Guilin Seven Star Park and Seven Star Cave

Day 11 (2nd April 2011)

Today, I would be going to the Seven Star Park. The day earlier, the owner of the eatery behind the Happy Hotel has advised me to take bus no. 10 to go to Seven Star Park. Bus after bus stopping at the bus stop near the Guilin Train Station/ bus terminal was full. I then decided to take a tuk tuk to go there. As usual with the people in the trade, the sales promotion followed after I got into the tuk-tuk. He was not that persistent and soon, I was off to Seven Star Park.

At the ticket counter at Seven Star Park, upon payment of RMB90, a receipt in duplicate was issued. From there, I had to go to another counter to get my ticket by exchanging it with one copy of the receipt. The other copy of the receipt would be collected at the entrance to the Seven Star Cave if I decided to go in.

Seven Star Park is a very large park. There were many spots for photography, the main ones being the waterfalls and the cave.

(Download this 1,599 x 1,066 px map)

After the visit, I took bus no. 11 back to the hostel.

There were not many places of interest to me in Guilin. Tomorrow, I would be going back to Yangshuo. I would explore Moon Hill and those streets which I did not do so in the earlier visit. I would also like to go back to Binjiang Road, my favourite street one last time before leaving Guangxi for good.

Guilin Jinjiang Princes Palaces & Mausoleum and Solitary Beauty Peak

Day 10 (1st April 2011)

The plan was to visit Daxu Ancient Town. As usual, I wanted to go there using public transportation. At the Guilin Train Station/ bus terminal, I was told that the bus would would be ½ kilometre away along Zhongsan South Road, towards the North.

There were a number of Chinese with luggage walking in the same direction and when they made a turn into a side street, I saw that there was a bus station at the far end. I followed from behind. At this bus station, I was told that the Daxu bus was based at another station. What a hassle! I gave up.

I then decided that I would be going to one of those parks which I have shortlisted, such as Jinjiang Prince Palaces and Mausoleum. As I was coming out to the main road, the touts/ taxi drivers who were based there began to approach me to offer their taxi service. One taxi driver offered RMB5. I was more careful this time, making sure that the trip to Jinjiang Prince Palace and Mausoleum would not cost me more at the last minute. On boarding, he began to begin his sales pitch. No, I was not interested.

Seeing that he was more interested in getting me to other places and not to my requested destination, I got off the taxi. Only when he agreed to take me to my intended destination did I get into the taxi again, and so off we went to the park for RMB5. He suggested that I paid for the RMB70 entrance ticket (there were another two ticket categories). This ticket included the Solitary Beauty Peak which lies inside the park.

I went in and was given a tag with the number 58 and asked to follow a female park guide. There was a small crowd there already. This was not expected but anyway, I followed her.

Jinjiang is only a small place, not worth RMB70 for the scenery I was looking forward to. It is for Guilin history buff.