I travel to China several times a year mainly for fun but also to check out hotels and new tourist attractions for my book. The following information is not in my 2002 book. 

The following items are dated with the month the information was obtained. Everything is subject to change but this should give you a good idea of what to expect. Please also look at our collection of photos from some of these places.

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The last time this page was updated was 12/31/08

Guiyang
Guiyang, Kaili and Rongjiang - Ethnic handicraft shopping and hotels

I love Guizhou province. I have been there about six times and I still want to go back again. It is full of beautiful mountains and interesting ethnic minorities – a place rich with different cultures, each village unique in costume and silver jewellery. In Guizhou, the shopping for handicrafts – especially the embroidery and batik, in cotton, hemp, and silk -- has been outstanding. This past summer I went to collect specimens for three Canadian museums and to take pictures of any surviving makers of traditional shoes.

I hoped there would be some left.

This time I was accompanied by three well-travelled North American friends, two of them collectors of Chinese ethnic textiles among other things. I was aiming for Rongjiang, a town in the southeast of the province with a large Dong minority. For years, I’ve had a water-colour scroll of Rongjiang’s ancient houses and amazing bridges and towers with multi-tiered eaves. For years, I’ve been wanting to see the real thing and I almost cried when I heard about 10 years ago that one modern multi-storied building had been allowed to spoil what I imagined to be spectacular ancient architecture. Rongjiang was my Bali Hai, the place that called me. I hoped China’s modernization hadn’t changed it too much.

An excellent road now goes from the capital Guiyang east to Kaili in a couple of hours. I heard that a new road had opened to the south and we could go onward from Kaili to Rongjiang and then by a road of questionable quality to Guilin. But we would be travelling in the summer rainy season and I didn’t want to miss my plane back to Canada. That road would be under construction and subject to landslides.

So we decided to stick to the established roads and leave Guilin for another trip.

For years Guiyang has been in the back water of China’s development. A Holiday Inn has been its only international hotel for years and alas, it is no longer there. But there’s now a five-star, 310-room Howard Johnston which is the best hotel in the city and it’s very good. We stayed there for two nights. One of my friends was surprised and delighted to find packets of three-in-one coffee available in our rooms that were “better than those at the Sheraton in Atlanta – the rooms that is.” Francisca, who had spent decades travelling in China, said the toilet seats were the most comfortable she had experienced in any hotel in China. We loved the mattresses, the good linens and the sound-proof walls. And Francisca in particular, liked the very absorbent towels – more fluffy than most. We all agreed the breakfast especially the pastry was great and the array of dishes good. The service was good and polite, but not always timely. We were awakened one night at 10 by an attendant bringing back laundry that should have been delivered when we were awake.

The Howard Johnston Hotel is at 29 Zaoshan Road, Guiyang, 550003. Tel. (851) 6518888/8108888. Fax 6517777. Web: www.hojochina.com  . It is located in a busy neighbourhood of small shops and some good local restaurants downtown and is very close to the large Qianling Park. Rooms start at US$130 plus 15% but it’s been giving 20 to 50% discounts. It is about 20 minutes from the airport and 10 minutes from the railway station and is relatively close to a large shopping centre.

Howard Johnston Hotels in China tends to be more luxurious than Howard Johnstons in the U.S. The restaurant in the Guiyang branch serves Western, Cantonese, Taiwan and Sichuan food. The western breakfast buffet was good and included some interesting Chinese dishes like spare ribs, steamed eggs, soy and beans – all well presented. There’s a cigar bar and a banquet hall that can serve 300 at a sit-down dinner. It has five club floors and a floor dedicated to female travelers with special amenities and private check-in. Rooms there have pink hangers, bidets, and blue instead of white robes. All rooms have hi-speed Internet access, voice mail, in-room safe, and mini bar. But our make-up mirror didn’t have a light. Its swimming pool is 19 metres by 9 metres and it has a seven-piece gym. Foot massages start at Y140. The English was surprisingly good for this remote city.

