Guilin China

Guilin: How to See the Landscape That’s On the 20-Yuan Note

The karst mountains of Guilin appear on the reverse of China’s 20-yuan banknote, the stretch of the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo, seen from Xingping. It’s one of those landscapes that was famous in Chinese painting for a thousand years before photography made it accessible to everyone else. The Tang-dynasty poet Han Yu wrote that the Li River scenery made him feel he was moving through a painted scroll. That is still the right description.

The mountains are karst towers: remnants of ancient limestone that dissolved unevenly over millions of years, leaving vertical pillars and cones scattered across a flat river valley. Some rise 200 metres from flat ground. They look implausible even when you’re standing among them.

The Li River Cruise: What It Actually Involves

The standard cruise runs from Guilin (departing Mopanshan dock) to Yangshuo, covering 83 km over four to five hours. The 3-star cruise costs around CNY 215 per adult (about USD 30), including a Chinese-style lunch. 4-star cruises are available at higher prices. All cruises depart in the morning, typically around 9:20am, arriving at Yangshuo by early afternoon.

The scenery is genuine and the cruise format works well: you don’t need to do anything but look. The boat passes villages, cormorant fishing boats, water buffalo working fields that haven’t changed much in a century, and the sequence of peaks with names like Nine Horse Mountain (where you’re meant to count the horses in the rock face) and Yellow Cloth Shoal (where the shallow water creates a mirror reflection in calm conditions).

Practical points: there is no return cruise from Yangshuo to Guilin. Take the express bus from Yangshuo bus terminal back, CNY 40, departing every 20 minutes until 8:30pm, about 90 minutes. Book the cruise through your hotel or a reputable agent rather than from touts near the dock.

The best time for the cruise is April to June and September to October: green and lush, reasonable weather. July and August bring heavy rain that can raise river levels high enough to suspend cruises. The mountains in mist are actually beautiful if you find fog atmospheric; the boat trips continue in most weather short of dangerous flooding.

Yangshuo: More Than a Day Trip

Yangshuo is 83 km south of Guilin and warrants at least one night, not just the afternoon after the cruise. The town itself has shifted significantly toward tourism in the last 20 years, West Street is now a pedestrian shopping strip with bars and cafes aimed squarely at foreign visitors, and the ratio of locals to tourists is not what it once was. But the landscape surrounding the town remains extraordinary, and the best way to experience it is by bicycle.

Rent a bike from any guesthouse (CNY 30-50 for the day) and cycle into the countryside. The road toward Moon Hill passes rice paddies and karst peaks at close range; the hill itself has a natural moon-shaped arch at the top (45 minutes’ climb from the road). Further along the same road, the Yulong River has quieter bamboo raft sections than the main Li River, with water shallow enough to see the riverbed. This is where to spend an afternoon if the main cruise has been your morning.

Xingping, about 25 km upstream from Yangshuo, is a small town with the landscape the 20-yuan note depicts. It’s quieter than Yangshuo, older, and the walking along the riverbank in either direction from the village gives you the unobstructed view of the peak cluster that features in every photograph. Take a local bus from Yangshuo (CNY 10, 40 minutes) or hire a scooter. The fishing boats you see here with cormorants are still used, the birds are trained to catch fish but prevented from swallowing them by a ring around their throats, which is simultaneously ingenious and mildly grim to watch.

Longji Rice Terraces

Two to three hours north of Guilin by bus or car, the Longji (Dragon Backbone) terraces are among the most extensive and dramatic rice terrace systems in China. Construction began during the Yuan Dynasty (13th century) and the carving of terraces up the steep hillsides continued for around 300 years. The terraces now cover an area of 66 square km across several mountains.

The region has two main villages: Ping’an (closer, more developed, Zhuang ethnic minority) and Dazhai/Jinkeng (harder to access, Yao ethnic minority, significantly fewer tourists). Dazhai is the better choice if you want to spend a night and actually experience the villages rather than observe them. The Yao women here wear their hair in elaborate styles traditionally grown without cutting over a lifetime.

