A Serendipitous Trip to Luzhai + Changsha as a Bonus

Luzhai—I’d never heard of it before...

Before our summer trip in 2018, my friend Old S's wife mentioned that one of her classmates had recommended this place, so we all agreed: let's go together! This time, my family, Old S and his wife, and the universally known "Neighbor Old Wang" and his family formed the group.

Luzhai is located between Liuzhou and Guilin in Guangxi. Since it's quite far and driving would take too long, we planned to take the high-speed rail together. But Neighbor Old Wang said his precious daughter had never been on a 'plane,' so we booked cheap flights from Tianjin to Guilin (really inexpensive).

In Guilin, we stayed at a hotel not far from the train station for easy access to the high-speed rail the next day.

The bullet train from Guilin to Luzhai North Station was only two stops, taking about fifty minutes. We had arranged with Xiangqiao Deer Park Hotel (now renamed "Luzhai Luming Valley Hotel") to pick us up at the station—back then, without a pickup, getting to Luzhai was still a bit inconvenient.

We checked into the hotel in the afternoon. We purposely booked rooms on the second floor, each with a small yard enclosed by low fences—actually, it was just the rooftop terrace of the hotel partitioned into private yards for each room. The hotel is not far from the Luzhai Xiangqiao Karst National Geopark, so we planned to visit the next day.

First, we basked in the sun on the terrace and had some tea. Then we headed to the hotel's outdoor swimming pool. Since it wasn't the weekend, our three families were the only ones there—essentially six adults and two kids had the whole pool to ourselves. The scenery around the pool was lovely too, very enjoyable!

Within a few minutes' walk, there were several farmhouse-style restaurants and a small supermarket. The hotel itself had a restaurant, which wasn't crowded. That evening, we had dinner at a restaurant about 500 meters away that seemed to be run by someone into root carving. After dinner, we bought some beer and snacks at the supermarket and went back to our room for a late-night snack...

The next morning, we all walked to the Xiangqiao Karst National Geopark. It's about four or five kilometers from the hotel, along an asphalt road with signposts. Apparently, there are occasional sightings of "little dragons" in the park, but we didn't run into any.

Visiting the karst cave was scheduled by time slots; we had to wait about forty to fifty minutes before we were allowed in.

On our way back to the park entrance, we spotted a human-like shape on the cliff. Some said it was an "alien," but I thought it looked more like a parachutist who accidentally got stuck on the rock face.

When we came out of the park, there happened to be a minibus dropping off tourists. We let the women and kids take it back to the hotel for about 30 yuan, as I recall.

In the afternoon, we went to the zoo behind the hotel (I think it was called 'Deer Park'). At the time, hotel guests got free admission. (Later, when friends went again, they had to buy separate tickets.) Besides animals, there were also adventure-style play facilities, and the kids tried them out.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, ordering a famous local free-range chicken. We were the only table at first; only two or three other guests arrived near the end of our meal. It was nice and quiet, perfect for chatting.

On the third day, we arranged with the hotel for a car to take us to Zhongdu Ancient Town. The town was quite nice—most of it hadn't been artificially renovated; it consisted of simple residential houses, temples for worship, and a few dilapidated factory buildings, with very few man-made attractions.

We specifically asked about the local "firewood rice noodles" (chaihuo fen), but we mistakenly called them "match rice noodles" (huocai fen). When we asked locals, they looked utterly confused...

After wandering around the town, we took a ferry from the dock to Xiangshui Waterfall, which happened to be in the direction back to the hotel, so no detour. The ticket included a round trip, but we only used one way.

The water at Zhongdu Xiangshui Waterfall was quite swift. Old S's plump wife slipped and had an impromptu "imperial concubine emerging from the bath" moment—she 'sacrificed herself' to protect our kid. According to locals, the water flow was strong that year; later, when friends revisited, they said the waterfall had almost disappeared, with only a tiny trickle.

On the last day, we just stayed at the hotel and had another meal at that farmhouse restaurant.

Originally, we wanted to book high-speed rail tickets to Beijing, but there were none available, so we improvised and decided to transfer in Changsha. We again arranged for the hotel car to take us to Luzhai North Station.

The journey went smoothly. At our hotel, the Crystal Orange Hotel, the room had an activity where solving a Rubik's Cube could earn you a free coffee. Coincidentally, all of us could solve the cube on all six sides, so we naturally got our coffees—bonus!

Since we were in Changsha, we figured we might as well check it out—never leave empty-handed. We did a bit of cultural tourism, visiting Yuelu Academy, one of the four great ancient academies. I bought a wooden ruler there to use as a disciplinary tool for my child.

For dinner, we split up: my kid and I had dumplings (since we can't handle the spiciness of Hunan cuisine), while the others went to "Huogongdian" (Fire Palace).

The return trip to Beijing was smooth. On the high-speed train, I happened to notice the sun had a missing corner out the window—I quickly searched online and sure enough, it was a partial solar eclipse that day. If Changsha was a "buy one get one free" for this trip, then catching the eclipse was like a "cashback bonus"—the virtuous are blessed by heaven.

Note: This trip took place in early August 2018. This account is based on memory, so please forgive any inaccuracies.