Not as glitzy but adequate is the four-star Regal Hotel or Li Hao Dafandian a short distance from the Howard Johnston. I arrived early in the morning and found a manager who spoke sufficient English but otherwise there wasn’t much. The breakfast buffet offerings were labelled in English, and it had cold cereals, yogurt, fresh fruit, congee, salads, cheeses, eggs to order and 17 hot dishes. Up to October 31, 2006, rooms there start about Y468 plus 15% for a double. A single is more expensive. Try for a discount. Broadband access and an airport shuttle are free, said its literature. Address: 115 Rui Jin Bei Road, 550003. Tel. (851) 652-1888. Fax 851 652-0793. Web-site: www.gzregal.com.cn  (Chinese only).

Guiyang is not an interesting city. It is on its way to being very modern and looks like most other cities in the country 10 years ago. But if you’re interested in the province’s various nationalities, it’s a good place to start. There’s the provincial museum. Tel. (851) 4602961. There, you can see displays of ethnic clothing and a great fancy dragon boat.

There’s also the “Ancient town of Qingyan,” a charming old village that’s gone touristy about 30 km. south of the city. But for shoppers, it’s full of ethnic handicrafts and beautiful old traditional clothes – complete costumes which Canadian museums prefer and are hard to find. The prices were a lot higher than I remembered from visiting villages at least 10 years before. They were in the US$400 to $1000 range. Small shoulder pieces of course were much cheaper.

My two companions suspected our guide was getting a commission and went shopping on their own. I stuck with her but bought nothing because it was our first shopping of the trip and I was just checking prices. I planned to return on another trip without a guide. We had a delightful and unusual lunch at one of the exotic old stores which had excellent quality but high prices. The You Ming Yang on the main street was an old family residence. Ask for Zheng Xiao Hua. Tel. (851) 3200213. Web: www.100miao.com (Chinese only).

Our guide took us to the Guizhou Gu Wan Cheng market in Guiyang which also had antique textiles. One store owner whose name I think was He Zheng Neng would not sell all the items on display. He was a private collector who liked collecting himself and he wasn’t about to part with things he liked. Since we could go back to this store on the way to the airport, I knew I would have a second chance to buy them – if I had money left. I hadn’t counted on $400 items.

My museums wanted photos of the textile makers at work – which meant going to villages. The five or six villages we visited on the way to Rongjiang and Congjiang produced nothing in terms of traditional shoe making except for one which had a more recent post-Liberation style. I managed to get a full Gejia costume ($400) and a full Dong costume ($200), each old, in good condition. We were scheduled to visit two more villages but couldn’t because one had been isolated by land-slides, and we didn’t have time for the other. We did find demonstrations of batik-making -- and vats full of indigo dye.

Kaili is the capital of eastern Guizhou with 240,000 people. It is a centre of shopping and it was our last shopping opportunity of the week. Silver smiths there also make jewellery. From Rongjiang, it is 278 km. We went to stores in the Kaili Museum, and since it was the day before our departure, I did pay its high prices for a good quality Yi baby carrier made with horsehair (about US$200), and a Hundred Bird Jacket ($700) of felted silk. I bought three pairs of good Miao shoes for a total of $63.

It was hard to resist the Miao baby shoes attached to pants that opened at the back. They cost about $10 each at the open air Niu Chang Ba Market. Goods there were laid out in stalls or on the sidewalk. The prices were the second best. We found the best at a dealer named Sue or Wu Xiao Li who spoke English, and found us outside a bank. She stuck with us through a meal, before taking us to her home on the second floor, No. 26 Niu Chang Ba. She even had an e-mail: Suewxl@yahoo.com.cn . These home visits seem to be good because of the privacy. No competing peddler usually bothered us.

