5 Days in Guilin

Start where Guilin eats: a bowl of mifen, round rice noodles, the city's signature dish and available on practically every block. You choose the topping (braised beef, pork, sour pickles, peanuts) and add the pickles, chilies and sauces from the pots on the table. Traditionally you eat the noodles and topping dry first, and a pot of soup follows to finish.

Portions are sold by size, small, medium and large (yi liang, er liang, san liang). A small one is a snack, so start with a medium. The shops right outside the stations are the weakest; walk five minutes towards the middle of town and go where the locals queue.

Elephant Trunk Hill is the symbol of the city: a limestone hill that looks like an elephant drinking from the river, with a round hollow under the trunk called Water-Moon Cave, where at night the moon appears to float on the surface. It stands where the Taohua River meets the Li River, a few minutes' walk from the middle of town.

Look at it from the river path, where the elephant shape reads best, and walk around the park. This is a one-hour stop, not a half day.

A short walk or taxi ride north is the Jingjiang Princes' City, a walled palace compound built between 1372 and 1392 for Zhu Shouqian, a great-nephew of the first Ming emperor. Fourteen princes from twelve generations lived here until the end of the dynasty, and the compound is older than the Forbidden City in Beijing. Today part of it is a university campus, which gives the place a quiet, student-lawn feel.

The reason to pay is Solitary Beauty Peak (Duxiu Feng) inside the walls. A carved stairway climbs it, and from the top you see the whole city and the karst hills around it. It's one of the best viewpoints in the city. Pick a clear morning.

The Reed Flute Cave is named after the reeds outside that can be turned into flutes. It's a limestone cave of stalactites and stalagmites lit in many colors, and the formations have names like Crystal Palace, Fish Tail Peak and Dragon Pagoda. More than 70 ink inscriptions on the walls include one dated to 792 AD in the Tang dynasty. The cave was rediscovered in the 1940s by refugees fleeing Japanese troops.

The colored lights are an acquired taste, and a guided walk means you move at the group's speed. Even so, it's the easiest cave to reach from the city, about 5 km west of the center, and the formations are worth it if you haven't seen a show cave before.

Guilin cooking is influenced by Cantonese and Hunan styles, with more fish, more chilies and plenty of stir-frying and steaming. Local dishes include old duck stewed with ginkgo, duck wrapped in lotus leaf, snails cooked with sour pepper, and Daxu clear-water fish with salt and ginger. Eat around the pedestrian streets near Central Square, not on the very busiest tourist strips, where many restaurants are overpriced chains and the food is less authentic.

Order three or four dishes for two, a bowl of rice, and look at what the next table is eating. Menus are in Chinese, so a translation app and a photo of the dish help.

Guilin's center is surrounded by two rivers (the Li and the Taohua) and four lakes, and after dark they're lit up. The Sun and Moon Pagodas, a pair of towers standing in the lake, look better at night than by day. A boat tour through the lakes and canals takes about 90 minutes and runs in the evening. It's touristy, and a pleasant way to see the city on the water.

If you only want the pagodas, walk the lakeside path around them for free. If you take the boat, pick one early in the evening, not the last one.

The Longji terraces, "Dragon's Backbone", were carved into the mountain by the Zhuang and Yao people about 650 years ago and run from the river valley up to 600-800 m. Ping'an is the most compact base: a Zhuang village of timber houses, three or four floors high, right at the foot of the stone paths. The terraces change with the season: flooded and shining in April and May, bright green in summer, gold at harvest from late September into October, then bare and quiet from November.

A ticket office controls access. Hire a porter if you have a big bag: local women carry it in baskets for a small fee.

The stone-engraved maps in the village mark a loop of about an hour and a half through Ping'an to two viewpoints: Seven Stars with the Moon (Viewpoint 2) and Nine Dragons and Five Tigers (Viewpoint 1). The easiest direction is through the village up to Viewpoint 2, then across the hills to Viewpoint 1 and steeply down. The paths are paved in stone but steep, and a fit visitor can walk the whole summit route in about two hours.

Take water, wear shoes with grip (the steps are slick after rain) and go early, before the tour groups, for the best light and the least noise. The view of terraces spiraling around the hillside, with mist in the valley, is the picture people travel for.

