Due to the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day of the Republic of China, we had a 8 day long holiday. Our time in China will be only for 2 years, so we want to see different parts of China as much as we can. During the holiday, we traveled to Guilin, which is located in the southern part of China. Guilin has warmer weather, around 96 ℉ in early October when we visited.
Guilin is the largest producer of osmanthus trees in the world. It’s also a place to enjoy rafting down the Lijiang river. The river and the beautiful mountains have inspired famous paintings, including the one featured on the back of the 20 yuan bill.
A picture from our Li River rafting.
Today’s blog will be information on our flight, a guided tour from Tripadvisor, and the hotel where we stayed for 4 nights 5 days. I will write about our sightseeing spots in the next blog!
①Avoiding the holiday traffic
Our flight to Guilin was at 7:55AM. We left our home around 6am. There was no traffic around that time and the airport was less crowded than we expected. We only brought our carry-on backpacks to avoid needing to check in luggage. We learned that there is a laundry room in our hotel so we only packed a few clothes.
Our flight Shenyang 07:50 AM ー Guilin 01:45 PM (1 stop)
Guilin 11:00 AM ー Shenyang 02:25 PM (Direct flight)
②Chose a hotel with good reviews by families.
We loved our hotel, especially the staff were very welcoming to our kids. My kids were so excited when they saw Legos in our room. They immediately started playing with them after our tiring flight.
What we also loved about this hotel was that there are many food stands just outside of the hotel. It was so much fun and easy to explore the neighborhood.
※Outside wasn’t so noisy during our bedtime. But if you are sensitive to sounds it would be safe to find a hotel in a quiet area.
③One day off from sightseeing
Traveling makes us excited, but also tiring at the same time. Especially when traveling with small children, we wanted to make sure they get good rest, so we included one day off (free plan) in our trip plan.
④ Used a guided tour from Tripadvisor.
We booked a guided tour in advance for day 2 and day 3 of our trip. It was very helpful to have a bilingual guide in Chinese and English. The guide picked us up at the hotel in the morning and dropped us off at home.
Live performance of Impression Sanjie Liu with 600 performers on Li River and the spectacular landscape.
My favorite view from the flight.❤️
The only problem we had was that we couldn’t pick our flight seats and we were all in different areas. We didn’t know our seat numbers until we checked in at the airport. Of course I don’t want to sit so far away from my daughters.
My husband asked the flight attendant in Chinese if they could help us change seats with our passengers so that the girls were next to us. The staff were very accommodating and talked to passengers so that we were able to sit next each other.
Our 4 nights 5days trip schedule 
Day 1 Explore the town around the hotel.
Day 2 Hiking at rice terraces , Visit village of Yao ethnic minority
Day 2 Tour link
Day 3 Reed Flute Cave, Li river rafting, Impression Sanjie Liu – Live Performance
Day 3 Tour link
Day 4 Rest Day
Day 5 Return flight home
Our guide took us around efficiently. He was very flexible with his schedule. He even stopped by a pharmacy when my daughter wasn’t feeling well one day.
Wing Hotel Guilin – Central Square
I thought my kids would be so happy to see this Peppa pig bed, but they said they wanted a Pikachu one instead. Too picky…
There was a TV showing local shows in Chinese.
I reminded my children to not get too close to the window. 
The shower and the toilet were so clean. There was a bottle of kid’s body soap and a hair dryer. The staff always came and changed the towels with new ones.
Our hotel reservation wasn’t included breakfast, but we could eat for about $4 per adult. There was no charge for kids. 
The picture above on the right side: looks like mushrooms, but actually steamed meat buns.
Guilin rice noodle. I had two bowls every morning during our stay. The soup was tomato and pork stock base.
My daughter’s favorite fruit🍉
Cereals
There are different kinds of desserts too.
There were steamed vegetables and noodles, too
We found roasted sweet chestnuts.
There was a kids play area a short walk from our hotel. There were various food and game stalls too, maybe because it was a long holiday?
Climbing game to touch the coconut at the top.
My daughters picked the cat in a basket.🐱
The girls played in this sand pit for a long time.
These are exercise bikes for kids. If you ride the bicycle, bubbles come out.
Ring toss game for Dorian and Pomelo.
Near the Sun and Moon Pagodas (Originally built in Tang dynasty from 618 to 907) which were reconstructed in 2001.
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