This is just a short announcement for all who do not get the Guilin Expat Newsletter. If you want to get informed about whats going on please subscribe.

We will have a small “After-work Party” this Friday, march 19th in Shangri-la’s shiny new U-bar. Please feel free to pop in and bring your friends.

For the long version, please click here

Originally we wanted to go to Gurong Watertown last Sunday (see newsletter), but the evening before our tour-organizer informed us (surprise, surprise) that the town has closed its doors.

As it was too late to inform everyone we decided to start the tour as planned but make a little hike a little further down the original destination and visit the house of the family of a sunny hiking club member:

The first rays of sunshine are peaking through the clouds and temperatures are finally back in the double digits. What better way to celebrate than go pick some of the first strawberries of the season?

Those of you that subscribed to our newsletter (hint, hint) had the chance of joining us and the Sunny Hiker Group last Saturday to the strawberry fields in Daxu. If you missed the tour or had to work, here are some photos:

We have been quit for some time now, so if you where wondering what we were up to, here it is:

After the great success of our first joint Foreign/Chinese hiking tours we decided to give our hiking group its own platform.

On http://www.guilinhiking.com you can find from now on the announcements of the new tours as well as a list of previous tours. We also included a bbs-forum so people can meet, share photos and discuss.

As always, the Guilin Hiking tours are free of charge (you only pay for your own transport and food). Just sign-up and join us.

The “Sunny Hiker” Hiking Club is a group of Guilinese who come together from time to time to plan their own hiking trips in Guilin and the surrounding area.

The hiking leader, Mr. Johnson Xu, cordially invited the “Guilin Expat” population to join in the hikes and see a part of their chosen home that they may not experience otherwise. In his own words:

“Guilin is very popular and easy hiking place .You can find many hiking lines including river, hill and plain etc. For our local hikers, we don’t like the hot scenic place now. These places are too much commercial operation, so we design the hiking line by ourselves and seek for original and healthy points. After this, we connect those points in map and begin our hiking .We can use the mini money to earn max natural happiness. Sometimes we just spent thirty yuan per one hiking line.”

If you want to be informed about the next hikes scheduled, please click here and sign up for our newsletter. We will send out the route and description in time for you to decide to participate.

For some first impressions see the photos below, or go to the Photo Gallery for a more extensive collection of pictures.