Essential 3-Day Guilin Tour

Most groups use a three-star boat; we book you the top-tier four-star cruise on the Li River — wider decks, better facilities and a buffet lunch included. Over several hours, the banks pass in turn: karst peaks rising sheer from the water, swaying bamboo groves and riverside fishing villages, with the odd bamboo raft and cormorant gliding past the hull. This is the most classic stretch of Guilin scenery, and the one not to miss.

Xianggong Hill is reckoned the best vantage point over the Li River. The climb from the pier takes only about twenty minutes, and from the viewing platform the river unfurls like a green silk ribbon, drawing a graceful arc among hundreds of karst peaks. Thin mist often drifts through the peaks at dawn, and the light is softest at sunrise and sunset — a stop every photographer should make.

Reed Flute Cave is famed for its astonishing underground stalactites, stalagmites and layered rock formations. The temperature stays constant year-round, and coloured lights turn the limestone into something like a surreal hidden world. Walking the chambers with your guide, you hear how these strange shapes grew over hundreds of thousands of years. Before leaving, take in Guilin's city emblem — Elephant Trunk Hill, where a giant elephant dips its trunk into the Li River to drink, and the rock and water form a natural round arch.