When to go to Guilin and Yangshuo?
→ The detailed month-by-month page, with real weather records
Best time: April to May and September to October
At a glance
Why go to Guilin and Yangshuo?
Guilin's landscape is tower karst, a rare formation found on this scale in only a handful of regions in the world. Limestone laid down at the bottom of a tropical sea hundreds of millions of years ago was uplifted, then dissolved by rain and rivers until only isolated peaks of 100 to 200 metres remained. The result covers thousands of square kilometres of Guangxi and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2014 under the name South China Karst.
These landscapes shaped Chinese painting as much as the other way round. The ink scrolls of the South, with their mountains floating in mist, literally depict what you see from a boat on the Li on a humid morning. The stretch between Yangdi and Xingping appears on the back of the 20-yuan note, and a local saying repeated since the Song dynasty claims that Guilin's scenery is the finest under heaven. It's a cliché, but it explains the crowds.
On the ground, the region runs at two speeds. Guilin is an ordinary Chinese city of more than a million people, with its urban hills and landscaped lakes, useful mainly as an arrival point. Yangshuo, 65 km downstream, is the base for everything outdoors: cycling in the Yulong valley, bamboo rafting, climbing on hundreds of bolted routes, walking between villages. And two hours to the north, the Longji terraces strike a completely different note.
Map of Guilin and Yangshuo: what is where?
The map shows the 6 places covered in this guide, to picture the distances and plan your route.
- Guilin
- Yangshuo
- Longji Rice Terraces
- Xingping
- Reed Flute Cave
- Moon Hill
How much does a trip to Guilin and Yangshuo cost?
Guangxi is one of the cheapest provinces in China for sleeping and eating, but the Li River cruise and site entry fees weigh heavily on a short stay. Allowing around €60 for the boat day, entry fees included, lets you size the rest.
| Style | Per day | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Backpacker | €30-55/day | Hostel in Yangshuo, bus and bike, noodle canteens, raft rather than the official cruise |
| Comfort | €85-140/day | Guesthouse facing the rice paddies, first-class cruise, scooter, two nights in Longji |
| Premium | €300+/day | Resort on the Li, private boat, dedicated guide, guided climbing or kayaking |
WeChat Pay and Alipay linked to a foreign card cover almost all spending, including bus tickets and market stalls. Keep 300 to 500 yuan in cash for the Longji villages and the bamboo rafts, where the signal is poor. Bank of China ATMs in Guilin and Yangshuo accept European cards.
Is Guilin and Yangshuo safe?
The region is calm and street crime is rare, even late at night in Yangshuo. The real risks have more to do with water and terrain. The Li and the Yulong rise quickly after the rains of May and June, and both cruises and bamboo rafts are suspended as soon as the flow becomes too strong: a spring trip needs to allow for this. The dirt tracks of the Yulong valley become slippery in a downpour, and rented electric scooters come with neither a proper helmet nor insurance. The hill staircases, at Laozhai as at Moon Hill, are steep, damp and without railings on some sections. On the money side, prices for rafts and tours are negotiable and can vary twofold depending on who you deal with: agree the fare before you board. Finally, official cruise tickets are bought from agencies or online, not from the touts posted at the pier.
What to see and do in Guilin and Yangshuo
- Li River cruise
- Longji Rice Terraces
- Reed Flute Cave
- Elephant Trunk Hill
- Solitary Beauty Peak
- Cycling the Yulong River
- Moon Hill
- West Street in Yangshuo
Li River cruise
The 83 km trip between Guilin and Yangshuo takes four to five hours on open-deck boats, with a group departure around 9.30am from the Zhujiang pier. The river threads through a succession of limestone peaks, bamboo groves and rice paddies, with a high point between Yangdi and Xingping. A cheaper alternative is to take a bus to Yangdi, then a motorised bamboo raft to Xingping along the most spectacular stretch, in two hours.
Yangshuo and the Yulong River
The town fits into a few streets on the banks of the Li, with its busy, noisy West Street, but everything happens around it. The valley of the Yulong, a 43 km tributary, can be explored by bike on flat dirt tracks among rice paddies, water buffalo and grey-brick villages. The stone Yulong Bridge dates from 1412. The valley's peaks are equipped with several hundred climbing routes, which has made Yangshuo China's climbing capital since the 1990s.
