Discover Guilin and Yangshuo
Li River Cruise (Guilin to Yangshuo)
漓江游船
The 83 km boat trip down the Li River past hundreds of limestone peaks is the single most famous landscape journey in China, and the stretch near Xingping appears on the back of the 20 yuan note. Four to five hours on deck, and the scenery does not let up.
The story
What makes this place special
The Li is the upper course of the Gui River, running about 164km from Xing'an County through Guilin and Yangshuo to Pingle. The stretch between Guilin and Yangshuo cuts through tower karst - limestone towers typically 30 to 80 metres high in the basin and up to around 300 metres at the edges - and it has been the standard subject of Chinese landscape painting and poetry about the south for centuries. The reach below Xingping provides the scene printed on the back of the fifth-series 20-yuan note, which is why the view is the most photographed in the province.
What you’ll discover
The full-length cruise is the roughly 80km Guilin-to-Yangshuo run and takes about four to five hours on an enclosed multi-deck boat with an open top deck. The first hour or so out of Guilin is comparatively flat and industrial; the scenery sharpens from Yangdi onwards and the best 20km is the Yangdi-to-Xingping section, where the named peaks come - Nine Horses Fresco Hill, where you are invited to find the horses in the cliff stains, and then Huangbu Daoying, the 'yellow cloth reflection', just below Xingping, which is the 20-yuan view. The boat docks at Yangshuo and the cruise is one-way.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- The four-star and three-star boats run the same river. The difference is comfort, not route: four-star boats have wider seating, more open top-deck space and a buffet lunch included, three-star boats are more basic with a boxed lunch. If you are going to spend four hours standing on the top deck taking photographs, that space is the thing worth paying for; if you are going to sit inside, the cheaper boat sees exactly the same karst.
- The scenery is one-way and it is all in the second half. If you only want the good part, skip the cruise and take a bamboo raft or the local boat on the Yangdi-to-Xingping section, or go straight to Xingping - you get the best 20km in 90 minutes instead of five hours.
- The 20-yuan view is not really a cruise photo. From the boat you pass Huangbu Daoying broadside at speed with a hundred other people's arms in frame. The actual composition is from the bank: walk upstream from Xingping old town along the river for about a kilometre to the viewpoint near the Chaoban Hill landing, which is where the note was drawn from, and the climbs at Laozhai Hill and Xianggong Hill give the high versions of the same scene.
- Sit on the correct side or do not sit at all. Most of the named peaks come up on one bank and the boats fill their indoor seats first; regulars go straight to the top deck and stay there.
- Book one to two days ahead in April to October and around the May and October holidays, when boats sell out, and check which pier your ticket actually departs from - the Guilin-end boats leave from Mopanshan and Zhujiang piers well outside the city, not from central Guilin, and which class uses which pier is reported inconsistently and changes.
When to come
Morning departures, for light and for mist on the peaks, which is the look the paintings are after. April to October has enough water for the big boats to run the full route; in the dry winter months the full-length cruise is often suspended or shortened and the rafts or the Xingping section are the alternative. Overcast and drizzle are better than hard sun - haze between the peaks is what separates them.
Getting around
The boats are the problem, not the river. Boarding is by gangway onto a floating pontoon with steps, the piers are a long walk from the car parks, and the top deck - which is where the views are - is reached by a steep internal companionway stair with no lift. A wheelchair user can usually be got aboard with help and can see the river through the saloon windows, but should not count on reaching the open deck. Bamboo rafts require a step down and across onto an unstable platform and are not realistic. There are toilets aboard. Confirm assistance with the operator before booking.
Worth knowing before you go
The three-star boat sees exactly the same scenery as the four-star; the difference is the lunch and the air-conditioned lounge. Sit on the open top deck and face left (east) for the best peaks.
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