Along the path you'll see people cooking rice over an open fire in a hollow bamboo tube. The rice is stuffed into the tube with meat, vegetables and spices, sealed and put on the fire, and you peel the bamboo back like a banana. It's the traditional village meal, smoky and slightly sweet from the bamboo.

Sit at one of the small restaurants in the village and order it with a plate of greens and local pickles. Expect Chinese-only menus, and a lunch priced above city level, because everything has to be carried up the hill.

Dazhai is the main village of the Jinkeng terraces, home to the Red Yao community, and quieter than Ping'an: there are no cars in the village. The terrace area is larger, with a cable car and long hikes between hamlets higher up. Walking between the two villages takes about 3 hours with a guide, so most people do one village per day.

Choose by taste. Ping'an is the easier day with the best-signed paths, Dazhai the better one for walking and for seeing Yao women, who keep their hair uncut and coil it on top of the head. Ask before taking someone's photo, a small fee is customary.

The Li River is 164 km long, and the part the boats run, from the piers south of Guilin to Yangshuo or Xingping, is its famous stretch. Boats leave from the Zhujiang or Mopanshan piers outside the city, in the morning (roughly 9 to 10:30, depending on the class). The river part is roughly four hours; add the transfer and the landing, and allow five or six.

There are three classes. The 3-star is a standard boat with packed or set lunch, the 4-star has a roomier cabin, an open upper deck and a buffet, and the 5-star is a private-charter product. The scenery is the same on all, so the extra money buys comfort and a bit more space on deck. Most "private" tours online put you on a normal passenger boat with your own driver and guide. Bring a snack, a jacket and a hat.

The second half of the cruise is the part you came for. Past the villages of Yangdi and Xingping the river narrows and the peaks crowd the banks, and the boat passes Nine Horse Fresco Hill, a cliff face whose name refers to the nine horses people see in its streaks and colors.

Sit on the open deck if the weather allows, with your camera ready. In mist it looks like an ink painting, and in strong sun it can flatten the hills. Both are fine.

Near Xingping the river bends past Yellow Cloth Shoal, and the peaks on the bank match the engraving on the back of the 20 yuan note. The scene on the note is photographed from the bank just outside Xingping town. Boats pass it without stopping, so you'll see it from the deck.

For a proper look, come back on day four: it's about a ten-minute walk from Xingping's waterfront, and you can photograph the same angle from the bank. If your cruise ends in Xingping rather than Yangshuo, look for the signs for the 20 yuan view and follow the crowd.

Yangshuo is a small county town surrounded by karst, a backpacker haunt since the 1980s that is now mostly a holiday town for Chinese visitors. West Street (Xi Jie) is the oldest and busiest tourist street, a pedestrian ladder of cafes, shops and bars running up from the river, with lanes crossing between it and Diecui Road. Many of the foreign-run businesses closed during the pandemic, and what remains is mostly domestic.

Walk it once for the atmosphere, then go up to the Green Lotus Peak (Bilian Feng) on the riverbank if the light is good. West Street is loud in the evening, and a quieter room is a good idea.

Pijiu yu, beer fish, is Yangshuo's signature dish: a river fish cooked with beer. It's the one dish most Chinese tourists try. Fish is priced per jin (500 g) on the menu, so ask the weight and the total before they cook it. A 1 kg fish, two jin, with three or four other dishes feeds three or four people.

The species varies. Ask for mao gu yu, the one with the fewest small bones, and say whether you want it spicy; restaurants assume foreigners don't like heat. Eat in a local-looking place away from the river-facing menus in English.

Xianggong Hill (Xianggong Shan) is a 350 m karst hill on the west bank of the Li, between Yellow Cloth Shoal and Nine Horse Fresco Hill. About 500 stone steps lead from the entrance to the summit, 15 to 20 minutes at a normal pace, with handrails on the steep bits. From the platform the Li River bends below you in its first bend, framed by karst peaks on both banks, and when the morning is misty the river looks like a painting.

Opening hours are 5:00 from May to October and 5:30 from November to April, and the scenic area closes in the evening. Check the sunrise time for your date, and leave yourself time to climb in the dark with a phone torch. The platform with the widest view is also the most crowded.

Xingping is a small town on the Li, about 27 km upstream from Yangshuo and 60 km downstream from Guilin. It was settled long before Yangshuo, in 265 AD, and was the county center until Yangshuo took over in 590. It is less developed than Yangshuo, with an old street, a waterfront, a few old buildings and the Li on one side and the Yi River on the other.