These small merchants told us that guides do get commissions, but I suspect that some unscrupulous peddlers could try to cheat buyers. So don’t go alone to these places. We did have a good feeling about Sue who showed us almost her whole inventory which ranged from tiny pieces of embroidery to heavy shawls worn by Tibetan herders. Her prices seemed to be competitive – but you do have to know your prices.

Sue had been watching us haggling in the market and refusing to buy because some prices were too high. She was a smart lady. From her I bought a small piece of reverse embroidery for $30. Her prices were about the same as the Panjiayuan Market in Beijing, but she had a lot more variety. I will look her up on my next trip. Her cell phone is: 138 8556 9180. Her home was tiny and crowded and fellow peddlers did grab us by the arm -- much to our annoyance -- as we walked away from it.

Some of the homes we visited were tiny, near open sewers. One problem with the market and home visiting is the lack of care taken for the goods. Fine embroidery was thrown carelessly onto the floor – one on top of the other -- and kept in heavy plastic bags. Generally, merchants do not know what they are selling and most don’t speak English. They have agents scouring the countryside and bringing back anything that looks saleable. Buyers have to look at each item carefully for holes, poor sewing, old embroidered pieces on new cloth, etc.

Even in villages, many peddlers do not know anything about the handicrafts they are selling which are not necessarily from their village. In some places, the peddlers were very aggressive.

Merchants told us that the supply of the best quality embroidery was drying up. Sue had an inventory on hand about a metre high.

In Kaili, we stayed at the pleasant, 103- room, four-star Crown Plaza Hotel, which we liked because its was close to the handicraft market. We could also see what was going on outside the stadium across the street. That building was in striking Dong minority architecture. Our visits coincided with a 50th anniversary celebration there, and we were able to take a lot of pictures of the thousand performers in ethnic costumes. Rooms had condoms and underwear for sale and published rates started at Y480 plus 15% so you should haggle. It is at 18 Youguang Road, 556000. Tel. (855) 8068888. Fax 8060678. The breakfast was adequate but not spectacular – stir-fried vegetables and fried eggs. The manager and only one staff person spoke English.

On previous trips I stayed at the three-star Kaili Hotel, the only one suitable for tourists then. It is now fixed up to look rustic and I would happily stay there again if I had to though I do prefer the nicer Crown Plaza. A standard room started at Y378 and it’s on Guang Chang Road, Tel. (855) 3838100. We dined there one evening in its charming restaurant and the food was okay.

This hotel is near the town square and museum and you can walk to department stores.
An adventurous restaurant was New Century Plaza Restaurant, Tel. (855) 3823393. It’s in the New Century Plaza of course. There you can pick a dish from at least a hundred actual Guizhou dishes on display and have it cooked.

Elsewhere in the province, we stayed in the best available hotels which were not great. The one in Congjiang had an outdoor swimming pool but stale towels, squat toilets, and a smell of mold. It had water heaters but no hot water. Our tour was booked through Guizhou C.I.T.S. in Guiyang which I would not use again because my first priority was finding a maker of traditional shoes and we never did. Guide Aggie did try hard to please us but she took us to a restaurant for local cuisine where the other customers spat on the floor and the place reeked of smoke and mold – local flavour yes, but not one we wanted to experience. I know of alternative travel agencies and want to try them first before recommending them in this web-site.

We were lucky to avoid the worst of the rain. In a half dozen places, even the new asphalt road between Kaili and Congjiang had collapsed, but fortunately, enough of it was left for us to use.

As for Rongjiang and the famous Dong towers and bridges, it seems that the most famous bridge, the bridge in all the tourist literature, burned down many years ago. We did see a couple elaborate old one, but the old architecture in Rongjiang was almost all gone, replaced by uninteresting new buildings. Congjiang was in the process of rebuilding. One cannot fault people for wanting to live in something substantial and strong but they could have kept some of the old traditional styles.

I was disappointed that I was too late but there was enough old architecture in the villages to help me visualize those two old cities.
– RLM, DATE: July, 2006.

