The Li River Without the Crowds: Guilin, Yangshuo and the Routes Locals Take

The river everyone photographs, and the one they queue for

The Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo is the most reproduced landscape in China: twenty-odd karst towers, a green ribbon of water, a fisherman with two cormorants. It is also, between 09:00 and 13:00, a conveyor belt of four-deck tour boats with a loudspeaker on every deck.

I have done the big boat once, in 2019, and I would do it again only with a guest who has one day and no knees. There is a better way, and it is mostly a matter of where you sleep and what time you get up.

Base yourself in Xingping, not Yangshuo

Yangshuo town is convenient, noisy and increasingly a stage set: West Street (西街) is loud until 02:00, and the light show on the river runs on a schedule. Xingping (兴坪), twenty-five kilometres upriver, is a working village with the best stretch of the river on its doorstep and the actual scenery of the ¥20 note.

The confusion worth knowing: the high-speed rail station called Yangshuo (阳朔站) sits in Xingping, 27 km from Yangshuo town. A taxi from the station to Yangshuo town is ¥100–120; to Xingping it is ¥20–30. Check the official timetable before you book, because several trains a day also stop at Guilin.

Option one: the classic boat

Boats leave Guilin’s Zhujiang and Mopanshan piers between 08:30 and 09:30 and take about four and a half hours to Yangshuo, lunch included, ¥215–270 (roughly $30–38) depending on class. The scenery is genuinely the best of the trip — Nine Horses Fresco Hill, the Yellow Cloth Shoal — but you share it with 200 people and a guide on a microphone.

Book a day ahead through your hotel or the official WeChat account; touts at the pier sell the same ticket at a markup.

Option two: the local ferry and the road

At Xingping, a small ferry shuttles villagers and their scooters across the Li for ¥2–5. It takes five minutes, it runs from early morning until dusk, and the far bank gives you the classic view back towards the village and its karst backdrop without a single tour flag.

From Xingping to Yangshuo, locals take the bus from the small station by the market, ¥7–10, about 45 minutes. It stops at Yangshuo’s north bus station, a ten-minute walk from West Street.

Option three: a car and a driver

A private car between Xingping and Yangshuo, with stops at the riverside viewpoints, is ¥150–250 for the half-day. Your guesthouse can arrange one; agree the stops and the waiting time in writing before you set off. This is the option for photographers chasing light rather than transport.

The three routes between the karst, compared:

Route	Time	Cost	Crowds
Classic tour boat, Guilin to Yangshuo	4 h 30	¥215–270	Heavy, fixed departures
Local ferry at Xingping plus bus	1 h 15	Under ¥15	Light, local traffic
Private car, Xingping and Yangshuo	40–50 min	¥150–250	Light, your own pace

Xianggong Hill at dawn

Xianggong Hill (相公山) is the view: the Li bending around a peninsula of karst, with mist sitting in the gorge at first light. It is 20 km from Xingping, about 40 minutes by car, and the entrance is ¥60 (roughly $8, late-2026 prices). The climb is a twenty-minute haul up stone steps — no technical difficulty, but bring a torch for the top section.

Go for sunrise, not sunset. Sunrise means a 05:15 departure, a 06:00 arrival and a platform that holds perhaps forty people. By 08:00 the coaches arrive. In autumn the mist usually lifts between 07:00 and 07:45, which is the photograph everyone wants and nobody can guarantee.

The Yulong River loop by bike

The Yulong (遇龙河) is the Li’s quiet sibling: too shallow for tour boats, lined with bamboo rafts, water buffalo and rice paddies. The loop from Yangshuo through Chaoyang Village, Gongnong Bridge and Jiuxian is about 20 km of flat lanes and it takes a leisurely three hours with stops.

Bikes are ¥40–50 a day, e-bikes ¥80, and every guesthouse rents them. Go anticlockwise and start by 07:30 to have the bridge to yourself. Raft rides on the Yulong run ¥240–280 for two people and about 90 minutes — worth it once, and best before 10:00.

One honest note: the cormorant fishermen you see posing at Xingping are paid models, not a working fishery. Pay ¥20 for the photograph if you want it, and know what you are buying.

When to go

• April and May. Green terraces, high water, occasional rain. The best light, the fewest crowds.
• September and October. Golden rice, clear skies, comfortable cycling. My favourite window.
• Avoid. Golden Week (1–7 October), the May Day holiday and Chinese New Year. Prices triple and the river is a queue.
• June to August. Hot, humid, and the wettest months. Floods can close the rafts for days.

Whatever the season, give the region three nights rather than two. The karst rewards slow mornings, and the whole point of coming this far is to stop moving.