Li River of Guilin

The Li River is the reason Guilin exists as a destination, and the 83 km between the city and Yangshuo is the part everyone means. It is a one-way journey: four to four and a half hours on the water, and you sleep in Yangshuo, not back in Guilin. The scenery is not uniform either. The last twenty kilometres, from Yangdi through Xingping, carry almost all of the photographs.

The route, and where it gets good

Boats leave Zhujiang Pier, forty minutes south of Guilin, between 09:00 and 10:00. The first hour is broad river and low hills. The middle passes Nine Horses Fresco Hill, where the guide points out horses in the rock face that nobody has ever quite seen. The last ninety minutes, from Yangdi to Xingping, is the landscape people come for: steep limestone towers, bamboo on the banks, and water wide enough to reflect all of it.

If you only have half a day, that is also the section you can do by bamboo raft.

Which boat, and where to sit

Three classes run: four-star, three-star, and a smaller two-deck boat. The difference is the cabin, the lunch and the number of passengers, not the view. All of them have an open upper deck, and from Yangdi onwards that is where you should be. Sit on the left side facing forward. Indoor seats are assigned; the deck is first come.

The view on the 20-yuan note

The bend printed on the banknote is at Xingping, roughly 25 km upstream of Yangshuo. The boat passes it without stopping. To stand where the photograph was taken, take the 40-minute bus from Yangshuo and climb Laozhai Hill, twenty minutes up, for the view back down the river. Late afternoon is better than midday, and the hill is free.

When the river looks like the postcards

If the boat is sold out

The road route follows the river for much of the way and takes ninety minutes. It is not a substitute, but it lets you stop at Yangdi, take a raft through the best section, and continue to Xingping for the hill. In flood season this is often the only way to see the river at all.

What happens at Yangshuo

The boat docks around 13:30. Your luggage travels on the same boat and is handed out at the pier, which takes twenty minutes in a crowd. From there it is a twenty-minute walk or a short taxi to West Street, and twenty minutes further to the Yulong River hotels. To get back to Guilin, high-speed trains take thirty minutes from Yangshuo station, reached by a forty-minute bus from town; direct coaches take ninety minutes.

What trips people up

• It is one-way. Do not book a Guilin hotel for the same night.
• Paying for a higher class does not buy a better view. Standing on the deck does.
• Touts at the pier sell “upgraded” tickets that are the same ticket. Book through your hotel or the official counter.
• Heavy rain in May and June can close the river for a day. Keep the boat day flexible rather than pinned to the end of the trip.
• Photographs through the cabin windows are a waste: the glass is tinted and rarely clean.

We book the boat, the Yangshuo hotels and the transfer at the far end as one block, so nobody is left at the pier with luggage at two in the afternoon. Tell us your dates.