The full, official Li River Cruise

The drive from town takes more than half an hour, and sometimes longer as the road is small and gets congested. Allow plenty of time as I'm sure your Li River cruise will be a highlight of your trip.

This cruise departs most days (water-levels permitting) at 09:30 from docks south of Guilin. The standard boats have two decks and hold about 80 passengers.

Once you have found your boat you will be given a seat and free water. Lunch is included later. Most choose to go to the upper deck for better views

The River Guide will name the various features en-route and give some interesting stories. Unfortunately these are usually restricted to Chinese.

The journey takes from 3 to 5 hours. Most boats carrying foreign groups will dock in town. Domestic boats stop further upstream and the passengers have to walk a considerable distance along souvenir stalls.

Small boat trips from other towns

Other smaller boats offer trips on various sections of the river. These are often more restricted in their timings. Please enquire if you are interested in a private trip.

Powered Bamboo Rafts from Yangshuo

Enterprising locals introduced an exciting new option to Yangshuo boating just a couple of years back. Bamboo rafts (sometimes plastic tubes!) with outboard motors strapped on the back make short runs from Yangshuo. This allows various interesting options such as a return from Liugong (with bikes) or picnics at an otherwise unreachable spot (with pick-up later in the day). You ask - we can talk with the operators and arrange accordingly.