Guilin   
Travel agent Wu Wei sends us his take on what’s good in Guilin. For addresses and free in-Guilin on-the-spot translations, phone Easy Tour at 3810888 Monday-Friday between 0900 and 1800 or see below. And do let us know if you agree with him.

Restaurants:
Li Jiang Ren Restaurant (Guilin cuisine). This has nice traditional carved-wood décor, refreshing watermelon juice, and the best pork in town! If you cannot take spicy food, tell the waitress “no chili peppers.” Budget for two with drink (beer or fruit juice), RMB120;

Xiangshui Qing (Xiang River Melodies): typical Hunan food (very spicy). Northeastern corner of the San Li Dian. Beautiful smoked meat, smoked duck and great soup. Budget for two with drink (beer or fruit juice): RMB120-140;

McFound Restaurants (northern Chinese cuisine adapted to local palates). The closest of this chain to the town center is near the Bravo Hotel on Xinyi Road. Try the “Pi Dong” or “gelatin from stewed minced pork skin”, and different types of dumplings;

Beijing Duck Restaurant is doing great with ducks raised in Guilin. If you missed the Beijing duck in Beijing, don’t panic, as the ducks here taste very similar. Just avoid other dishes; none has appealed to our inspectors’ palates yet. Location: Diamond Hotel.

Hotels:
Sheraton Guilin is under renovation. Only the western wing is opened for business. Major facilities are closed now but all should re-open in May;
Fortune Hotel (Guilin) gives you an opportunity to experience the local lifestyle. It has well-furbished apartments set amidst a big upper-class housing complex. Great for families traveling with children. More at www.guilinfortunehotel.com;

Li An Lodge is open in Longji, the site of the famous rice terraces. Its web-site is worth a visit: www.lianlodge.com;
Green Lotus Hotel says it will open in August, 2008 to woo post-Olympics travelers to the idyllic town of Yangshuo;
A luxurious Banyan Tree Resort is being built near the Yulong River in Yangshuo and should open in 2010. You can check its progress at: www.banyantree.com;
The Giggling Tree offers an interesting intimate experience of the farming community of Yangshuo at youth hostel prices. Click on: www.gigglingtree.com.

Transportation:
Road construction between Longsheng and Sanjiang has just been finished. The drive is now one hour with another 40 minutes onward to Chengyang village;
Road construction is still going on between Sanjiang and Zhaoxing, but an extra two to three hour detour via Dudong is possible and recommended as you can then visit some villages in Dudong;
An expressway is being built linking Guilin and Guangzhou via Yangshuo. Upon completion, motorized vehicles will be separated from bikes and buffalos, a safer drive.

Travel agent update:
Easytour’s Guilin office is now Room 1106, Building 1, 21 Zhishan Road, Guilin, 541002. Phone: 773-3811461/ 3810888. Fax: 773-3810333. New email address: wei.wu@easytourguilin.com. DATE, March, 2008.

Perhaps you can mention that some of the millet, maze and rice harvest failed in 2007 for lack of irrigation because the Li River's water-level was the lowest in recent history; however, after snows and rain in the mountains to the north, it quickly regained its much-needed water level. The temperature in the region sat at '0' this morning, and it has been generally cold and damp of late. – Philip Van Zandt, DATE, January, 2008.
* * *
…The old Guilin/Kwelin airfields used by the Flying Tigers of the U.S. 14th Air Force have become a booming industrial corridor along a new expressway here. A yearly group of visitors, old Tigers, their families and military buffs have been visiting the area since 2002, and by 2005 some realized that Gen. Chennault's command cave at Yang Tong might be lost to developers. The group formed a non-profit organization, made contact with the mayor of Guilin, the Chinese National Aeronautical Society and the county - to see what could be preserved for future visitors. The group is named the Flying Tigers Heritage Park Organization, and is currently headquartered north of San Francisco.

