Going to Liuzhou for Luosifen during Spring Festival: A Trip Inspired by Snail Noodles

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This Spring Festival, Xian Gao completely took off the down jacket and embarked on a comfortable trip. Not wanting to wear such thick clothes, we set our sights on the south. We had been to Guilin before, and this time we chose Liuzhou. The highlight: Liuzhou has the luosifen that I had been longing for. As soon as my husband heard about luosifen, he was eager to go on the trip.

For this trip, we rented a car from Mou Hi. After arriving in Liuzhou, we picked up the car first and then started traveling.

We planned a bit late, with only two weeks left until the Spring Festival. Airfare had doubled, and flying directly to Liuzhou was the most economical. The final itinerary was decided based on flight prices.

After landing in Liuzhou, we first picked up the car and then drove directly to the hotel. We checked into the newly opened Liuzhou Kaijin Hotel. The room had smart home devices and was very spacious. If you don’t care about hotel service, you can choose this one. It is not far from Mixc and Wanda.

For lunch, we chose Guangxi specialty cuisine: Gui Xiaochu. During off-peak hours, we waited 40 minutes with 5 tables ahead of us. As soon as we entered, there was a strong smell of pickled bamboo shoots. But the signature fish, though pungent in aroma, was not very flavorful. Guangxi cured meat was delicious—the stir-fried cured meat with winter bamboo shoots could easily make you finish a bowl of rice.

In the afternoon, we went to Longtan Park. The biggest impression was its large area. The park is free. Driving to the east gate was not congested, but you have to walk a bit farther. The park has a large camping area, surrounded by mountains and water. It is a city park integrating karst peaks, lakes, and forests. Through artificial planning and construction, it allows urban residents to enjoy wild scenery up close anytime.

In February, magnolias were already blooming, making me almost forget that it was still winter in Beijing. Longtan Park is not only a place for tourists to take photos but also a top choice for local citizens to go on outings. There is a children’s playground, a lawn for kids to play, a camping area for young people, and sports enthusiasts running in the park. The paths are flat, the greenery is dense, and the mountains are perfectly set against the background.

On the way to Five Star Pedestrian Street, and even on any street in Liuzhou, you could see Mini cars everywhere, even more than regular sedans, and there were dedicated half-size parking spaces. In the industrial city of Liuzhou, where the temperature is warm and pleasant all year round, clean energy cars occupy a large market share—what a balance.

For dinner, we followed the principle of not going to chain or clean-looking restaurants, and finally chose Sister Li’s Cooked Snails (Li Jie Zhu Luo), a time-honored brand that has been open for over 20 years. It was exaggerated: everyone ordered at least 10 bowls, not to mention duck feet hot pot and other snacks. Whether luosifen is authentic can be judged by the impact of the smell upon entering the store, the richness of the broth, and the texture of the ingredients.

This bowl of luosifen that belonged to me was overall good. The duck feet were skin-crispy, the pickled bamboo shoots were strong in flavor, the broth was addictive, but the dried tofu skin pieces could have been larger for more satisfaction. I haven’t tried other places, but this one tasted good. My husband said if we had to queue for an hour to get it, it wouldn’t be as delicious. I, on the contrary, thought it was even more delicious. By the Liujiang River, there is a man-made beach. Across the river, the lights of the Confucian Temple and the ancient town brightened the night, somewhat reminiscent of the 1986 version of Journey to the West.

Liuzhou and Nanning were forecast to have rain. All the way west, the sky turned from overcast to sunny to partly cloudy. The 300-kilometer journey became magical because of the mountains, fields, tunnels, trees, and cross-river bridges along the way. When the sky cleared, the mountains were layered with distinct levels. When it was misty, there was an illusion of riding on clouds. The karst landscape carved the mountains into separate peaks or continuous mountain ranges cut as if by a knife.

The mountain peaks were originally smooth rocks, but seeds carried by the wind took root, growing into dense forests tightly covering the rocks, growing upward along the shape of the rocks, yet some bare surfaces could still be seen.

Unable to go to Detian Waterfall, we substituted with a low-end version—a roadside waterfall without queues. We drove past Sandieling Waterfall, where rocks were scattered unevenly on the water surface, causing the upstream flow to fall in three tiers. With the wind, water vapor was blown into the air, landing on tourists’ hair tips, smiles, or camera lenses.

Next stop, Jingxi Goose Spring. The sky was not cooperating; the pastoral beauty couldn’t be captured due to lack of light and water mist. Of course, I didn’t want to retouch the photos either, keeping the original texture. Romance and atmosphere are to be felt through the senses—like the gentle breeze brushing the hair, the twitching ears of the old yellow cow grazing in the field, the joyful laughter of tourists on bamboo rafts, or the wild animals and plants of Goose Spring itself being served to diners’ tables.

The spring is not large. Outside the scenic area entrance, there is a row of guesthouses guarding it, and the second row consists of local residents’ houses. It costs only 10 yuan to take a bamboo raft for a round trip because you can see the whole thing at a glance. The guesthouses are run by local villagers, clean and simple. Under the night sky, each guesthouse shone like a sparkling light.

Against the evening glow, divine tourists took a photo of us two and the mountain and spring. Goose Spring is the source of Detian Waterfall. It’s hard to imagine such a tranquil lake surface, and how magnificent the waterfall torrent would be 80 kilometers downstream. We can only come back next time to explore the answer.

In these mountains, a bowl of plain congee with pickled vegetables or a bowl of noodles in the morning is the best start to the day. We said goodbye to Goose Spring and waved to the old yellow cow in the field, heading to Gulongshan Grand Canyon.

Gulongshan has a daily visitor capacity limit. During Spring Festival, you need to buy tickets with rafting two days in advance. The efficiency at the online ticket pickup was particularly low; I heard they had to check each ticket one by one and record manually. Gulongshan Grand Canyon consists of continuous mountains with embedded vegetation, and the stream at Tongling Waterfall runs through it, bringing movement to the tranquil canyon. All mountains have cracks, where light comes in. In the deep canyon, small leaves floated like boats on the river, hiding the fish, leaving only traces of their passage.

The most anticipated part of Gulongshan scenic area was the rafting. Two people per raft, with a professional oarsman to paddle nearly 6 kilometers, leading us to explore the canyon. There were gentle streams slowly flowing, allowing us to look up at the lofty mountains, as well as gentle slopes that turned into rapids, splashing water and eliciting continuous praise.

The rafting through three gorges and two caves was not just a leaf boat in the canyon, but also an exploration of underground rivers in the karst caves. The one-kilometer-long stalactite cave was damp due to rain. The essence of water filtered through the stone cave condensed into droplets, falling onto my helmet as I passed. Under the rainy sky, the clouds thickened, leaving only faint outlines of the valley, soon to be indistinguishable. I thought that on a sunny day, one could look up and see the beams of light shining into the canyon cracks.

Travel Journal Index

1. Day 1: Arrival in Liuzhou, start of the trip

2. Day 2: Drive to Jingxi

3. Day 3: Chongzuo chapter

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