The scenery on the back of the 20-yuan note. Eighty-three kilometres of limestone peaks standing over green water, best seen slowly from a boat rather than a car window.
The Li River is the largest karst landscape in the world, and the reason most people come to Guilin at all. It rises on Mao'er Mountain in Xing'an County and runs through Guilin, Yangshuo and Pingle before joining the Pearl River system. The 83 kilometres from Guilin to Yangshuo are the celebrated part: odd-shaped peaks reflected in clear water, bamboo on the banks, water buffalo in the fields, and villages that have not changed much in a century.
The boat passes a series of named formations — Paint Brush Hill, the Cock-Fighting Hills, Nine Horses Mural Hill, Yellow Cloth Shoal, and the stretch printed on the 20-yuan note. The names are fanciful and the shapes are real; whether a rock looks like a horse is up to you. What is not in doubt is the scale: the peaks are 100 to 200 metres high and the boat passes close enough to see the texture of the limestone.
The cruise takes about four hours downstream and is the classic way to do it. The road runs roughly parallel and is much faster, but you see the river from above and behind glass. Most guests do the cruise one way and the road the other, which is what our Li River day trip is built around.
The cruise departs from Zhujiang Wharf or Mopanshan Wharf, both about 40 minutes by road from downtown Guilin. Boats dock at Yangshuo at the other end, where a driver can meet you.
April to December. April to June brings the highest water and the greenest banks; July and August are hot and busy; September to November is clear and comfortable. In the dry winter months the river runs low and some sections are less dramatic.
Fixed price per car, driver waits while you walk.
Tell us your dates and we will confirm the car, the driver and a fixed price within 2 hours.