The landscape on the back of the 20-yuan note lives right here, on the Li River. “Guilin’s scenery is the finest under heaven” — a line from a textbook and an image on a banknote — but it only turns real when you stand by the water and watch the limestone peaks fold into the mist, one ridge behind another. I’ve visited Guilin several times, and each ride down the Li River to Yangshuo still stops me cold.
This Guilin travel guide is your hub for the whole trip. Guilin travel comes down to five decisions: what to do, how many days to spend, what and where to eat, where to stay, and what to sort out before you go. Open the guides below that fit your pace and build a Guilin trip you’ll actually enjoy.
For most people, Guilin travel starts on the water. The Li River is the one thing you can’t skip — but “raft” is a loaded word here.
Most rafts on the main Li River are motorized PVC pipes that buzz like lawnmowers. For the real experience — a boatman poling by hand, nothing but water, birds, and the creak of bamboo — head to the Yulong River instead. Two different rivers. Two different ticket systems. About 40 km apart.
The city’s icon, Elephant Trunk Hill, is now free to enter — just reserve a slot online. (Touts near the gate will still try to sell you tickets; ignore them.)
See the full list and honest trade-offs in our things to do in Guilin guide.
Four to five days is the sweet spot. Shorter and you’ll rush the karst; longer and you’re just slowing down, which is also fine.
A classic split: one night in Guilin City to land and eat noodles, two nights in Yangshuo for the scenery, one night in Longji for the rice terraces — a Guilin trip that covers the Li River, the Yulong River, and the terraces without switching hotels every day.
| Days | What you can cover |
|---|---|
| 2 days | Guilin City + Li River cruise to Yangshuo |
| 4 days | Add Yulong River rafting + a day at Longji |
| 6+ days | Add Lingqu Canal, Ziyuan Danxia, or a slow Yangshuo stay |
For day-by-day routes, see the Guilin itinerary guide.
Your first meal in Guilin should be rice noodles — and you order them dry.
卤菜粉 (lu cai fen) is noodles with gravy and toppings, mixed together, with the hot bone broth served on the side. (Drowning it in soup first is the tourist way to eat it.) A bowl in a neighborhood shop runs ¥6–10 (about USD 1); skip the “signature” ¥30–50 (USD 4–7) bowls on Zheng Yang Pedestrian Street.
In Yangshuo, add beer fish to the list. What to eat and where to find it: see the what to eat in Guilin guide.
Don’t make Guilin City your base. It’s a transport hub, not the destination.
Most Guilin travel mistakes are lodging mistakes. Sleep one night in the city to land and adjust, then move to Yangshuo for two or three nights. On the Yulong River side you wake up to mountains out the window; West Street is lively but the bars run loud past midnight.
| Location | Best for |
|---|---|
| Guilin City | Transit, one night, night scenery |
| Yangshuo (Yulong side) | Scenery, staying 2–3 nights |
| Xingping | Photography, quiet, 20-yuan viewpoint |
Where to stay and which area fits you: see the where to stay in Guilin guide.
Three things to sort out before you land.
Reserve your Elephant Trunk Hill slot (it’s free but needs booking). Yulong River raft tickets go on sale online at 20:00 the day before and sell out in minutes in high season. Li River cruise tickets are worth booking three to seven days ahead in peak months.
The full checklist: see the Guilin travel tips guide.
Best time: April to May for misty green karst and flooded, mirror-like terraces, or September to October for clear skies and golden harvest. June to August is lush but hot and humid (30°C+), and heavy rain can briefly stop rafting on the Li and Yulong rivers.
Getting here: most people reach Guilin, Guangxi, China by air or high-speed rail. From Guilin Liangjiang Airport, the shuttle to the city center is ¥20 (USD 2.8, about 50 minutes), and a direct shuttle to Yangshuo is ¥50 (USD 7, about 90 minutes). The high-speed train from Guilin to Yangshuo takes 20–30 minutes for ¥24–28 (USD 3.4–4.0) — much faster than the bus. (Note: Yangshuo station sits out at Xingping; a shuttle bus from there costs ¥5–15 and takes 40–50 minutes into town.)
For the full network and how to book, see China’s high-speed rail network.
Yes. It’s the reference point for Chinese landscape — the Li River, Yulong River, and Longji Rice Terraces alone justify the trip.
Four to five. Under three and you’ll skip the Longji terraces; over five, add the Lingqu Canal or Ziyuan’s Danxia peaks.
April–May and September–October. For golden rice fields, aim for late September to mid-October.
Mostly Yangshuo. One night in Guilin City is enough — the scenery lives on the Yangshuo side.
¥6–10 (USD 1) in the city. Anything “signature” over ¥15 is a tourist price.
Guilin rewards you most when you stop checking off sights and just sit on a raft, listening to the water for half an hour. That, to me, is what good Guilin travel is about — and whatever pace your Guilin trip takes, give it room to breathe. When was the last time you let yourself move that slowly?
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At the Yulong River boat dock, there’s a scale sitting right at the ticket gate. Two travelers step on. The number hits 168 kilograms. The attendant waves them off: over the limit. Split into two rafts, or one of you buys the whole raft. That’s the first thing Yangshuo teaches you — the details here…
“Yangshuo Station is not in Yangshuo.” That line deserves to sit on its own. It has burned a lot of travelers. You book a train in Guilin, you spot “Yangshuo” on the ticket, and you assume you’ll step off right onto West Street. Instead, the doors open onto empty karst countryside. You’re standing in Xingping…
Eight in the morning, and I’m on an electric scooter crossing Gongnong Bridge, the mist still hanging low. Bamboo groves arch over the Yulong River like a tunnel, and a hand-paddled raft slips off a low dam just ahead — the raftman leans on his pole, and the nose kicks up a spray of white…
At dusk, my high-speed train pulled into Guilin Railway Station. Behind the platform, karst peaks stood dark against a purple sky. Ten minutes later I was slurping a steaming bowl of Guilin rice noodles at a corner shop — crisp pork belly, fragrant brine, about 10 CNY (1.5 USD). Getting to Guilin sounds easy —…
Late April, and I’m on a Li River cruise. As the boat rounds toward Yangshuo, a soft mist settles over the limestone peaks, and the whole scene becomes a living ink painting. That same trip, I hiked the Longji Rice Terraces in the rain — and slid straight down a muddy ridge, my camera zipped…