…At first, I had to use Google Earth to get the co-ordinates so we could find the cave. We searched the dense brush for the trail; a machete would have been nice! We had an additional walk around the area, finding old stone rollers which had been pulled by 500-peasant workers to build and maintain the runways from 1941 to late 1944 when the Japanese captured the area. It was obvious from the huge ruts and the bulldozer then covering old taxi-strips that industrial development could close off the area forever.

…We then discovered that the elderly father of a Guilin friend had flown missions to bomb Japanese ship in Hong Kong from there in 1944. Her mother had been working in the mess-hall, and delivered food from the 'cooking caves' above. It came as a surprise that there were other caves associated with the area. No one had ever mentioned them; they were never on a visitor's schedule with either CITS or CTS.

On our second trip, we found the highway now open to local traffic, seemingly dozens of new concrete streets with poured curbs. From here it was a quick scoot across the six-lane divided highway to a service-road and 100-meters to the entrance. Along this was a huge billboard proclaiming the industrial park and its progress with the names of hundreds of businesses.

Again we went to what's called 'Chennault's Cave' and took a detour around an old walled house and up a hilly, somewhat worn path… By the time I reached some concrete steps above, my companions had already engaged a toothless smiling old woman in conversation... As near as I could make out she was hesitant to allow our group to proceed... but when I caught up, I said to tell her I was going to put her on TV, and I held up the video-Cam. Almost immediately, a curtain was pulled revealing a cave entrance, and the most archaic interior lighting, consisting of wide-spaced clear light-bulbs dangling from wires attached by ancient insulators to the cave. Thousands of mushroom bundles were on interior floor. The cave was possibly 100-meters in depth…At the far end, there was a wooden structure and a door led out onto a cemented area that looked strangely reminiscent of a gun emplacement. There were piles of old wooden OD boxes, ancient ice-boxes, old stoves and pots out there... and as we were to see with the door now open, the cave contained old stoves and ovens, glass bottles, jars and pots galore! We found a second cave with walled cold-storage areas inside; a third was filled with huge glass bottles and the ever-present piles and piles of growing mushrooms neatly laid on the floor.

We completed this last adventure before noon, so we stopped at a really nice restaurant which specialized in Beijing duck for lunch. I've got to say, that never in any five-star hotel, or other establishment in China, have I ever seen such superbly decorated ultra-modern WC facilities... and the meal was served at our table by the chef.
…Since then, Lin-Gui county has offered 214-acres and the Mayor of Guilin has had architectural drawings rendered for a museum, memorial gardens, paved entry and parking areas, and complete restoration of Chennault's cave interior to the 1943 era when it was the hub for the radio and telephone early warning system…
-- Philip VanZandt, DATE, June-July, 2007.

* * *

Update from Wei, a travel agent in Guilin, who expects a lot of people will visit Guilin this year so make your reservation as early as possible (preferably with www.EasyTourchina.com  ): 

* Restaurant: if you want Guilin-style cooking, try the Xiaoqing Suanla Guan, a few steps away from the Golden Elephant Hotel near Elephant Rock. Staff speaks little English but the restaurant is quite good. If you need help with translation, call Easy Tour at 3810888 Monday-Friday between 0900 and 1800 for free service. 

* Entrance fee for parks: in spite of strong objections, major parks in Guilin have increased their entrance fees. The Reed Flute Cave now costs RMB60 (about USD$10/pp). 

* Transportation: road construction between Longsheng and Sanjiang is going very slowly possibly due to government bureaucracy. The original two-hour drive is prolonged to 4 hours or more due to bad conditions; 

* Transportation: The road connecting Guilin and Changsha (capital of Hunan province) is now finished and driving time shortened to 5-6hrs. It’s good for those traveling on to Zhangjiajie National Park; 

* Transportation: We can book the new flight from Guilin to Bangkok. It is available each week. You don’t have to stop over in Hong Kong. 

