83 km of karst,the bend on the20-yuan note.
Four hours downriver between the limestone peaks of southern China, on a private vessel, ahead of the convoy.
The Li River cuts south from Guilin through eighty-three kilometres of karst peaks. This is the landscape on the back of the twenty-yuan note, the version of China most travellers picture before they arrive. Most cruises run as a convoy of identical double-decker day boats, all leaving Guilin at the same hour, all eating lunch at the same time, all arriving at Yangshuo at the same hour. Ours doesn't. We charter a smaller private vessel: out earlier, slower over lunch, and the captain knows exactly which bend the twenty-yuan photograph is taken from.
Down the river,
ahead of the convoy.
Out of Guilin first
Coffee on the deck.
We board at 08:30, forty minutes before the day-tripper convoy leaves. Coffee, fresh fruit, the upper deck cleared so the photographers in your party have the rail. About four hours downriver to Yangshuo at a slow pace.
The twenty-yuan bend
We name the spot.
Around 11:00 we slow the boat at the Xingping bend. This is the karst silhouette on the back of the twenty-yuan note. The captain hands you a note so you can hold it up to the view. Most cruises pass through without slowing.
Lunch on the top deck
Past the cormorants.
Hot lunch served at noon: Guilin rice noodles, local river fish, two cold dishes. We arrive at Yangshuo around 13:30. The convoy is still half an hour behind.
Questions worth
answering early.
The convoy boats are identical double-decker day boats running on a fixed schedule: all leaving at the same hour, all eating lunch at noon, all docking at Yangshuo at the same time. They are not unsafe, and the karst is the same karst. What you lose on the convoy is the silence on the rail, the ability to slow the boat at the photograph bend, the lunch that does not arrive when fifty other people are eating, and the captain who knows the river. The private vessel gives you the experience the convoy advertises but does not quite deliver.
The rest of
the south, and the karst cousins.
Zhangjiajie
Six hundred kilometres north, the Avatar sandstone pillars. Six hours by high-speed rail or a one-hour flight.
Read this experience
Wulong Karst
Karst kin in the north: three natural bridges, sinkholes, the UNESCO landscape an hour east of Chongqing.
Read this experience
The Yangtze Three Gorges
A river in another register: limestone gorges, a slower cruise, a longer story.
Read this experience
Jack Guo
Senior Travel Specialist
Jack has spent ten years working with the guides, drivers and hoteliers across China. He'll be your contact from first enquiry to final airport pickup.
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