Reflections on Liuzhou

Having lived in Guilin for 40 years, I never really took the time to visit Liuzhou properly. I always said I wanted to go and taste an authentic bowl of Liuzhou river snail rice noodles, see Liuzhou's night scene, ranked among the top five in the world, and check out Guangxi's Disneyland. So, without further ado, we set off!

Driving from Guilin to Liuzhou takes a full 2.5 hours to reach the city center. Since it was drizzling the day we arrived, our group could only take some photos at the entrance of Guangxi's Disneyland—Colorful Planet. At least the buildings at the entrance caught my eye. I had been on a business trip a few days prior to Panyu Chimelong Hotel and theme park, and maybe because Chimelong has been around for a long time, its exterior architecture wasn't as cute as Colorful Planet's. It was definitely very photogenic.

After taking photos at the entrance, we headed to Yaobu Ancient Town for a stroll. Because of the rain, there weren't many people, and we quickly walked a few steps before heading to experience Liuzhou's Feiluozhuang restaurant! When delicious food beckons, everything else fades away.

We ordered a very famous stir-fried river snail rice noodles.

In the evening, we booked a luxury cruise at 8:30 PM to experience the world's top five night scenes.

Arriving in Liuzhou, of course, you can't miss going to a popular Instagram spot and having an authentic bowl of Liuzhou river snail rice noodles.

For the night, we stayed at an apartment hotel above MIXC Mall. The price was great and the room was quite new.

The next morning, we visited the Liuzhou Industrial Museum. Groups need to book one day in advance, but we were just a few people arriving on the spot. Since there weren't many visitors, we were allowed in with a direct booking. Because we hadn't booked in advance, there was no guided tour, so we rented an audio guide for free at the museum entrance. It was quite good and easy to use.

The museum is newly built and incorporates many modern design concepts. The many old artifacts inside still reminded me of the workshops where my parents worked when I was a child—it was quite impressive. The best part is that it's free, totally free!

Before leaving, don't forget to pick up a few packs of Liuzhou cloud-patterned cake (yunpian gao). It also tastes like childhood, with a faint hint of mint~~~