Beihai

Beihai is not heavily touristed by foreigners, and English is not much spoken. There are excellent beaches and lots of cheap food, including Vietnamese food. Weather is warm for most of the year, however, on winter months it's not warm enough to work on your tan on a beach.

Guilin

Guilin is a scenic town and one of the best-known tourist destinations in China. There are many scenic places within short traveling distance of Guilin. These include Longsheng with its famous Longji rice terraces; The Li jiang river, a scene of which is printed on the back of 20 yuan bank notes; Yangshuo, a small city downstream form Guilin; and much more. This makes Guilin an excellent base for exploring the northern end of Guangxi region. Guilin is a beautiful city. The town center is surrounded by two rivers and four lakes and studded with shear sided karst mountains. Outside the city center, the buildings are less well kept. The main industry in the city is tourism.

Guilin itself is like most other medium size Chinese cities, other than that it has a large number of western-style hotels, tourists and is relatively free of air pollution. Many Chinese domestic tourists also flock to this area. What makes it special is its proximity to many picturesque limestone mountains and formations.

Liuzhou

Liuzhou is a renowned state historic cultural city with 2100 years history. Total population of it is 1.66 million of which 880 thousand is urban population. North, east and west of Liuzhou are surrounded by mountains, and the south is an open karst basin. Liujiang River, up reachs of Zhujiang River, runs through the city from northwest to southeast.

Longsheng

Longsheng is located in the northeast region of Guangxi Province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the famous tourist city Guilin. In addition to the great ratio of population of Dong, Miao, Yao and Zhuang ethnic minorities, the autonomous county also boasts undulating green mountains and luxury forests. These are huge reserve for the development of Longsheng's tourism, with hot spring and terraces as the main attractions.

Nanning

Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Province, is not only the political, economic and cultural center of the province, but also plays an important role in the economic development of southwest China. Nanning borders Vietnam, is neighbor to Guangzhou, close to Hong Kong and Macao, and faces Southeast Asia. This advantageous location makes the city a commercial and communication center, opening China to Southeast Asia.

Yangshou

Yangshuo lies in the northeast of Guangxi Province and to the southeast of Guilin City. The special geography gives it breath-taking beauty while over 1,400 years of history bless it with a deep traditional culture. The diverse ethnic minority groups including Hui, Zhuang, Yao and others, enrich it with special folk cultures represented by their various festivals; while many foreign residents add exotic flavors to its fascination.

The famous Li River traverses the county and brings it the most beautiful scenery. Along the extremely pure river, thousands of hills stand in different poses and with different expressions, such as Moon Hill, Mural Hill and Schoolboy Hill which is the natural stage of the world famous opera 'Impression on Sister Liu Sanjie'.

(CRIENGLISH.com December 12, 2008)