Day 17: Xingping to Guilin, Tuesday 7th October 2025
Evening commute, Xingping
35°, fine
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Up at 8am, downstairs for breakfast ( a western style breakfast with coffee, toast, eggs, cereal, yoghurt, bananas, sausages etc all served to the table ). Very nice, and far too much to finish. Back to the room to chill. We have a 7:50pm train tonight to Guilin, and we saw / did what we wanted yesterday, so no great rush to get going today.
We had originally wanted to book an early afternoon train back to Guilin but there were no seats available, so the only train we could get was at 7:50pm, and in Business class. This is a common problem ( as I will explain in a future blog for our next set of trains out of Guilin ) when you are only booking for a short section of a trains’ full length ( the train we were catching started just north of Hong Kong and runs a 4 hour route into Sichuan, and we were only on it for 20 minutes ).
Relaxed in our room for the morning, and checked out at 11:30am ( 12pm was the latest checkout ), left our bags and went for a walk. We walked along the small river by the hotel, AC bought a Guilin tshirt ( Y40 ), walked past the Hilton Resort, through the bus depot and into the ‘normal’ part of town. We found a supermarket and bought some supplies, then back through ancient town and found a café in the museum building we had seen the day before, and had icecream, milkshake, matcha and cake.
We carried on wandering around the ancient town, Liz bought some small earrings ( 2 sets for Y15 ) then walked back to hotel. Relaxed in the hotel lobby of the rest of the afternoon; caught up on admin, emails, photos etc.
Wandering the Ancient Town
We had pizza at the hotel for an early dinner.
Went out for a walk at 5:15pm, shot some photos of the hills and river at sunset, with the boats crossing the river to take people to the houses on the other side. Headed back to the hotel then back to the hotel at 5:45pm.
We called a Didi at 5:50pm and walked out to meet him. The drive to the train station was quite quick ( Y20, 15 minutes ) and he dropped us in the forecourt of the Yangshuo Railway Station. We took some photos then in through ticket check, and up stairs to the waiting hall. It was a bit warm and stuffy, but we got some drinks and snacks. We were hoping to be able to see trains passing by ( most trains don’t stop at this station ) but the platforms were above the level of the terminal buildings so there was nothing to see.
Through the gate/ticket check and onto the platform at 7:40pm and onto train at 7:45pm ( train number G2950 ). Into business class cabin for the short trip back to Guilin. Business class is the top level of seats available, and they are in their own separate cabin ( normally at the front / rear of the train ) with their own hostess to look after you. We paid Y268 of the 2 tickets for this short trip, which is about double the 1st class fare, and 3 times the 2nd class ticket price. This cabin had 7 seats that were like an airline business class seat. The cabin was empty when we entered, but another passenger got on at our station so there was just the three of us. We got delivered a box of snacks and water ( included in the ticket ). The trip was not very exciting; it was dark outside so there was nothing to see so we just reclined our seats and relaxed. Arrived at Guilin North station 8:15pm ( 22 minute trip , up to 280km/h ).
Out through the station and then to the Didi area ( most stations have a separate pick up area for Didi’s ), called a Didi ( Y20 ) and after a bit of confusion as to where she was picking us up we jumped in and had a 20 minute ride through town, arriving at The Holiday Inn Express again at 8:55pm ( this booking cost $155 for 1 night including breakfast ), and up to room 512 ( same side of building but on 5th floor this time) which is similar to our last room.
Headed for bed.
Zoomable Map ( pin is located on our hotel location )