Guilin
Guilin is the gateway to the karst country on the back of the twenty-yuan note, a small city used as a base rather than a destination, with Yangshuo half an hour south by train. Two nights, the river by boat one way and the train back, and the terraces if there is a third.
Guilin in a nutshell
Guilin: what to expect
113,000+ stops in China are planned on Stippl, and this is the shape they make for Guilin.
Guilin is two nights, and most of what people remember happens outside the city. The Li River cruise runs 83 kilometres through the karst corridor to Yangshuo in four to five hours, the landscape printed on the twenty-yuan note is photographed from a hillside at Xingping, the Yangshuo countryside is cycled and rafted between the peaks, the Longji rice terraces sit a hundred kilometres north, and Guilin itself holds the lit canal ring of Two Rivers Four Lakes for the evening. Most travellers give Guilin 2 nights on Stippl.
Guilin is the gateway rather than the stay, and it sits on the China-only trips. The city opens only 1.2% of the trips it appears on and closes 3.5%, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, while 40.3% of Guilin trips stay inside China, well above the national share, and Yangshuo is its partner more tightly than any other Chinese pair.
Sleep in Yangshuo for the stay and treat Guilin as the arrival and departure point, take the boat one way and the twenty-minute train the other, and buy the cruise from an official office or the hotel. Skip the coach park approaches, since the friendly-local scam is the region's known pattern, and skip June if the peaks are the point, because it is the wettest month of a very wet year and the karst sits in cloud.
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Landscape travellers
Guilin is the scenery China is known for, the karst peaks on the twenty-yuan note, seen from the river, a bicycle and a hillside at Xingping.
Cyclists and slow travellers
The Yangshuo countryside is flat between the peaks, the roads are quiet, and a foreigner can rent a motorbike here.
Climbers
The karst around Yangshuo is one of Asia's established sport-climbing areas, with bolted routes on the towers and guides in town.
China-only route builders
40.3% of Guilin trips on Stippl stay inside China, on routes averaging about eight Chinese stops.
Terrace walkers
The Longji rice terraces a hundred kilometres north, flooded in late May and gold at harvest, with the Zhuang and Yao villages in them.
Gateway travellers
Guilin opens only 1.2% of the trips it appears on, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, an airport and a station rather than a city break.
Maybe not for you: anyone after a city break, since Guilin itself is small and the memory is made outside it; and anyone who cannot abide rain, because the region gets nearly two metres of it a year and the peaks are often in mist.
The best time to visit Guilin
The wet spring
March to June
Warming and green with the terraces flooded in late May, but the wettest months of the year, June above all, with the peaks in cloud and the river high and brown.
Summer
July and August
Hot and humid with the crowds at their peak and the river at its busiest, and August is the single busiest month on Stippl, with the rafts and the bikes full.
The best window
September to November
Rain and sunshine in the best balance of the year, the terraces gold at harvest, the river clear and the peaks visible, with Golden Week in the first week of October the fortnight to avoid.
Winter
December to February
Cool, dry and quiet, with the driest month of the year in December, the river low, the cruises reduced and the terraces bare.
- Most travellers give Guilin 2 nights on Stippl, and 23.9% of stops are a single night. The river takes a day, Yangshuo the second, and the terraces need a third with a night up there.
- Only 9.2% of Guilin plans on Stippl are made inside a fortnight, and 30.6% half a year out. The cruise is booked through the hotel or an official office, the trains thirty days ahead, and the region is the one Chinese leg planned early.
- Golden Week in the first week of October fills the boats and the rafts. The rest of October is inside the best window, so the trip moves a week.
- The terraces have two dates. Flooded and mirror-like in late May when they are planted, and gold at harvest in late September and October, with the villages in Longsheng open all year.
- The river changes with the rain. High and brown after storms, low and clear in winter, with the cruise sometimes shortened when the water is too high or too low.
- August is the busiest month on Stippl and the wettest is June. The people who come in September and October get the view that sells the cruise.
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Things to do in Guilin
Photo by Simonetta Pugnaghi via Unsplash
Photo by wang binghua via UnsplashThe Li River cruise to Yangshuo
83 kilometres through the karst corridor in four to five hours, best on a clear morning, from the Zhujiang or Mopanshan piers, with the twenty-yuan-note stretch near Xingping.
