Guangxi
Guangxi (广西; Guǎngxī) is a relatively poor but highly scenic area in southern China. Technically it is known as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, because of its large Zhuang minority population.
Guangxi is located in Southwest China west of Guangdong Province (Canton); 'xi' and 'dong' are 'west' and 'east' in Chinese. It has a significant coastline on the South China Sea, (Beibu Gulf). It shares many characteristics of its poorer sister to the north Guizhou due to its mainly rural nature and large minority populations.
Regions
Cities
- Nanning (南宁) — provincial capital, gateway to Vietnam
- Guilin (桂林) — popular tourist destination
- Yangshuo (阳朔) — famous scenic town with karst mountains, accessible from Guilin
- Longsheng (龙胜) — home of the famed "Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces"
- Beihai (北海) — Coastal city with a beach and cheap food
- Guiping (桂平) — home of Xishan tea and Longtan National Forest Park
- Liuzhou (柳州) — major industrial city with beautiful karst countryside
- Chongzuo (崇左)
- Detian
Other destinations
- Chengyang (程阳) — idyllic Zhuang villages, famous for their wind water bridge (风雨桥)
- Xingping (兴坪) — ancient town on the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo
- Longtan National Forest Park
- Huangjingdong National Park
- Weizhou (涠洲岛) — volcanic island
Understand
Talk
Guangxi is linguistically diverse. Standard Mandarin is spoken by nearly all, but "baihua", a dialect of Cantonese, also known in pinyin Chinese as "Yueyu" is spoken as the local native language in parts of eastern Guangxi. Some of the many minority groups still speak their own tongues as well.
Get in
Get around
See
Do
Sleep
Eat
Guanxi is known for its rice noodles (粉). Each city has its own specialty. Prices vary between 6-15 Yuan.
One of Guanxi's more famous dishes is a hotpot based on dog.
Drink
Stay safe
Go next
You can go overland to Vietnam by train or road from Nanning.
There is a consulate in Nanning so you can pick up a visa there. Tickets for these trips are on sale in Yangshuo.
There is a train from Nanning to Kunming through impressive mountain scenery.