* Evening entertainment: the Impression Liu San Jie show in Yangshuo is not to be missed in spite of the hefty USD23/pp and entrance fee for just a normal stadium seat with no back rest. It is directed under the name of Zhang Yi Mou, one of China’s most outstanding film directors who has won numerous international awards. We can book tickets for the 70 minute show, subject to weather conditions. 

* Shopping in Guilin: For cheap souvenirs, there’s the Wayao Wholesale Market (at the south end of the city). For good quality, there are Sea Pearls (bargain price) and historically famous, Silk. Guangxi province has been one of China’s seven major silk exporting areas starting from 2000 years ago. It also has landscape paintings. EasyTourChina offers free "shopping tours" as it gets commissions from these reputable shopping centers; 

* Scam Shopping guides: avoid those self-claimed "students/teachers" who approach you with a false intention of "practicing English." They will lead you to some scam artist or shop. Most of them are near the hotels or sightseeing places. If you do want to talk with him/her a bit, just stay where you are and spend as much as you want without following them. (It is not safe to follow strangers.)

Hotels by Li River (rates based on per night BB basis for 2pax) if booked through Easytour. : 
-- Golden Elephant: 3 star property, a few steps away from Elephant Rock. USD46. 
-- Sheraton: 5 star property, centrally located, USD132. 
-- Li River Waterfall Hotel: 5 star property, centrally located, by Fir Lake and a few steps away from Li River, USD88. 
-- Fubo Hotel: 3 star property, next to Fubo Hill, 10min walk to downtown, USD48. 
-- Royal Garden Hotel: 5 star property, 20min walk across the Bridge (Liberation Bridge) to Downtown, USD88.
-- Guishan Hotel: not recommended. 
-- Hotel Universal: 3 star property, centrally located, USD$48. 
-- Liho Times Hotel is a budget level hotel costing around USD$28. It is good value though it is not that central. It’s 350m west of the train station and breakfast is included. Web-site: www.lihotimes.com  (Chinese only but there’s a photo.) 

Hotels in Yangshuo:
--Tang Ren Jie managed by Jianguo Hotel Management Group is a good choice. This hotel has over 400 rooms and is by Li River;
--Yangshuo Outside Inn owned by a Dutch guy is also quite interesting for its low rate and is in Chaolong Village, 20 km. from Yangshuo, and a few steps away from the fantastic Yulong River. It is quite clean, has private Chinese toilets and provides food and bikes. 

The above rates will change during holiday time: May Day (Apr. 30-May 06), National Day Holiday (Sept.30-Oct.06), Spring Festival (varies from year to year for 1st day to 6th day. 

 These rates will be lowered during Jan-Mar, June, July, August, November, December. Check first.  --Wei Wu, Easytour Guilin Office, Tel: 773-3810888, 3810555. Fax: 773-3810333. Room 704, Building 1, 21 Zhishan Rd, Guilin, 541002. Web: www.easytourchina.com  . E-mail: easytour@public.glptt.gx.cn  . 
Date: March, 2005. 

* * *
Other Travelers Report: In your guide-updates on Guilin hotels, you failed to mention the Guilin-Osmanthus (known locally as the "Dan Gui"). It certainly rates three-stars. Having been a guest there innumerable times, I can say that they have an outstanding staff, including Huang Yi, who speaks excellent English and is always more than helpful to guests. They also have a very fine, modestly-priced, evening buffet that offers Chinese and Western food - All you can eat and drink! And on special occasions ... they are superbly decorated and have gifts for each diner; often accompanied by local Guilin entertainment! There is a modest business office where E-mail can be read or sent at a minimal fee. Taxis are always at the door! 

When I was here in late spring of '94, it was the "hotel of refuge" for CITS as the Sheraton and many others had flood waters in the lobby. We were driven to the Osmanthus by bus, and I can remember city people fishing in the streets with laundry baskets at the beginning of their up-hill driveway. We walked along their wall to the front sidewalk (and were greeted by a smiling doorman), scarcely inches above the flood. We enjoyed the rooms and dinner immensely... after a day of 'touring' and trying to cross the Li River which rose above many bridges. I remember one man's comment that "It was grand to have friends in high-places!"... By the following morning when we were off to Hong Kong, the waters had receded about six inches. 