Walk the waterfront, then climb to the Bird's View Pavilion on the karst peak at its southern end. The path is 1,159 steps, steep and uneven, so go in the cool of the morning. From the pavilion, 220 m above the town, you see the town and the river bend. A ten-minute walk away is the 20 yuan viewpoint.

Eat in Xingping rather than in Yangshuo to save a trip. The old street has simple local restaurants serving river fish, stir-fried greens and the usual rice dishes, usually cheaper than in Yangshuo. Locally grown shatian pomelos are sold everywhere for a yuan or two, and the vendor will cut one up for you if you ask.

Take a break from the sun, drink tea, and decide what to do in the afternoon. This is also a good place to have the next day's bamboo raft booked, because the hotel will have a better price than the pier.

The big cruise boats pass in the late morning, and afterwards hundreds of small rafts work the same water. On the Li these are motorized rafts, not the hand-poled bamboo kind, so ask for a life jacket. The short rides between Yangdi and Xingping or from Xingping past Nine Horse Fresco Hill take 40 to 90 minutes.

It's the closest you get to the river, and it's quieter after the big boats have gone. Agree the route, the price and the pickup point before you board. If you want a real bamboo raft, save your money for the Yulong River tomorrow.

Impression Liu Sanjie is an open-air show directed by Zhang Yimou (who also staged the Beijing Olympics opening) with the river and the karst peaks as the backdrop. The cast wears Zhuang, Miao and Yao costume; the story is of Third Sister Liu, a singing heroine of folk legend.

The scale is the point, not the plot. Sit in the official seating area, where the seats are assigned. It starts at 20:00 and runs about 70 minutes, though busy dates may add a session, so confirm with your hotel or the ticket app.

The Yulong River is a small tributary of the Li, about 35 km long and only around 25 m wide. It has no motor boats: rafts are bamboo and hand-poled by a local. The popular starting point is the 400-year-old Yulong Bridge area, and the main sections are Jinlong Bridge pier to Jiuxian (about 6 km, nine small weirs, about 90 minutes), Jima pier to Gongnong Bridge (about 5 km, nine weirs) and the short Shuiedi section (about 2.5 km, four weirs, about 40 minutes).

The weirs are the fun part, with a gentle drop, and the water is calm between them. A standard raft seats two. Book through your hotel or a ticket app, and confirm both the start and the end pier before paying.

Yulong Bridge, the Dragon Bridge, is a 400-year-old stone bridge, and from it a cycle track follows the river through farming villages, past more stone bridges such as the Fuli Bridge. Riding among the karst hills is one of the best things to do in Yangshuo. Hire a bike in town, or take a short drive and ride back.

Check the brakes and gears before you leave, because many hire bikes are poorly maintained. Avoid leaving bags open in the front basket, as motorbike snatch thefts have been reported. The tracks are a maze of small lanes, so download an offline map or follow the signs to the bridge.

The villages along the river have small farmhouse restaurants and guesthouses with a terrace and a view of the peaks. The menu is home cooking: stir-fried vegetables, eggs, a fish from the river, rice. Order two or three dishes and see what comes.

Ask for local dishes and about prices before you sit down, because tourist-facing menus can be 50% higher than a village place round the corner. Fresh pomelos are sold along the path for very little. This is a good place to rest during the hottest part of the day in summer.

Moon Hill is a karst hill with a huge semicircular hole through it, all that remains of an old limestone cave. It's about 8 km south of Yangshuo town, the opposite way from the Yulong, so take a taxi or the Gaotian minibus from the bus terminal. When the path is open, a concrete stairway of around 1,000 steps leads to the arch in about 20 minutes, with wide views over the knobby hills and rice fields. The cliffs are also a climbing area.

Treat the climb as a maybe. The hill was reported temporarily closed as of May 2025, and no official notice says it has reopened. If the path is shut, you can still see the Moon Hill arch from the road and the village below, and the cafes at the foot stay open.

A short ride from Moon Hill, on the same road south of town, a park holds a banyan tree said to be around 1,400 years old. It is a popular photo stop.

Use the official ticket office at the front, because touts will try to steer you into a back entrance lined with souvenir stalls. Half an hour is enough, then ride back to town for the last of the afternoon light.