Cycling the Yangshuo countryside
Flat lanes between the peaks along the Yulong River, the best way to see the place, and one of the few spots in China where a foreigner can rent a motorbike.
The Longji rice terraces
About a hundred kilometres north, at their most photographed when flooded in late May or gold at harvest, with a night in Ping'an for the dawn.
Bamboo rafting the Yulong
Quieter than the Li and closer to the water, on a two-person raft poled between the peaks for an hour or two.
Moon Hill at dawn
A steep twenty-minute scramble to a natural stone arch above the Yangshuo valley, before the heat and the coaches.
Xingping
The old river town where the twenty-yuan-note view is photographed from a hillside, an hour from Yangshuo, with the fishing-village lanes below it.
The areas of Guilin
Yangshuo
The real destination
The karst town 80 kilometres south, twenty minutes by train, with the cycling, the rafting and the climbing, West Street for the visitors and the countryside for everyone else. For most of the stay.
The scenery at ground level and the guesthouses, with a tourist street at the centre of it.
Central Square and Xiufeng
The downtown grid
Guilin's centre around the main square, walkable, with the shops, the rice-noodle counters and the station within a short taxi. For a first night on arrival.
Everything in the city a short walk away, but an unremarkable Chinese downtown to sleep in.
Li River east bank
The quieter hotel strip
The hotels facing the water on the east side of the river, with the peaks behind them and the walk along the bank. For a view on the Guilin night.
Waking up to the river and the peaks, and a bridge to cross to the centre.
Two Rivers Four Lakes
The canal ring
The lit canal and lake ring through the middle of town, with the pagodas, the night cruise and the evening walk, which is what Guilin does after dark. For an evening.
The night cruise and the lit pagodas, with the day nothing special.
Longsheng and Ping'an
The terrace villages
The Zhuang and Yao villages a hundred kilometres north with guesthouses only, for the terraces at dawn instead of on a day trip. For one night.
The terraces at first light, at a three-hour drive and a climb from the road.
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Where to stay in Guilin
Sleep in Yangshuo for the stay and treat Guilin as the arrival and departure point, with a river-bank room in the city if the flight or the train leaves early; the terraces are worth a night in Ping'an rather than a day trip. Most travellers give Guilin 2 nights on Stippl, and the Yangshuo guesthouses out in the countryside are the rooms people remember.
Yangshuo
€20–120
Guesthouses in the countryside and hostels on West Street, €15 to €90 a night.
Central Square and Xiufeng
€25–90
Hotels around the square for the arrival night, €25 to €90 a night.
Li River east bank
€45–180
River-view hotels including the international chains, €50 to €180 a night.
Two Rivers Four Lakes
€30–110
Small hotels by the canal ring, €30 to €100 a night.
Longsheng and Ping'an
€20–70
Wooden guesthouses in the terrace villages, €20 to €60 a night.
What to eat in Guilin
Rice noodles with pickled beans, peanuts and braised beef, eaten for breakfast
River fish braised with beer, peppers and tomato
Snails in a spiced broth, a Guangxi staple
Pounded tea leaves fried and boiled, a Yao and Zhuang preparation
Whole fish stuffed and steamed
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Guilin customs and what not to do
Zhuang and Yao country
The terraces are farmed by minority communities and the villages up there are theirs, with their own languages and dress, so the lanes are people's homes.
Photographs are a transaction
The terrace villages charge for photographs of people in traditional dress, and the long-haired Yao women name a price, which is a transaction rather than a scam.
West Street is for visitors
Yangshuo's main street is aimed squarely at tourists, with the bars and the tour desks, and the town is still worth it once you are a lane away.
The touts are the scam
The friendly-local approach at the docks and the coach parks trades on not wanting to be rude, and the tickets it sells are not the tickets you want.
Payment is the apps
Alipay or WeChat Pay with a foreign card linked before the flight, at the raft dock and the noodle counter alike.
Passport for the boat
The cruise ticket, the train and the hotel are all bound to it, and the pier checks it at boarding.
