Guilin Off the Beaten Path: 6 Days
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Six days adds a full day this route hasn’t had room for yet. Days 1-5 match the 5-day version exactly, a 214 BC canal, the Li River cruise, a Yangshuo countryside day, and a Dazhai/Jinkeng overnight for sunset and sunrise terrace light. Day 6 pairs a free 1,000-year-old river town with an underground river cave that most Li River cruise passengers pass by without stopping.
Have a full week? The one-week version adds a WWII heritage museum and a real choice between two very different final days.
Book these before you go:
- Book a Li River cruise : the 4-star option from Zhujiang Pier ends at Xingping, which Day 2 is built around.
- Browse a Longji terrace overnight stay : book the Dazhai/Jinkeng village guesthouse ahead, foreign-card ATMs thin out sharply once you’re up in the hills.
- Browse an Impression Sanjie Liu ticket : closed Jan-Feb, worth folding into a Yangshuo evening if the dates line up.
- Check Guilin hotel rates : prices spike hardest around National Day Golden Week (1-7 Oct 2026) and Labour Day (1-5 May 2026).
| Day | Focus | Rough daily cost (RMB) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ling Canal, Two Rivers Four Lakes night cruise | ¥250-350 |
| 2 | Li River cruise, Laozhai Hill, West Street | ¥450-650 |
| 3 | Yulong River cycling, bamboo rafting, Yangshuo countryside | ¥300-500 |
| 4 | Travel to Dazhai/Jinkeng, Thousand-Layer Terraces, sunset viewpoint | ¥300-450 |
| 5 | Sunrise viewpoint, return to Guilin | ¥150-250 |
| 6 | Daxu ancient town, Crown Cave | ¥150-300 |
Day 1: A 214 BC Canal Instead of the Hill Circuit
Ling Canal (Lingqu) in Xing’an County, about 90 minutes north of Guilin, is 214 BC construction under Qin Shi Huang, considered the world’s oldest contour canal at 36.4km, with 37 flash locks added by 825 AD. A boat tour with entry runs around ¥30 (verify locally). Back in the city by evening, the Two Rivers Four Lakes night cruise (¥210 adult / ¥105 child, Wenchang Bridge 18:45 or Yuren 19:30, about 90 minutes) loops the lit-up old-city waterway past the Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas. Its cormorant-fishing display is staged for photos, genuine historically but not today.
Day 2: The Li River Cruise, Then a Free Hill Most Boats Skip
Book the 4-star cruise (¥360-480, meals included) from Zhujiang Pier, ending at Xingping rather than further downstream, running Guilin to Yangdi to Xingping past Nine Horse Fresco Hill and Yellow Cloth Shoal, 3.5-5 hours, one-way downstream only. From the Xingping pier, climb Laozhai Hill, free, about 30 minutes, for the coiling river view most cruise passengers never leave the boat to see. Bus to Yangshuo (roughly every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, ¥15) for the night.
Day 3: The Yangshuo Countryside, Not Just West Street
Cycle the Ten-Mile Gallery route (Yangshuo to Ten-Mile Gallery to Gongnong Bridge to Moon Hill to Shiwai Taoyuan, roughly 15-20km, 2-3 hours), or swap part of it for Yulong River bamboo rafting (¥200-320 per raft, confirm per-raft versus per-person pricing). Moon Hill’s current price and hours weren’t reliably confirmed this round, so check locally. Close on West Street with a locals’ mifen shop, and if you order beer fish, confirm the per-catty price before the fish is cooked.
Day 4: Into Dazhai/Jinkeng, the Wilder Side of Longji
Dazhai/Jinkeng, roughly two and a half hours from Guilin or Yangshuo, is the Yao side of the Longji terraces, wilder and more dramatic than Ping’an, with a cable car (¥60 one-way, ¥110 return) linking its three viewpoints. The combined ¥80 entrance ticket also covers Ping’an and Huangluo Yao Village. Walk the Thousand-Layer Terraces trail, about an hour past traditional stilt houses, then time the cable car or a longer hike to reach Golden Buddha Peak for sunset. Foreign-card ATMs are thin here, so arrive with cash already in hand. Stay the night in a village guesthouse; an overnight is the whole reason this route beats a rushed day visit.
Day 5: Sunrise, Then Back to Guilin
Get up before dawn for West Hill Music, Dazhai/Jinkeng’s highest viewpoint at roughly 1,180m, about a two-hour hike from the village for sunrise light over the terraces, genuinely a different landscape than the same view at midday. Descend, then transfer back to Guilin or Yangshuo. Full detail on all five of these opening days is in the 5-day version .
Day 6: A Free Ancient Town, Then an Underground River
Back near Guilin, start at Daxu, about 20-23km south of the city, founded in the early Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) and free to enter. Walk the 2.5km bluestone street past Ming and Qing-dynasty buildings to the Qing-era single-arch Wanshou Bridge, once a Republic-era trade hub with up to 13 docks along the river. Buses run from Guilin South Bus Station at 08:20 and 13:00 (30 minutes, ¥10).
From Daxu, transfer onward via the Lingchuan 306 line to reach Crown Cave (Guanyan) in Caoping Town, roughly 2-3 hours total travel from Guilin for ¥6. Crown Cave runs visitors through on five different modes of transport in a single visit, a rail car, an elevator, a tramcar to “Palm Hall,” and a boat ride along a 1,000m underground river, billed as the world’s longest sightseeing sliding track. Entry is ¥60 adult / ¥30 child, with the rail car an extra ¥40 one-way. The Li River cruise itself passes nearby but never stops, which is exactly why this cave stays quiet even in high season.
Is a Day Trip to Daxu and Crown Cave Worth the Transfer?
Yes, for anyone who’s already done the Li River cruise and Yangshuo countryside and wants a genuinely different kind of day. Daxu is the free, slow half; Crown Cave is the paid, mechanical half, five different ways through a single cave system in one visit. Neither shows up on the standard four-sight Guilin list, and together they cost less than a single Reed Flute Cave ticket.
One concrete tip: do Daxu first, in the morning, before the day heats up and before Crown Cave’s underground river boat ride, which runs at a constant cool temperature regardless of the hour outside. Reversing the order means walking Daxu’s open bluestone street in the hottest part of the afternoon instead.