Guilin Day Trips on a Budget: 6 Cheapest Picks
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Guilin day trips on a budget: what’s actually worth it
Six day trips reach real scenery without wrecking a shoestring budget: the Li River cruise to Yangshuo, the Longji rice terraces, Xingping’s old town, free Daxu, underground Crown Cave, and Yulong River rafting near Yangshuo. Longji and Daxu both run on public buses for under ¥50 each way. The Li River cruise is the one line-item that actually hurts a budget, ¥215 to ¥480 one-way, so this guide flags the cheaper Yulong raft alternative every time the cruise price comes up. If the city center itself isn’t settled yet, start with things to do in Guilin and add one of these once that’s planned.
Which Guilin day trip gives the best value?
Daxu Ancient Town is the best per-yuan return: free entry, a ¥10 bus ride, and a 2.5km bluestone street with Ming and Qing buildings that most tour buses skip. Longji costs only the ¥80 combined ticket but eats a half day in travel time each way, so it rewards an overnight more than a rushed day trip. The Li River cruise is priced for the view, not the value; treat it as a splurge, not a bargain.
| Day trip | Distance from Guilin | Cheapest way there | Entry cost | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Li River cruise to Yangshuo | Piers ~27-28km out | 3-star boat from Mopanshan Pier | ¥215/adult (3-star) | Full day |
| Longji Rice Terraces | ~2-2.5hrs | Direct shuttle from Qintan Coach Station | ¥80 combined ticket | Full day, better overnight |
| Xingping Ancient Town | ~1.5hrs | Bus from Guilin South Bus Station | Free to walk; raft view ~¥5-10 | Half day |
| Daxu Ancient Town | ~20-23km | Bus from Guilin South Bus Station (08:20/13:00) | Free | Half day |
| Crown Cave (Guanyan) | ~37km | Bus 306 to Daxu, transfer to the Caoping line | ¥60 adult (rail car +¥40) | Half day |
| Yulong River rafting | Near Yangshuo | Bike or e-bike rental in Yangshuo | ¥200-320/raft (2 seats) | Half day |
A bundled Longji day tour handles the two-hour transfer and the combined ticket in one price if you’d rather not work out the Qintan Coach Station schedule yourself: book a Longji terraces tour .
Li River cruise or Yulong bamboo raft: what’s the real price gap?
The Li River cruise runs ¥215 for a 3-star boat or ¥360-480 for a 4-star boat with meals, one-way only, from a pier roughly 27km outside Guilin. Yulong River bamboo rafting costs ¥200-320 per raft, not per person, for two seats, covering a shorter, cheaper stretch of a different river entirely.
Book the cruise through the WeChat mini-program i游漓江, and put a whole group’s tickets on one order since split payments risk landing on different boats. The Yangdi to Xingping stretch is the one worth paying for, past Nine Horse Fresco Hill and Yellow Cloth Shoal; the last hour into Yangshuo mostly just fills time before lunch on 4-star boats. Return from Yangshuo is by train (20-47min, ¥25-35) or bus (~1.5hrs, ¥27-40), never the boat both ways. Book either leg on Trip.com in English, or the official 12306.cn if the Chinese-only interface doesn’t bother you and you want the lower fare.
Rafting instead means picking your own route: a standard 40-50 minute raft runs ¥200/raft, and the “classic” Jinlong Bridge to Jiuxian stretch, about 80-90 minutes with nine small weirs, runs ¥320/raft. Book a Yulong River rafting trip and confirm the per-raft vs per-person pricing with the operator before you pay, it varies.
Longji Rice Terraces: Ping’an or Dazhai, and the cheapest way up
Ping’an (Zhuang) is the easier climb, about 2 hours from Guilin and a 2-hour walk around the terraces. Dazhai/Jinkeng (Red Yao) is wilder and bigger, about 2.5 hours out, with a ¥60 one-way or ¥110 return cable car to its three sunrise and sunset viewpoints, and needs 4-5 hours to see properly. The ¥80 combined ticket covers both areas plus Huangluo Yao Village, so there’s no reason to pick just one gate.
The cheapest way up is the direct shuttle from Qintan Coach Station, ¥50-60 for a 2.5-3 hour ride; taxis won’t run the full round trip, so it’s the shuttle or a shared private transfer. Watch for OTA listings quoting “from ¥120” for the combined ticket, that’s a service markup, not the actual gate price. Most visitors who make the trip out end up staying the night rather than rushing back, since the sunrise and sunset light on the terraces is the whole point and a day trip only catches flat midday light.
Xingping: the ¥20-note view for less than a museum ticket
Xingping is a Ming-era fishing town founded in 1506, and the actual reason to go is Yellow Cloth Shoal, the view printed on the back of the ¥20 note, about 500m downstream from Mural Hill. The riverbank view is free; only the elevated photo platform charges anything, ¥5-10. Best light is sunrise, May through October.
Get there by bus from Guilin South Bus Station (~1.5hrs, ¥40) or, cheaper and faster, from Yangshuo (~30min, ¥15, every 15 minutes). Pair it with the free climb up Laozhai Hill for the wide river-bend shot, or check more photo spots around Guilin before you go so you’re not wasting daylight figuring out where to stand.
Daxu Ancient Town: the day trip that costs nothing to get into
Daxu is free, and that alone puts it ahead of every other entry on this list. Founded in the early Northern Song dynasty, over 1,000 years old, it flourished as a Republic-era trade hub with 8 streets and 10-13 docks along the Li River. What’s left is a 2.5km bluestone street, Ming and Qing shopfronts, and the Qing-dynasty single-arch Wanshou Bridge, none of it gated or ticketed.
Buses from Guilin South Bus Station leave at 08:20 and 13:00, 30 minutes, ¥10; the Lingchuan 306 from Guilin North runs the same route in 1.5 hours for ¥3 if you’re really counting yuan. Time it for a market day, dates ending in 2, 5, or 8, when the street is busiest with actual local trade rather than tourist stalls.
Crown Cave: an underground day trip for ¥60
Crown Cave (Guanyan), in Caoping Town about 37km south of Guilin, packs a rail car, an elevator, a tramcar to “Palm Hall,” and a 1,000m underground boat ride into one ticket, billed as the world’s longest sightseeing sliding track along the way. Entry is ¥60 adult/¥30 child; the rail car adds ¥40 one-way.
Getting there is the slow part: bus 306 to Daxu Town, then transfer to the Caoping line, 2-3 hours total for around ¥6 in fares. The Li River cruise actually passes near here without stopping, so this is the way to see the cave-and-underground-river side of the karst that the cruise boats skip entirely.
Do you need a private car for these day trips?
No. Public buses reach Daxu, Crown Cave, and Xingping cheaply and directly. Longji works better on the shared Qintan Coach Station shuttle or a split private transfer than a rental, since taxis won’t run the full round trip anyway. A car only pays off if you’re pushing further out toward Sanjiang or the Ziyuan Danxia landscape and want to stop at villages along the way, and even then, confirm current road conditions before committing a full day to either.
Pair one of these with the rest of the city on a 5-day Guilin itinerary , which is long enough to fit a Longji overnight, and check the Guilin travel tips for payment and connectivity basics before you go. One habit worth keeping: buy the ¥80 Longji combined ticket at the gate rather than through an OTA “from ¥120” listing, the markup rarely buys anything beyond a longer refund process if your plans change.