Do
- Sleep in Yangshuo and use Guilin as the door
- Take the boat one way and the twenty-minute train the other
- Buy the cruise from an official office or through the hotel
- Cycle the Yulong valley in the early morning
- Spend a night in Ping'an for the terraces at dawn
Don't
- Leave from the coach station by the train station; the Yangshuo buses go from Qintan
- Buy a ticket from an approach in a car park
- Come in June expecting to see the peaks
- Confuse the river cruise with the train; they are different products, not alternatives
- Photograph the villagers in dress without asking the price
What a Guilin trip costs
Budget
€18–35
A hostel in Yangshuo or central Guilin, the buses, the free riverside, one paid sight and a hired bike.
Mid-range
€40–90
A river-view room, the Li River cruise, a Longji day, bikes and a raft in Yangshuo.
High-end
€160+
An international hotel on the river, a private car to the terraces, a four-star cruise.
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Fun facts about Guilin
The back of China's twenty-yuan note shows the Li River near Guilin. The view is photographed from a hillside at Xingping, and every cruise slows for the stretch.
Guilin gets about 1,890 millimetres of rain a year and 1,490 hours of sun. Which is why the peaks are so often in mist, and why September to November is the window.
June alone brings Guilin nearly nine times December's rain. About 395 millimetres against 45, so the wettest month and the driest are half a year apart.
Foreigners can rent a motorbike in Yangshuo, near Guilin. The countryside is flat between the karst towers and the roads are quiet.
The Longji terraces north of Guilin are centuries old. They are still worked by hand by Zhuang and Yao farmers, and the villages inside them charge to be photographed.
The Li River cruise from Guilin covers 83 kilometres. Four to five hours through the karst corridor to Yangshuo, and the train does the same distance in twenty minutes.
Local tips for Guilin
Qintan, not the station stop
The Yangshuo coaches leave from Qintan coach station rather than the one by the train station, and it catches people out every day.
Boat down, train back
The cruise is five hours of scenery and the train is twenty minutes of transport, so the plan is one each way rather than a choice between them.
Touts work the docks
The coach parks too, and every safety note names them first; the tickets come from an official office or the hotel.
The friendly-local approach
The region's known scam pattern trades on not wanting to be rude, so a stranger with a cousin's boat is declined with a smile.
Rain is the variable
Nearly two metres a year, most of it March to June, so the river day is watched against the forecast and the cruise can be shortened when the water is high.
Two nights, one of them south
Most travellers give Guilin 2 nights on Stippl and 23.9% of stops are a single night, which is the arrival before the boat to Yangshuo.
Guilin questions, answered
Yangshuo for the stay, Guilin for the airport and the terraces: the pair is tied together more tightly on Stippl than any other Chinese two, and most travellers give Guilin 2 nights with 23.9% of stops a single night, the arrival before the boat south. The countryside guesthouses are the rooms people remember.
Four to five hours over 83 kilometres through the karst corridor to Yangshuo, best on a clear morning, with the twenty-yuan-note stretch near Xingping. The train covers the same distance in twenty minutes for a fraction of the price, so the boat goes one way and the train the other.
In the middle of a China-only loop: it opens only 1.2% of the trips it appears on, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, and 40.3% of Guilin trips stay inside China, with Zhangjiajie and Xi'an its partners. Put it into Stippl as one night in the city and two in Yangshuo, then ask people who have done the south, in subreddits like r/chinatravel, whether the terraces fit.
Late May, when they are planted and mirror the sky, and gold at harvest in late September and October; bare and brown in winter. They sit about a hundred kilometres north with Zhuang and Yao villages inside them, and a night in Ping'an beats the day trip for the dawn.
Far faster: twenty to thirty minutes against four to five hours, and it costs a fraction. They are different products rather than alternatives, the boat is the scenery and the train is the transport, and the plan most people take is the boat down and the train back.
September to November, when rain and sunshine sit in the best balance of the year and the peaks are visible; June is the wettest month and the one to avoid, and August is the busiest on Stippl. Only 9.2% of Guilin plans are made inside a fortnight, because the region is booked with the trains.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Guilin in Stippl
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