Let’s start with the Li River rafting. It is divided into large boats and small boats.

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This post was last edited by Thank goodness you're here on 2016-10-26 at 15:29. Guilin: Guilin is known for those few mountains – Elephant Mountain, Fubo Mountain, Diecai Mountain, Duxiu Peak, Qixing Rock, Jingjiang Royal City, and the Two Rivers and Four Lakes. Xiangshan Mountain is too famous from textbooks; people go there mainly to take photos. It’s the typical type of place where one doesn’t regret not going, but regrets having gone. The other mountains each have their own characteristics. My advice is to go to as many of them as you can based on your schedule; there are various combined tickets available online, which are much cheaper than buying tickets individually, with some offering discounts of almost 50%. If you have time, go and take a look; if not, it’s fine. Yangshuo: The quality of tourism services throughout Yangshuo in Guilin is really poor; those who go there had better be prepared for that. When it comes to Guilin and Yangshuo, the must-visit places are the Li River, the Yulong River, and Impression Liu Sanjie. Below is a guide map of Yangshuo; the Li River is to the east, and the Yulong River is to the west. Yangshuo is indeed in a great location. Let’s talk about the Li River rafting first. Rafting on the Li River is available in large and small boats. Large boats can carry dozens or even hundreds of people; they have strong engines and high speeds, allowing for long trips, but the food served is poor quality. It’s not interesting at all to travel at such high speeds when you’re so far above the water surface. Each small boat can carry four people; if there are not four people going on the trip, there is no choice but to share a boat randomly. All the rafts are under **uniform management, and the boatmen receive a fixed salary. Therefore, if no tips are given, they will drive the engine at full speed while looking angry. The tourism authorities in Guilin are driven by a desire for quick profits; the staff’s attitude towards customers is extremely poor. Although the scenery is beautiful, I wasn’t in a good mood at all. Speaking of the Yu Long River rafting. The Yu Long River is smaller than the Li River and far more picturesque. Each bamboo raft can carry two people; there are no engines, and the boats are pushed by human power alone. Without the roar of engines, the experience is simply peaceful. But the service at Yu Long River is only worse, not better; I’ve heard that boatmen will go on strike and refuse to disembark if they aren’t paid. At that time, I was on the boat with another young man; I guess the boatman thought he wouldn’t get any advantage from it, so he remained silent the whole time. My initial impression of Liu Sanjie was also confusing. I ordered tickets online as usual, but the scenic area did not have any points for picking up tickets online; instead, one had to contact ticket scalpers to obtain them. There were a dozen or so scalpers setting up stalls outside the scenic area, and I was very worried that I might end up buying fake tickets. Guilin Yangshuo has been in the tourism industry for so many years yet hasn’t made any progress at all. I had a great time visiting attractions like Yalongda in Sanya, and I keep recommending them to my friends. However, for places like the Li River, I advise my friends to be extremely careful – there’s no need to go there and end up unhappy. I don’t know how it turned into a complaint, but it’s really rare to feel such disappointment with the service quality in a particular area after traveling for so long. With such great resources available, they fail to make use of them properly; sooner or later it will end up like **, with no one going there anymore. It’s better to arrive at the right time rather than early. I played some games in the evening, and when I asked around, I found that this group of people was planning to go to Yangshuo the next day. So I quickly signed up for a tour with the owner, and that way I would have company. We went rafting on the Li River and the Yulong River, visited Yangshuo West Street, and tried Guilin rice noodles. In the morning, we continued to enjoy various dishes made from rice noodles; there were also pictures of Guilin rice noodles. The rafting trip on the Li River was really great. My tour group was quite good – there were no extra costs or visits to shops during the whole trip. We even stopped at West Street for two hours to rest at noon. I heard that other tours offered are actually quite disappointing. Actually, there isn’t much to do in this task – it mainly involves picking up and dropping off people in the city area, helping them buy tickets for the boat, and then taking them to Yangshuo. In short, it’s just about transportation and ticket purchasing. Although the group itself didn’t disappoint me, there were still moments of unhappiness during the trip. When I was a child, I traveled on the Li River in large boats; standing on the deck, I could enjoy the scenery on both sides as the boat moved forward at high speed. So this time, I chose to take a bamboo raft to explore the most scenic part of the Li River – from Yangdi to Xingping. The Li River is indeed beautiful; in the early morning, the mist has not yet dissipated, drifting gently among the mountains, with the peaks appearing faintly as if in a fairyland. The raft moves forward along the Li River; the green waters flow quietly beneath it, and the strange peaks on either side gradually recede. When you look back, the scenery is no longer the same as what you saw before. All the bamboo rafts on the Li River are equipped with motors and are under **uniform management; the rafters receive only a fixed salary along with a small amount of bonus points, and if they want to earn more money, they have to ask tourists for it. The raft guide said he would explain the costs to us; as soon as he started talking, he mentioned that it would be 25 per person, for a total of 100. He also said we could go slower. The tour guide who had accompanied us on the way there told us that there was no need to pay anything. Moreover, among the four of us, there was a foreign girl who didn’t speak Chinese, so it was difficult to share the costs evenly. So we refused, and the raftman’s expression changed; he said nothing more and just kept increasing the engine power to move the boat forward. The scenic area has also set up photo-taking spots in popular locations; if you buy photos, a commission is given to the raft guides, which is why they keep recommending that you do so. I’m really disgusted by such practices in a tourist city like Guilin. A good service provider should be like “Yanoda” in Sanya, offering consistent and enthusiastic service regardless of whether customers make a purchase or not. Or this: agree in advance before the explanation that payment will be given only if the tourists are satisfied. This situation also occurred during the afternoon rafting on the Yu Long River. This is clearly a problem related to the management of the entire tourist area – the area does not invest in training its employees; instead, it pays low wages to local villagers to operate the boats. With such low salaries, these workers have no choice but to find ways to make money from tourists. I felt extremely comfortable at the Yalongda Scenic Area in Sanya; whether or not I opted for additional activities, the guide provided excellent service as always. While at Yanoada, there were two pretty girls who held your ears and took a photo with you. The photos were developed first, and you could choose from them; if you liked one, you could take it, and if not, it was fine – there was no pressure at all. If I have a good time, I’m happy to pay; I’ll also keep recommending it to my friends. But for places like the Li River, I advise my friends to be very careful – there’s no need to go there and end up unhappy. I certainly wasn’t happy on the raft at all, and I wouldn’t pay a penny, not even if I had the money; it’s a bad experience.