One-Day Yangshuo and Li River Highlights Tour

You’ll receive a telephone call from your tour guide before 9:30 pm to let you know the exact collection time for your trip the next day.

If, for any reason, you don’t receive our email or get a telephone call from your guide, which has never happened before, please call our 24-hour hotline in Guilin at +86-18074837277, and we will rectify this.

Please Note:

• The listed itinerary might be adjusted by your guide due to the weather, transportation or other reasonable situations based on your agreement.

Your guide will be waiting for you in your hotel’s lobby or other appointed location at the agreed time, which is usually between 8 am and 8:30 am. The tour guide will hold a Trippest banner so that you recognize him/her immediately. You’ll join a group with a maximum 6 members, which is a great size to ensure you enjoy a better travel experience.

Professional tour guide and our vehicle / Photo by David Deng

After collecting all the members, your tour group will head to the first destination — Xianggong Hill. It takes about 1½ hours (60 kilometers) driving from Guilin while it only takes about 50 minutes to get there from Yangshuo County.

A simple map of Guilin area

Details about Your Transport:

• If you stay in a hotel in Yangshuo County, pick up time from your hotel is about between 8:30 am and 9 am. The exact time will be given to you by the tour guide the day before your departure. Your driver will collect you from your hotel and drive to Xianggong Hill where you will meet your guide and other tour members.
• The free hotel pickup and drop-off areas will be within the urban areas of Guilin and Yangshuo. For further distances, you can hire a taxi to the appointed hotel, please provide your hotel information in the booking form. For detailed pick-up and drop-off area, please read our FAQ.
• Our drivers are licensed and have at least 5 years’ driving experience. This ensures you have a safe trip. Our vehicles are comfortable and spacious, is equipped with a safety belt on every seat, air conditioners, and an unlimited supply of bottled water.

You may take more than a hundred steps to climb up, normally it takes 10-15 minutes, you will climb up to the peak of the hill where you’ll be taken aback by the amazing view of the beautiful karst landscape set as countless hills around the Li River. If you are a shutterbug, you can‘t miss this place. Tens of thousands of award-winning pictures were taken there. If you are lucky, you‘ll see the sea of clouds around the hills and rivers — it’s a wonderful view.

Amazing scenery from Xianggong Hill

Trippest (China Highlights) customers

Details about the Hill Climb:

• It is quite easy to climb this hill all the way to the peak, even for young kids. However, if you have trouble with climbing or if you have to use a wheelchair, it might be a bit challenging for you.

Steps to the hilltop

Important Note:

• Xianggong Hill could be temporarily closed due to government activities, which we can NOT be informed in advance. We may visit Cuiping Five Fingers Mountain instead, which is located nearby the Putao Town, 22km north of Yangshuo. Cuiping Wuzhishan (Wuzhi Hill) is a nice place to take sunset photos. It takes around 20 minutes to climb up and you will photograph numerous karst mountain peaks and some villages with many paddies surrounded by a river. A wonderful place not to be missed in Yangshuo. the tour guide may adjust the itinerary according to the current situation.

Sunset at Cuiping Five Fingers Mountain

After driving for about 1 hour, you’ll arrive at the rural paths near the Yulong River. Take a bicycle or an electric scooter ride along the beautiful countryside paths next to the Yulong River where the water flows silently, the birds are singing, and flowers are blooming. Watch the local farmers ride their ox carts as they plow the fields. Everything is so peaceful, harmonious, and perfect. Forget all your troubles while you feel like staying in paradise.

Biking in the countryside of Yangshuo

Countryside of Yangshuo

Countryside of Yangshuo

Details about the Bike Ride

• There are two ways to visit the beautiful rural scenery, either on a bicycle or an electric scooter.
• We recommend taking an electric scooter, which is the locals’ favorite transportation. It saves your energy so you can just relax and enjoy the scenery.
• Don’t know how to ride an electric scooter? Don’t worry. Your guide will show you how to use one and it is easy to learn.
• Of course, if you don’t want to use the electric scooter, you can take a normal bicycle, which is also a very interesting way to take in the surrounding scenery.

After bike riding in the countryside, you will have lunch at a local family-style restaurant: Secret Garden. You will have the chance to taste both the delicious food eaten every day by locals and Western food.

