous trees – views to the South China Karst System.
RMB 3800 includes bikes, guide, mechanic plus support vehicle, all meals, 3 nights twin share accommodation, entrance fees and transfers to and from Guilin airport or train station.
The more in depth Blurb
LONGJI means The Dragon’s Back in Chinese and the ziggurat cut mountains truly look like the knobby back bone of a writhing dragon.
These terraces are quite close to Guilin – a couple of hours transfer by car, spectacular in all different seasons and a well-known photographers paradise.
The rice terraces are a feast for the eyes, cascading terraces intricately managed so that water feeds the mountain rice all the way down the hill. Its described as a photographers paradise, but we like to honour the original purpose – rice production – by planning a feast in the fields authentically enjoyed with the mud of the rice paddies fresh from ploughing, between your toes. Harvesting our own vegetables and wild mountain herbs along the way, we cook up a “running” chicken vegetable soup, and enjoy a meal-in-the-fields as farmers have done for generations.
At night we return to Pingan, which has a number of comfortable guesthouses with comfortable beds and cold beers. The guesthouse we use is a home stay, a comfortable bed, private room guesthouse kind’ve home stay.
Pingan is an ideal place to start a cycle trip as you are up high and get to cycle mostly down hill through forests of pine and bamboo, with mountain views and glimpses of villages perched high – minority tribes – Zhuang, and Yao – living on the borderlands between Guangxi and Guizhou.
On day 3 we cycle 58 km to Wantian along the Yijiang River, with the option to jump in a rubber raft for the second half of the day to our guesthouse in a peaceful village alongside the river is an enjoyable mostly downhill ride. You raft right up to the private dock of our accommodation.
Day 4 is the home run to Guilin. Powered by the best noodles in the world – Guilin Miefen – we cycle flat backroads through small villages and farmlands. The afternoon bring us our first views of the South China karst system for which Guilin is famous and a tea plantation where we have our lunch before transferring to Yangshuo.
Getting there and away.
Guilin is the start and finish point of this trip. Meet up time is 4pm at Guilin airport, and 5pm at Guilin North Railway station.
Please talk to us about getting there and away.
Email bruce@bikeaways.com to reserve your place