Spring Festival Tour of Guangxi: Self-driving from Liuzhou to Hechi, Heading Straight to Ancient Towns and Internet-famous Spots (Liuzhou Hechi Tour 1)

Luzhai County has changed a lot, with high-rise buildings everywhere.

The archway of Zhongdu Ancient Town.

Spring Festival Tour of Guangxi: Self-driving from Liuzhou to Hechi, Heading Straight to Ancient Towns and Internet-famous Spots (Liuzhou Hechi Tour 1) Text and photos: Liu Guoxiong

Due to the impact of the pandemic, this year we were encouraged to celebrate the New Year locally and not travel outside the province for tourism. So I spent this Spring Festival traveling in Guangxi to support local tourism.

I have been to many places in Guangxi, except for Jinchengjiang in Hechi. So my plan was to visit beautiful scenic spots around Liuzhou and Hechi. I found that Liuzhou has many internet-famous check-in spots, such as the Liuzhou-style Keketuohai, Jiuzhaigou, Tianchi, Xiaoqikong, and so on.

But because we hadn't finalized anything, I didn't check the map or plan a detailed self-driving route, which later resulted in taking some repetitive roads.

We only decided on the evening of the first day of the new year to go on a self-driving trip on the second day. At 11:30 on the second day, there were still many cars leaving the city from Langdong, Nanning. We had to crawl for a few kilometers before it got better. It seemed quite a few people were traveling during the Spring Festival. When we stopped at a service area to rest, we didn't find many cars there.

Our first stop was from Nanning to Zhongdu Ancient Town in Luzhai County. In less than 4 hours, we arrived at Luzhai County in Liuzhou. We found that it had changed a lot. At the highway exit, many residential buildings had been constructed, and the streets were very clean.

Zhongdu Ancient Town is located in the northwest of Luzhai County, Liuzhou City, Guangxi, and is the cradle of Luzhai civilization. It is 31 kilometers from Luzhai County to Zhongdu Ancient Town. On the way, we had Guilin rice noodles at a noodle shop by a bridge just outside Luzhai County. The toppings were generous and the taste was good.

As we were about to enter the ancient town, we found an archway and a large tourist center. However, due to epidemic prevention measures this Spring Festival, the tourist center was not open. But looking around, the scale was still considerable.

Traffic on the expressway leaving Nanning was slow.

The parking lot at the service area didn't have many cars.

Exited from Luzhai expressway exit, high-rise buildings everywhere.

Luzhai County's development is really good.

Trees are hung with red lanterns, streets are very clean.

Looking at the signs on the road, there are quite a few scenic spots.

There are many people buying New Year goods on the road.

Crossing the bridge, the scenery is nice.

After crossing the bridge, we saw beautiful residential houses.

Indeed, there was a noodle shop open for business.

The noodle shop only had soup noodles, with three choices of meat: char siu, crispy pork, and sausage.

This bowl of noodles looks pretty good, right? I had char siu and sausage, with added pickled bamboo shoots and dried radish.

After finishing the noodles, we continued driving to Zhongdu Ancient Town. The scenery along the way was nice. What does this mountain look like?

Before arriving at Zhongdu Ancient Town, there is a large archway, newly built.

Actually, it's still 2 or 3 kilometers from the ancient town.

There are rape flowers next to the archway.

Next to the archway is a parking lot.

On the parking lot side is the tourist center.