Six-Hour Express Tour of Huangguoshu · Self-Driving Version

Travel Date: 11.16 Sunday Sunny Off-season, adult ticket + shuttle bus still 210 RMB/person, buy tickets three days in advance, booked for Water Curtain Cave 7:30 Depart from Guiyang Navigate to: Beer City Parking Lot, 1.5 hours on the highway, arrive at 9:00. At this time, there are very few cars in the parking lot. From this entrance, it’s a 3-minute walk to the shuttle bus station inside the scenic area. 9:30-11:30 Tianxingqiao The first stop is the most leg-intensive Tianxingqiao. After getting off, don’t enter the main scenic gate; walk left to the second floor and enter the lower half directly. First, visit Tianxing Cave. Since we were already here, seeing a karst cave for the first time (p2~3) was quite interesting. It’s rather humid and stuffy inside. After exiting the cave, walk a bit further to Silver Chain Waterfall (p1), which is basically the highlight of Tianxingqiao. The second-floor viewing platform is recommended for more comfortable photo-taking; the water splashes heavily below. After seeing Silver Chain Waterfall, follow the signs straight ahead. This section is quite leg-intensive and narrow for passing others. After about half an hour, you’ll reach the free shuttle bus stop, take it to the Tianxingqiao scenic area entrance, then transfer to a bus to the Great Waterfall. 11:30-12:30 Lunch and Rest The visitor center at the Great Waterfall has many food options, including chain milk tea shops, KFC, and Dicos. Have a simple meal and rest here before heading to Water Curtain Cave. 12:30-14:00 Water Curtain Cave + Great Waterfall Water Curtain Cave is halfway up the mountain, so don’t take the escalator downhill first. Follow the signs for a while and you’ll see the Great Waterfall (p4). PS: You can enter Water Curtain Cave at any time on the day of your reservation, just make sure you have a booking. We brought our own raincoats and shoe covers. P5 shows other visitors inside the cave before we entered, and p6 is our own perspective inside the cave. It’s quite fun and worth a visit. On the way through Water Curtain Cave, we were lucky to see a rainbow (p7). Then we walked forward to the viewing platform for some photos (p8). For the return uphill, we chose to take the escalator to save energy, 30 RMB/person. Exiting requires walking through a 10-minute commercial street, then transferring to a bus to the most comfortable Duopotang. 14:00-15:00 Duopotang This was a filming location for the 1982 Journey to the West and is the most comfortable section. The entire route is almost flat with very few steps and can be completed in half an hour (p10). It’s recommended to save this easiest spot for last. Return Trip From the Duopotang exit, the bus takes less than ten minutes to get back to Beer City. Parking is a one-time fee of 20 RMB per entry. When leaving the parking lot, the display showed parking time of 6 hours and 7 minutes. Little tip: There’s very little traffic on Guizhou highways, making renting a car extremely easy to drive. Once off the highway, you’re basically at the scenic area, very convenient. Considering the flight home at around 8 PM, we didn’t choose direct shuttle buses or high-speed trains for the round trip. However, Guiyang city itself is a different story—absolutely do not choose to drive in Guiyang city!