By the way, we all thought CITS did a marvelous job of getting us to a small village (Fu Li) to see the green valleys, red-clay roads and the karst peaks Guilin is famous for. The roads were all flooded, but they had a big 4WD Mercedes bus equipped for such terrain with hi-level air-intake and we were snug and dry on our 'alternate sightseeing' trip. I think the storm that brought the high waters in '94 was called "Typhoon Roy... -- Phil VanZandt & Huang LiWei, March, 2000
* * *
Travel Agents: CITS Guilin is at the same address and telephone numbers. (Page 588) . It has a new e-mail address: citsguilin@chinahighlights.com  and a web site in English: http://www.chinahighlights.com . Its staff sounds eager and have responded quickly to letters.

Prices: service charge for booking a hotel in Guilin or Yangshuo is US$5/per room, per night.
Service charge for booking a domestic plane ticket is US$6/per ticket.
Charge for an English-speaking guide for two people per day in Guilin is US$25.
Charge for an English-speaking national guide for two people per day is US$25, air ticket
and hotels are not included.

The best/second best/third best...hotel in Guilin are as follows with the rate for a standard twin room/per night with daily western 
breakfast for 2 persons: in US dollars.

May, Sep, Oct/ April, Jun, Jul, Aug, Nov/ Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar;
Guilin Sheraton(5 star)--108/ 93/ 83 ;
Royal Garden Hotel(5 star)--88/ 74/ 62;
Guilin Bravo Hotel(4 star)--78/ 66/ 56;
Fubo Hotel(3 star)---45/ 45/ 40;
Universal Hotel(3 star)--45/ 45/ 40;

Hotels in Yangshuo as followed:
Paradise Hotel(3 star)--63/ 60/ 48;
Li River Hotel(2.5 star)--37/ 37/ 30;

My partner is Victor Shu, he is very nice. My department manager is James Jing, Joe Zhou. They are nice too. -- Christine Gong, Guilin C.I.T.S., North America sales supervisor. March, 2000.
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Back to the Updates Index              

Guyuan (Yinchuan)
Buses go to Guyuan (page 522) in eight hours from the South Gate of Yinchuan. We went by unreserved hard-class train (Y17 each) leaving Zhongwei at 10:50am and arriving about 2pm.Two trains a day are scheduled between Lanzhou and Xi'an with a stop in Guyuan. We discovered too late that it was better to book tickets in Yinchuan rather than wait until we arrived in Guyuan for our onward train trip to Xi'an. We found ourselves competing in late August with families going home to school, and train tickets were impossible. So we took an overnight bus (ugh) on to Xi'an.

Guyuan is a wonderful 2000-year old town of 50,000 people with ties to the Western Xia dynasty and Silk Road. You can walk everywhere if the 2000 meter high altitude doesn't bother you.  From our downtown hotel, you can walk to the countryside in 15 minutes.
The main reason for visiting Guyuan is to see the Buddhist grottos at Xumi Mountain (Xishan Wen Guan Suo), and for those who like Buddhist art, these are pretty impressive. We hired a car for the 55 km drive past beautiful fields of corn and barley, set off by mountain passes topped with the ruins of old castles. We saw only one or two other tourists at Xumi which is understandable because of the difficulty getting there and the lack of decent hotels and easy transportation. Like the great grottoes in Datong and Luoyang, these were also started in the Northern Wei and continued on through the Tang. They are also superb as well.

The only one we could photograph was the 20.6 meter-high Tang-dynasty Maitreya (see slideshow) which is taller than any of its rivals. The rest of the 349 Buddha's are in over 151 caves, many of which you can visit. Originally there were 900 statues, but some were destroyed in a 20th century earthquake. All are carved red sandstone with especially good drapery. Statues in numbers 45 and 46 still show traces of gold. Some faces or just eyes have been destroyed. Cave 51 is worth the climb. It is the biggest with several large amazing statues.

