Discover Guilin and Yangshuo
Xingping Old Town
兴坪古镇
A 1,300-year-old riverside town of flagstone lanes and Ming-Qing shophouses, sitting right at the most photographed bend of the Li River - the view printed on the 20 yuan note is a 10-minute walk from its main street.
The story
What makes this place special
Xingping is an old river town on the east bank of the Li about 25km from Yangshuo town, and it is the practical centre of the best scenery on the river: the Huangbu Daoying reach just downstream of it is the view printed on the back of the 20-yuan note, and Nine Horses Fresco Hill is a little above it. It was a trading settlement on the river long before tourism, and its old street, wharf and stone lanes survive in a way Yangshuo's largely do not.
What you’ll discover
A compact grid of old stone lanes behind a river wharf, with low tile-roofed shophouses, an old theatre, guesthouses and small restaurants, and the Li River with its karst towers at the end of every street. From the wharf you can take a short local boat or bamboo raft down the Huangbu reach, walk the riverside footpath about a kilometre upstream to the viewpoint that matches the banknote, or climb Laozhai Hill directly behind the wharf - about 300 metres high, free, and with the best close view of the river bend.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Stay here instead of Yangshuo if the river is what you came for. Xingping puts you in the best scenery, is far quieter, and the riverside guesthouses are cheaper; Yangshuo is the nightlife and the bike hire.
- Getting here is easy and people assume it is not: Yangshuo's high-speed station is near Xingping, and a shuttle from the station or Yangshuo bus station takes about fifteen minutes for a few yuan.
- Walk the riverside path upstream for the banknote view rather than paying for a boat to it. It is about a kilometre on the flat along the bank and the composition is better from land than from the water.
- Laozhai Hill is free and the view is good, but it is an unimproved, steep and in places exposed scramble and people are injured on it - it is not a maintained staircase like Xianggong Hill. Do not start it near dusk, and if you want an easy stairway viewpoint go to Xianggong or Damian Hill instead.
- Late afternoon is Xingping's hour. The cruise boats have all passed through by early afternoon and the town empties, so the river in the last two hours of light is quiet in a way it never is at Yangshuo.
When to come
Late afternoon and early morning. Mist on the river in spring and autumn is what makes the famous view; the cruise boats pass midday, so either side of that is calmer. Avoid the October holiday.
Getting around
The town is manageable, the hills are not. Xingping's lanes and the riverside path are flat, paved with stone and short, so a wheelchair can get around the old town and along the bank to the banknote viewpoint - which is the single most accessible way to see the Li River's best reach. The wharf involves a slope and steps down to the water, boats require a step into the hull, and Laozhai Hill is an unmade rocky climb that is not accessible in any sense.
Worth knowing before you go
Walk downstream to the Laozhai Hill trailhead and the 20-yuan-note viewpoint; both are free. Staying a night here instead of in Yangshuo town is the quiet alternative.
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