Secret Garden Restaurant

Enjoy a delicious lunch

After having lunch, riding about 1 hour to reach Xingping Wharf. You may take a nap in the car. You will go by an ancient town named Fuli, which has a history of over 1,000 years. If you are lucky to meet the market-day, you can see some people come from nearby villages to sell their homegrown fresh fruits and vegetables, meanwhile, some people buy daily articles in the market. This tradition has been continued for many years. You’ll also have a chance to taste some local street food which is only provided on this special day. Feel free to ask the tour guide to stop by, and take you to market if you want to visit.

Fuli market

Fuli is famous for its traditional painted fans

Arriving at Xingping Wharf, where you will enjoy a private raft trip. You will drift along the most beautiful part of the Li River for about 1 hour, from Xingping to Nine-Horse Painted Hill, and then back to Xingping.

As you drift on the most beautiful river in China, you’ll feel like you are in a Chinese traditional painting. The breeze will gently blow on your face, the hills will pass you by and the clear water will flow beneath you. Just let time pause and enjoy the scenery and the moment.

If you have a 20 yuan Chinese bank note, look at the illustration on the back of it — it is the scenery that’s directly in front of your eyes.

Beautiful Li River

Wonderful experience with a raft boat on Li River

Details about the Raft Ride

• You will enjoy a private motorized raft trip along the most popular part of the Li River so that you can have a richer experience. Other groups take a 5-hour trip, which is a boring and noisy cruise, spent either sitting in the cabin or sharing a deck.
• There are only four seats in each raft boat. Groups of less than 4 people share their raft with their guide. Groups of 4 people take one raft with no guide. Groups of over 4 people take two rafts, only one raft with a guide. So, your guide may not accompany you on the raft trip, but you will be accompanied by beautiful scenery all the way. As a consolation, many find words pale in front of such stunning views.

Raft boat V.S. Cruise ship

Important Notice:

• For the safety reason, for aged people older than 70 years old or young children under 7 years old or under 120cm high or pregnant or handicapped are not allowed to take the Li river boat raft.
• Latest Update on Sep. 23. 2019: Due to the road construction in Xingping we have changed the Li River drifting part from (Xingping ←→ Nine-Horse Painted Hill) to (Yangdi Wharf ←→ Nine-Horse Painted Hill) lasts about 1.5 hours which is also very beautiful!

After enjoying the beautiful Li River scenery in Yangshuo, your trip comes to an end. You will be transferred back to your hotel in Guilin or Yangshuo.

If you are staying in a hotel in Yangshuo, we can drop you off at the West Street which is a shopping street that’s famous for its unique combination of both Chinese and Western cultures. you can always browse this street by yourself. There is a huge choice of restaurants around West Street (both Western and local).

If you are staying in Guilin, your driver will take you back to Guilin (after dinner) and drop you off at your hotel. The journey will take about 1½ hours.

West Street

A Recommended Evening Show

• We highly recommend you stay in Yangshuo during the evening and watch the famous performance called “Impression Liu Sanjie”. It is directed by the famous Chinese director, Zhang Yimou, who also directed the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
• The show starts at about 8 pm and lasts for 70 minutes. The ticket price for normal seats is 228 yuan (the tickets for normal seats usually not available due to the very limited seats) while the prices for VIP seats vary from 268 to 358 yuan.
• If you want to watch this show, please feel free to ask your guide to help you book the tickets. He/she will escort you throughout the whole show before sending you back to your hotel in Yangshuo or Guilin. Your guide can also take you to West Street and find a restaurant for dinner (this isn’t included in the price).
• Please note that if you stay in Guilin and decide to watch this show that means you agree to give up take our vehicle back to Guilin, there will be an extra coach fee of 30 Yuan for the public transportation from Yangshuo to Guilin.

Impression Liu Sanjie

Share Your Experiences

We welcome you to share your happy experiences of this day with your friends on your Facebook page or via TripAdvisor. This encourages more people to have the chance to see the beautiful scenery of Guilin and Yangshuo. Follow us on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/trippest/ for updates and our trip photos. We hope to see you again soon.

Internet Access

Due to the state-controlled Internet security in China, many popular websites and apps are blocked, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp. This means you might not be able to visit your favorite sites and might not receive your emails and other important information. For this reason, we highly recommend you use a VPN service before your trip to make sure you can get connected to the global Internet.