We checked-out of the Hilton Hotel in Xi’an this morning. Next stop is Guilin – a two-hour flight courtesy of China Southern Airlines.
We said goodbye to Nina (our Guide) and Mr Su (our Driver) and headed for check-in. After a delayed take-off, we arrived in Guilin at around 1.45pm. We were now 874 miles further south and the first thing we noticed was how much warmer it was here. It was 7℃ when we left Xi’an, and 22℃ when we arrived in Guilan!
That’s more like it! 🙂
Another day, another journey south!
We retrieved our luggage and were soon on the lookout for our next Tour Guide! After, Michael, Mona and Nina, who would it be? 🤔
It turned out to be Jeremy! We exchanged handshakes, loaded up the luggage into our latest battle-bus, and began the 45 minute drive to our next hotel. The roads weren’t quite so congested as we’ve become accustomed to – so that made it all the more enjoyable.
The other immediate visible difference was the surroundings. Whereas Xi’an was famous for its culture, here in Guilin, it’s all about the landscape. For tree lovers, THE tree out here is the Osmanthus. It’s certainly a lush environment with plenty of greenery and a mountainous backdrop (with the occasional obligatory pagoda!). I’m sure we’ll appreciate it all even more when we have our city-tour tomorrow.
We arrived at The Sheraton, Guilan just after 4.15pm and were soon checked-in. It’s not the sparliest of hotels we’ve stayed in since we arrived in China, but it’ll be fine for our two nights here.
For the future, the whole hotel is undergoing a major renovation but most of our room – ‘1553)’ was still a bit ‘old school’ (perfectly in keeping with a 1980’s night) 😊
Room 1553 – welcome to the 80s!
The rest of our day was now ours, and helpfully, Jeremy recommended an Irish Pub for eating near the hotel. In a competition for the most imaginative of names, it wouldn’t have won any prizes, as, in a ‘blinding attack of the blinking obvious‘, it was called: ‘Irish Pub‘ 🤔
It didn’t disappoint and was certainly doing good business! First stop had to be a pint of the black stuff – even at over a tenner a pint!! 😮
£11 a pint!(Oh, go on then!)A Guinness in Guilin – who’d have thought!!
To complete the multi-cultural nature of our visit, for eats, we chose Pizza! – and it was actually one of the tastiest we’d had in a while! A perfect end to our day (apart from a bit of light rain).
Nightlife in Guilin
Tomorrow it’s our half-day city tour with Jeremy! Light rain is forecast!!!!
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