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Guoliangcun in my opinion isn't really a beautifull village, but there are some nice walks along the cliffs and up into the mountains.
I wasn't too much impressed about the loop, were you can see so-called shouting-springs. I really liked the walk along the cliffs till the village of Huitao Zhai. On this walk you can also visit the Sky ladder, which was the only way up to Guoliangcun before they built the road. It was closed for tourists, but you can pass the sign. I only walked down maybe 20 or 30 m in height to make some pictures. I had not the feeling, that it is dangerous at this parts.
What I really enjoyed was the way up into the mountains. Very soon, when you start the walk to Huitao Zhai on the left hand there are stairs up till to a platform high in the mountains. from there you also can turn left (few meters below the platform) and walk high above Guoliangcun to enjoy the tranquility of the mountains. I walked till to the little pool and a cave. There the stairway ended and I went the same way back.
Also on the other side of the village there a some quite spectacular views of the tunnel road or better say the windows of the tunnel road. You will walk on the edge of the cliff, separated only by a wall. When you look over the wall, it's about 140 m straight down to the bottom of the valley.

When you want to leave, there a several busses from Nanping to Huixian (some also go to XinXiang), which you can flag down at the junction i mentioned before. I took the second bus at 9 o'clock. The first was at about 6:30, which was to early for me.
During this trip I usually stayed in Hotels (often booked via elong) around 150 yuan. In Guoliangcun there are a lot of Hotels or Pensions. But I took the offer of a woman, to stay at her house (an old stone house) for 30 yuan. The room was very small and the bathroom (with hot water) and the toilet were of course outside the room. But it was just 5 m crossing the courtyard to reach them. I liked this place, even if it was not so comfortable as a hotel. It was something different. I was not the only guest, they had several rooms around the courtyard.

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I'd like to add another interesting place around Guoliangcun, the Kunshan-tunnel . Actually I only saw it from a distance, but I was impressed to find another tunnel so high in the mountains.
This was, when I went to the other side of the cliff to make some pictures of the Guoliangcun tunnel. There is a good road and many chinese tour busses also go on this road. So I followed the road, always curious, whats after the next corner. After about 1,5 or 2 hours I came to a little village. Already on the way to the village I saw in a distance the windows of a tunnel high up in the mountains. But I was too tired to continue, walking till to the tunnel would have been way too long. So I only walked till to the place, where the road goes down direction Nanping before I returned the same way.
Just browsing through the webpages I saved before I did the trip I found, that there already is something written about Kunshan-tunnel . For everybody interested in visiting interesting places not so well known maybe this is of interest. Since I already stayed 3 nights in Guoliangcun I continued to Shijiazhuang and didn't want to spend another day to find out more about this tunnel. I think, the Wanxianshan-scenic area is well worth to be explored a little longer.
When you klick on Kunshan-tunnel, you will get more information. I found it funny, that I had a similar experince like this guy Paul writes (you have to scroll down till "How We Found Kunshan Tunnel"). According to him, this is no longer the Wanxianshan-scenic area but the Wangmangling-scenic area. And there should be a third tunnel. Here is a chinese report .

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That's a great and helpful report.

Let me mention that there are really two centres to Guoliang Park: the area up around Guoliang Village described above, and the area around Nanping about 2km further down the road from the turnoff up to Guoliang Village. (The turnoff is to the right heading into the park, not the left, by the way.) Your admission ticket covers both areas, and there's lodging around each, but nothing fancy, and food is basic, with an emphasis on wildlife for local tourists.

While there are more interesting walks around Nanping, the highlight of a visit there is a walk through the 丹分沟 Danfen Gorge, a deep twisting gulley with waterfalls. There are lots of fine trails in the park, and two days around Guoliang and two around Nanping would seem a minimum. It's not an area to be rushed.

When I visited, the bus between Huixian and Guoliang was unreliable, running only when and if the driver felt like it, but perhaps service has improved.

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You are right, coming from Huixian the road to Guoliangcun is on the right side. When I came first they didn't tell me to leave the bus at the junction and I went till Nanping. On the way back (fortunately the bus only waited for about 10 min. in Nanping) they let me off the bus at the junction.

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Tokyojoe....i am the Paul you mentioned. I have just returned from revisiting Guoliang and walked through Kunshan and Xiyagou and Qingfengguan tunnels....all in the area. Will be updating the site you found me on (put together by a guy in USA) http://www.ssqq.com/archive/kunshan_xiyagou.htm