The entrance fee is Y10, Telephone 954/2695706. Take your own flashlight. There are no
restaurants, no nothing here except for some friendly officials who said to "come any time" and not just between 8am-12 noon and 2:30pm-6:30pm. The grottos for us were worth the long trip. My traveling companion is an archaeologist.

Earthen ruins of the Great Wall are four km west of Guyuan. You can see fired mud bricks of equal thickness but not the big stones of the wall north of Beijing.

We stayed in the new section of the Youdian (Binguan) Hotel which is a short walk to stores, and if necessary, a Y2 ride by three-wheeler to the museum. The postal code is 756000, and telephone is 954/2031856. Upon arrival, we asked to see a room first, and they showed us a good one on the ground floor. We said we'd take it, and they took us to the third floor. We protested, and they showed us another room on the ground floor which had latrine smells. We protested again, and then won, and paid Y120 for a decent room.

This hotel has a Moslem Restaurant but no western food and no credit card service. It did have wonderful minced beef buns for Y4 for breakfast. Our room was clean, had limited hot water, no English and no air-conditioning. We didn't need air-conditioning in August.

The Guyuan Binguan is at 94 Jenfu Street, Tel. 2032479. Its rooms ranged from Y90-Y156, takes no credit cards, and has a telephone in the lobby. It wasn't any better.

Restaurants in this tiny town looked okay. We found a good hot pot place for Y65 for five
people, and across from our hotel was a little cafe where three of us had wonderful rabbit stew with vegetables and rice for Y13.50. But the names on signs are not even in pinyin and noEnglish menus are available. There's hardly any English in the town.

Except for our hotel, toilets were awful. At one restaurant, we had to leave the premises to cross the street, and go through a vacant lot to an open pit which didn't help my appetite one bit.

The not-too-bad local museum will give you an idea of the relics found in the vicinity. Its range from the Stone Age through Han and Tang but has no titles in English. It has a model of Guyuan as it looked in the Qing, completely different from today. Its most valuable relic is a Persian pewer from 569 AD. The museum is open 8:30am-11:30am and 2:30pm-5:30pm, closed on Mondays. It is at 133 Xi Cheng Road.

Individuals might try to sell you relics stolen from the many ancient graves in this area.
Possession of cultural relics is a crime sometimes punishable by execution. They cannot be taken legally out of the country without a certificate from the Antiquities Bureau. Some ofthe "relics"offered are fakes.

A small antique store is at 158, Dong Guan Road, Tel. 954/2033532.

We booked three berths on the overnight bus to Xi'an, one berth for our luggage. The bus was scheduled to leave at 7:15pm and arrive at 5:30am but we actually arrived one hour earlier. The total cost of our three tickets was Y182. The two of us tried to sleep on a "double" which is spacious enough for small people. Dirty, smelly blankets were provided. Worried about someone walking off with our luggage, I couldn't sleep. There were numerous stops along the way and part of the road was not paved. The pit stops were sometimes on the open highway with no privacy. You need good kidneys. In Xi'an we were told to disembark in the middle of a street. Fortunately some taxis stopped and took us to our hotel. Taking this bus was cheaper and less time consuming than going all the way back to Yinchuan and trying to catch a train from there toXi'an.

Ms. Guo Xiping of the Foreign Affairs Office in Guyuan, Tel. 2032971, should be able to arrange or guides and transportation to Xumi Mountain for about Y120. Her address is 51 Zhengfu Street. Our driver Mr. Zhang Wen Xue was wonderful but could not speak English. He knew more about the sites than anyone else we met in Guyuan. If you have an interpreter, we would recommend that you hire him. We paid Y150 for transportation which included the Great Wall,grottos, and museum. Tel. 954/2040273, BP 126-8202176.

See also Yinchuan RLM, August, 1999.

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