Updates

Guilin is usually sold as a landscape. The new culture section treats the karst as an archive: a place that has been carved, governed, sung, woven, and prayed in for more than a thousand years.

The six pages cover the cliff inscriptions at Longyin Cave and Duxiu Peak, Gui opera and caidiao, the Jingjiang princes and their tomb field at Yaoshan, Zhuang brocade and Yao silver, temple etiquette, and the lunar festivals that change the shape of a trip.

Each page is written for independent travellers: where to go, what to look for, what to pay, and how to visit without treating someone else's practice as a photo set.

Guilin Insider is live for the 2026–27 season. The site is organised as a river ledger: what to see, where to base yourself, how the Li River behaves, and how to eat well between boat trips.

We have published 12 sight guides, 8 area guides, 10 food entries, 8 routes, 8 practical briefings, 6 river guides, 4 side trips, and 5 field notes. The when-to-go section covers all twelve months, with river levels and rainfall rather than generic seasons.

Everything is written in English for independent travellers. Prices and schedules change; where we are not certain, we say so and tell you what to confirm before you go.

The River Day Planner asks a handful of questions — season, base, travel group, and how much time you have — and suggests a river day that fits. It is not a booking engine; it does not sell tickets.

The logic follows the same rules as our river guides: cruise versus raft, morning versus afternoon light, and how much transfer time each option really costs. If the river is likely to be high, the planner says so and offers the indoor alternative.

You can save the result as a screenshot. If your plans change, run it again with different answers.

The twenty-yuan note has carried the Li River landscape since 1999. The view is at Xingping, and it is one of the few famous images in China that is not improved by a viewing platform.

Our field note explains where the viewpoint is, when the light works, and why the boat trip from Xingping is often better than the crowded platform. It also covers the practical details: the short climb, the entrance fee, and the best time to avoid tour groups.

It pairs with the [Xingping area guide](/areas/xingping-area/) and the [photography route](/routes/photography-3-day/) if you are building a trip around light.

The Longji terraces are flooded from late April, green through summer, golden in late September and early October, and bare through winter. The difference is not cosmetic; it changes which villages are worth the walk and whether an overnight is worth it.

We have tried to be precise about the timing without pretending it is fixed. The flooding depends on water management, and the harvest depends on altitude and weather. Where we give a window, it is a window, not a date.

The new [Longji guide](/sights/longji-rice-terraces/) covers Ping'an and Dazhai, the walks, and the guesthouse trade-offs. The [best time question](/questions/best-time-for-longji-terraces/) gives the short answer.