The terrace landscape changes completely with the seasons: flooded and mirror-like in April-May when the rice is planted, brilliantly green in summer, golden in September-October at harvest. October is the peak photography period and the roads are accordingly crowded on weekends.

Food in the villages is home-cooked and specific to the region: bamboo rice (glutinous rice steamed inside a bamboo tube over open fire), Yao-style chicken steamed with herbs in bamboo, and locally produced rice wine. The guesthouses all cook; you eat what they make. It is some of the better food in the Guilin region precisely because it hasn’t been modified for outside tastes.

Guilin City

Guilin the city tends to get overshadowed by the river and the terraces, which is understandable but means most visitors miss a few things worth stopping for.

Reed Flute Cave is 5 km northwest of the city centre: a 240-metre limestone cave full of stalactites and stalagmites illuminated by coloured lights. It’s been a tourist attraction since the Tang dynasty, graffiti on the walls from Tang-era visitors has been dated to 792 AD. The coloured lights are a bit garish, but the formations are genuinely impressive, and the cave stays around 20C year-round regardless of outside temperature.

Elephant Trunk Hill is Guilin’s most photographed landmark: a karst hill shaped like an elephant dipping its trunk into the Li River, with a small cave forming the space between trunk and legs. It’s on every tourism poster for the city and the angle from the east bank of the river at sunset is exactly as good as the photos suggest.

Seven Star Park in the eastern part of the city is less famous than the attractions above but is where many Guilin residents go on weekends: gardens, karst peaks, a cave, and a zoo section that most visitors can skip.

Where to Eat

Guilin rice noodles (桂林米粉) are the city’s defining food: thin rice noodles in a clear, slightly smoky bone broth with toppings that vary by vendor, chopped scallions, pickled vegetables, peanuts, chili oil, and your choice of braised pork, beef, or offal. They’re eaten for breakfast more than any other meal. The correct way to eat them is standing at a counter in a noodle shop that opens at 6am and closes when the broth runs out. Any shop with a queue outside and plastic stools inside is probably doing it right; the ones near the main tourist sights are not.

Beer fish (啤酒鱼) is the Yangshuo specialty: fresh river fish braised with beer, chili peppers, tomatoes, and green onion. Every restaurant in Yangshuo serves it; the ones on West Street serve a tourist-facing version. Better versions are found at small family restaurants on the side streets, where the fish is more likely to be from a local market than a distant supplier.

Where to Stay

In Guilin city: Guilin Shangri-La is the most comfortable option, well-positioned along the Li River in the city centre with easy access to Elephant Trunk Hill and transportation hubs. Rooms with river views are worth the premium. For budget travellers, the guesthouses around the city centre near Zhengyang Pedestrian Street are practical and inexpensive.

In Yangshuo: The guesthouse scene has diversified considerably. The quieter end of town near the Yulong River has boutique hotels in converted farmhouses that offer the landscape without the West Street noise. The Giggling Tree and similar operations in the countryside outside town proper are worth the slightly longer walk or cycle.

In Longji: staying overnight in Dazhai or Ping’an is the right call if you’re visiting the terraces. Most guesthouses are family-run, the beds are clean and the food is cooked to order. CNY 100-200 per night for a room with views of the terraces.

Getting There and Around

Guilin Liangjiang International Airport has direct connections from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and some international routes. High-speed rail connects Guilin to Guangzhou (2.5 hours), Changsha (2 hours), and the broader national network. From the train station, buses and taxis reach the city centre quickly.

Within Guilin, taxis are metered and cheap. The bus network is extensive but route information in English is limited. For the Li River cruise, the dock at Mopanshan is 30 km from the city centre; go by taxi or arrange transfer through your hotel.

Speak Mandarin or have key phrases and destinations written in Chinese characters, English is less common in Guilin than in Shanghai or Beijing, and having addresses in characters makes logistics considerably smoother.