6 Days Guilin Ethnic Cultural Tour to Sanjiang

Day 1

Arrival Guilin
Arrive in Guilin, a small city with great natural beauty of south China. Be met at the airport and transferred to your hotel. Free at leisure for the rest of the day.
Meals: No meals
Accommodation: In Guilin

Guilin is world-famous for its serene landscape, Karst limestone formations, mist-covered hills and bamboo groves. It is home to more than ten ethnic groups, including Han, Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Hui and Dong. On the way from the airport to your hotel, you will see dozens of pretty hills everywhere in the city of Guilin. It is a city of hills and green trees and boasts one of the most photographed areas of China.

Day 2

Guilin    Longsheng
In the morning, you can take a half day visit to Elephant Trunk Hill and Reed Flute Cave, then, in the afternoon, take a 2.5hours driving to Longsheng
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: In Longsheng

Elephant Trunk Hill, or Xiangbishan, is the symbol of Guilin. Observed from a distance, you will see an elephant-like form standing majestically at the confluence of the Li and Yang Rivers, with its trunk arching into the clear waters, a fantasy elephant eternally quenching a gargantuan thirst; lifelike in shape and energetic in posture.

Reed Flute Cave is named for the special reeds, used for making flute instruments that grow near the cave entrance. The caves are a feast for the eyes. The natural beauty of a profusion of stalactites and stalagmites, stele, stone pillars, stone curtains and stone flowers creating an infinite variety of extraordinary scenes, creatively illuminated, is bound to evoke gasps of admiration. It is fitting then, that Reed Flute Cave is commonly praised as Nature Grand Art Palace.
 

Day 3

Longsheng
Today, start your exploration to the famous Longji Rice Terrace and Ping'an Zhuang Village.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: In Longsheng

Longji Rice Terrace, with a history of more than 700 years, the area is still be the farm lands that growing premium quality rice by Yao and Zhuang villagers. The rice terraces are built into the hillsides and look like great steps cut into the slopes as they wind around the mountainsides. This ingenious construction makes best use of the scarce arable land and water resources in the mountainous area.
The Rice Terraces are much prettier after the rain, as the morning fog is clearing or while rice is being harvested. If you like to paint or photograph dramatic, beautiful landscapes, this would be a superb destination in which to practice your art; or come here anyway just to look, gaze in awe, and take it all in; it is a Guilin must-see!

Ping'an is a Zhuang minority village high up in the mountains at Longji. The village is only accessible by foot, and from across the valley, the visitor has a first impression of entering another land as the buildings, clustered around the hillside, are all two story wooden structures resembling a European Alpine village. This is the traditional Zhuang style house and among them there are excellent guest houses that can cater to all your practical needs. Pingan is surrounded by beautiful terraced rice fields. From a distance, the terraces look like contour lines on a topographical map, texturing the ridges, mountainsides and valleys.
 

Day 4

Longsheng    Sanjiang
Continue your custom trip today westward to Sanjiang, the connecting point of Guangxi, Guizhou and Hunan. Spend the rest time perusing cleverly designed Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge and Mapang Drum Tower of unique beauty.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: In Sanjiang

As one of the five Dong minority autonomous counties in China, Sanjiang has the largest population of the Dong people. Therefore, Sanjiang boasts the Dong people distinctive architecture - the Wind and Rain Bridge and the drum tower.

Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, spanning the Linxi River of Sanjiang County, is the reason most visitor come to Sanjiang. Built in 1916, it is 64.4 meters long (73.43 yards), 3.4 metes wide (3.72 yards) and 10.6 meters high (34.78 feet). It is an amazing piece of architecture built without use of fasteners of any kind. The bridge was constructed with wood and stones with the wooden-paved surface and railings on both sides. On the bridge, there are five tower-like kiosks with horns and eaves which resemble the flapping wings of birds.

Each village in Sanjiang has at least one drum tower to summon people, or inform locals of emergencies. When there was an emergency, like a fire or an attack, the drum would be beat, and because of the design of the structure, the sound would be amplified and could be heard for miles around. Among approximately 160 drum towers in the region, the Mapang Drum Tower is the most famous and typical one. With the foundation of 169 square meters, the tower has nine upturned eaves, and each eave is carved with flowers, grass, fish, birds, and characters. Inside the tower, there are four indoor pillars made of fir that extend all the way to the top floor. Surrounding the four pillars are a group of twelve mid-sized pillars symbolizing prosperity for the village during a year. 
 

Day 5

Sanjiang    Guilin
Drive back to Guilin in the morning. During the way, you can take a short visit a tea farm to find out how tea is growing and making in Southern China.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: In Guilin

The tea farm you will visit was the Royal Tea Garden in the Ming Dynasty 400 years ago, and the soil is fertile and rich in trace element. The garden has 300 kinds of tea seed genes collected from five provinces in southwest China and it is the first organic tea garden in Guangxi.
 

Day 6

Full price of this tour (per person in US$):

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