Longji Rice Terraces
Two hours by bus north of Guilin, in Longsheng county, terraces carved between 300 and 1,100 metres above sea level from the 13th century onwards. The Zhuang hold the village of Ping'an, the Yao that of Dazhai, higher up, where the women keep up the tradition of never cutting their hair. The curves look different with the season: mirrors of water in April and May, deep green in summer, golden yellow in late September. Spending a night up there changes everything, as the morning mist rises from the valleys.
The hills of Guilin
The city itself is studded with peaks that pierce the urban fabric. Solitary Beauty Peak, 66 metres and 306 steps, rises within the walls of the Jingjiang Princes' City, built in 1372. Elephant Trunk Hill, Guilin's official emblem, dips its arch into the river at the confluence with the Taohua. Diecai Hill and Fubo Hill complete the set, each with its staircase and its view. The Shanhu and Ronghu lakes, in the centre, are lit up every evening around two pagodas.
Reed Flute Cave
A limestone cave north-west of the city, opened to the public in 1962 but visited much earlier: seventy ink inscriptions inside have been dated to the Tang dynasty. The walkway runs for 240 metres through chambers covered in stalactites, columns and calcite draperies, under heavy-handed coloured lighting. The temperature stays around 20°C all year. Visits are in guided groups, in Mandarin, and last about forty minutes.
Xingping and Fuli village
Xingping is a town of cobbled streets on the Li, halfway between Guilin and Yangshuo, facing the view reproduced on the 20-yuan note. A forty-minute climb up steps takes you to the top of Laozhai Hill, overlooking the river's bend. Fuli, 8 km from Yangshuo, has lived off making painted fans for generations and holds its market every three days. Both villages can be reached by local bus or by bike from Yangshuo, and there is no entry fee.
How many days, and which itinerary?
Four days are enough for the Li River cruise, two days around Yangshuo and a trip back up to Guilin. A week lets you add two nights in the Longji terraces, a day of climbing or walking between villages, and some leeway for the downpours that are frequent from April to June.
🗺️ Day-by-day itinerary · 📓 Free printable Guilin and Yangshuo guide (PDF) · 🌍 All of China
The essentials (4 days)
Day 1: arrival in Guilin, Solitary Beauty Peak and Elephant Trunk Hill, the illuminated lakes in the evening. Day 2: Li River cruise from Zhujiang around 9.30am, arriving in Yangshuo mid-afternoon, check in there. Day 3: cycling in the Yulong valley and Moon Hill in the early morning. Day 4: Xingping by local bus, the climb up Laozhai, back to Guilin for the flight or train.
Guilin, Yangshuo and Longji (1 week)
The same core, plus two nights in the Longji terraces from Guilin, with a four-hour ridge walk from Ping'an to Dazhai. Add half a day of guided climbing in Yangshuo, Fuli market if the dates line up, and Reed Flute Cave on a rainy afternoon. This format leaves two spare days for the weather, which is no luxury between April and June.
Southern China (2 weeks)
Guilin slots naturally between Hong Kong and Yunnan, all by high-speed train. Three days in Hong Kong, then 3h30 by train to Guilin and five days between the Li River cruise, Yangshuo and the Longji terraces. Then 5h by train to Kunming, two days in the Yuanyang rice terraces, then Dali and Lijiang at the foot of the Yunnan mountains. Tickets are booked one to two weeks ahead on the 12306 app with your passport number, and seats sell out fast at weekends.
Getting there and getting around
High-speed trains link Guilin to Guangzhou in 2h30, Hong Kong in 3h30 and Kunming in 5h. Guilin West station handles most of the fast lines, Guilin North the conventional ones: check which one is on your ticket, as they are several kilometres apart.
Between Guilin and Yangshuo, allow 1h15 by bus from the bus station for about twenty yuan, or 25 minutes by fast train to Yangshuo North, 25 km from the town. The Li River cruise doubles as a transfer on the day you change base.
Longji is 2h by bus from Guilin bus station, with departures until early afternoon and a last return around 5pm. A local shuttle then climbs to the villages of Ping'an and Dazhai on a narrow mountain road.
In Yangshuo, everything is done by bike or electric scooter, rented for 20 to 60 yuan a day. The tracks of the Yulong valley are flat and made of packed earth, but turn muddy after a downpour, which happens often in spring.
Where to stay in Guilin and Yangshuo?
Hostels in Yangshuo and Guilin: €15-30 a night, often run by travellers who settled there, with bike hire and guided outings. Those in the Yangshuo countryside, a few kilometres from town, escape the noise of West Street.
Guesthouses in the Yulong valley: €40-80, in grey-brick buildings facing the rice paddies, often with a roof terrace. You need a bike or scooter to get into town, otherwise your evenings are spent at the guesthouse.
Mid-range hotels in Guilin, around the Shanhu and Ronghu lakes: €55-95, handy for an arrival or departure night. The centre is flat and walkable, with the urban hills less than twenty minutes away.
Resorts on the Li and Yulong rivers: €200-350, set in former sugar mills or contemporary buildings facing the peaks. It is the only category that guarantees a real view from your room, and it is booked months ahead for October.
Our places to stay, stop by stop, at three budgets →
What to eat in Guilin and Yangshuo?
Beer fish, Yangshuo's speciality, is made with a fish from the Li simmered in local beer with tomatoes, peppers and soy sauce, with the skin left unscaled. Expect 80 to 150 yuan a dish for two or three people in the lanes behind West Street.
Guilin rice noodles are eaten for breakfast, served almost dry with braised beef, peanuts and pickled vegetables, with a bowl of broth on the side. A bowl costs 7 to 12 yuan and the canteens often close before 11am.
Rice cooked in a length of bamboo, a speciality of the Zhuang villages of Longji, is served with chicken or pork smoked over the hearth. The guesthouses in the terraces prepare it to order for 40 to 60 yuan a portion, to be ordered the same morning.
Kumquats, water chestnuts and pomelos from Guangxi fill the markets from October to January. The stalls on West Street also sell grilled stinky tofu and river snails with chilli, two evening classics for a few yuan.
Entry requirements
Until 31 December 2026, UK, Canadian, Australian and most EU passports (not Czech or Lithuanian) enter visa-free for up to 30 days. US citizens need a visa, unless they qualify for the 240-hour visa-free transit with a confirmed onward ticket to a third country.
Rules change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
Frequently asked questions about Guilin and Yangshuo
Should you take the official cruise or a bamboo raft?
The Guilin-Yangshuo cruise covers the 83 km in four to five hours for 215 to 450 yuan, with a meal on board. The motorised Yangdi-Xingping raft takes only two hours but covers the most striking stretch, for 150 to 250 yuan, getting much closer to the rock. For a first trip, the cruise is simpler to organise from Guilin.
Is it better to stay in Guilin or Yangshuo?
In Yangshuo for most of the stay: the town puts cycling, climbing, villages and rice paddies right on your doorstep. Guilin deserves only one or two nights, around arrival and departure. The guesthouses of the Yulong valley, a few kilometres from the centre, are quieter than those on West Street.
When are the Longji rice terraces at their best?
From mid-April to early June, when the terraces are filled with water and reflect the sky, or in the second half of September, when the rice turns gold just before the harvest. In July and August, everything is green and uniform. In winter, snow sometimes falls on the ridges, but mist often hides the valleys.
How many days should you plan there?
Four full days cover Guilin, the cruise and two days in Yangshuo. A week becomes worthwhile to add two nights in Longji, a climbing outing and a walk between villages. Allow a spare day between April and June, as rain can suspend the boats and make the tracks impassable.
How do you get there from Europe?
There are no direct flights: you need one or two stopovers, usually via Guangzhou, Shanghai or a Gulf hub, for around fifteen hours of total travel. The other option is a long-haul flight to Hong Kong or Guangzhou, then the high-speed train to Guilin in three and a half hours, often more comfortable than a connecting flight.
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