Seven days across two Guangxi landscapes that do not belong to each other — Li River karst, then Yao mountain wellness in Jinxiu.
The first half follows the painted karst of the Li River. A three-star cruise past Nine Horses Mural Hill and the Yellow Cloth Shoal reflection printed on the 20-yuan note. A bamboo raft down the quieter Yulong River. Zhang Yimou’s Impression Liu Sanjie performed on the river at night. A morning cycling the Ten Miles Gallery past Moon Hill, followed by a tea-therapy and still-photography session in the Yangshuo countryside. The second half turns inland to the Dayao Mountains of Jinxiu — the self-styled World Yao Capital — where a boat threads the canyon walls of Shengtang Lake, a Yao longevity banquet comes with fire-walking and sword-climbing folk traditions, and the night closes with a national-level intangible-heritage Yao herbal foot bath. The route ends back in Guilin with Elephant Trunk Hill and the Ming-dynasty Jingjiang Princes’ Palace before a free departure morning.
Fly or take the high-speed rail into Guilin — the karst-peak city at the heart of northern Guangxi. Your guide meets you at the airport or station with a welcome sign and a private vehicle, then takes you into the city to check in at the hotel. From here, everything is handled: directions, timing, and the pace of the week ahead.
The rest of the afternoon is yours to settle in. Walk the riverfront if you’re up for it, or simply rest after the flight.
The evening opens with a wellness-style welcome dinner — a Guilin take on seasonal, organic cooking, built around local river fish, mountain vegetables, and the region’s gentler herbal traditions. A calm first meal before the bigger landscapes begin tomorrow.
After breakfast, board a three-star cruise boat on the Li River for the classic Guilin-to-Yangshuo leg — about four hours threading one of China’s most painted landscapes, with limestone peaks rising straight out of the water on both sides. Your guide points out Nine Horses Mural Hill (*Jiuma Huashan*), a cliff face where mineral streaks resolve into nine running horses if you look long enough, and Yellow Cloth Shoal (*Huangbu Daoying*) — the seven-peak reflection printed on the back of the 20-yuan banknote.
Lunch on board is a Li River fish wellness meal — a local speciality of fresh river fish with seasonal vegetables.
The boat docks in Yangshuo in the afternoon. From here, switch to a traditional bamboo raft on the Yulong River — a quieter tributary where non-motorised rafts drift past rice paddies, stone bridges, and smaller karst peaks you can almost reach out and touch.
Dinner is a local wellness-themed meal in Yangshuo before the evening’s main event: Impression Liu Sanjie, Zhang Yimou’s outdoor performance on the Li River itself — 600 performers, 12 karst peaks as backdrop, and the river as stage. The show tells the story of the Zhuang folk singer Liu Sanjie through music, light, and choreography on the water.
The morning starts with the most enjoyable way to take in Yangshuo’s countryside: a flat cycling ride along the Ten Miles Gallery — a ten-kilometre rural route winding past karst peaks, bamboo groves, and rice fields. The ride passes Moon Hill, a natural limestone arch with a waxing-moon-shaped hole through the ridge, and loops back through farming villages where daily life happens at its own pace.
Lunch is a farm-style wellness meal in a Yangshuo private kitchen — wild-ingredient salads, mountain vegetables, and light seasonal dishes.
The afternoon slows right down with a tea-therapy and meditation-photography session in the countryside. Guided tea tasting is paired with quiet, unposed portrait photography in the karst landscape — a combination designed to help you decompress from the travel rhythm of the first two days. Dinner is a light local evening meal back in Yangshuo.
This morning the road turns inland. A scenic drive takes you from Yangshuo into the Dayao Mountains of central Guangxi — forested ridges, river valleys, and terraced hillsides — to Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, the self-styled World Yao Capital and China’s first Yao autonomous county.
Lunch en route is a farmhouse wellness meal at a family table along the way.
In the afternoon, enter the Shengtang Lake scenic area. A local boat takes you through the narrow emerald canyon where cliffs rise directly from the water and primeval forest clings to the slopes. Locals call this stretch the ‘Little Three Gorges’ for a reason — the lake is calm enough to mirror the cliffs back at themselves, and the air sits cool and green after the Li River’s summer heat.
The evening settles into a Yao longevity feast — a Jinxiu banquet of mountain dishes and fermented specialities served with a Yao folk performance that includes sword-climbing (*shang dao shan*) and fire-walking (*guo huo hai*), two ceremonial demonstrations from the region’s deeper folk traditions.
A slower day built around Yao heritage. The morning is a Yao Pan Wang culture experience — Pan Wang (*Panwang*) is the ancestral figure at the centre of Yao identity, and the Pan Wang traditions at Jinxiu are on the autonomous-region intangible-heritage list. The session introduces Yao music, embroidery, and ceremonial texture through local practitioners rather than a museum display.
Lunch is a Jinxiu Yao-style wellness meal, heavy on the mountain vegetables and wild herbs that define local home cooking.
The afternoon is deliberately open — time to wander the town’s edges, sit by the river, or simply rest. Jinxiu’s air and pace are a clean break from the busier karst-river days earlier in the week.
The evening closes with a Yao herbal foot bath — the Yao people’s traditional medicinal bathing is one of seven Jinxiu practices listed on China’s national intangible cultural heritage register. A mix of local medicinal plants is simmered into a dark herbal brew, then poured into a wooden tub for a thirty-minute soak aimed at relieving travel fatigue and damp-weather stiffness. A light evening meal is on your own after the treatment.
After breakfast, drive back from the Dayao Mountains to Guilin city — the scenery shifts from forest ridges to karst-studded lowlands and farmland along the way. Lunch on the way is at your own pace.
The afternoon covers Guilin’s two defining city landmarks. Elephant Trunk Hill (*Xiangbi Shan*) is the city’s symbol — a limestone hill on the Li River shaped like an elephant drinking from the water, with the Water-Moon Cave between its legs. From there, continue to the Jingjiang Princes’ Palace (*Jingjiang Wangcheng*) — a Ming-dynasty princely city built in 1372, 34 years before the Forbidden City in Beijing, wrapped around the base of Solitary Beauty Peak (*Duxiu Feng*).
Dinner back in the city is a Guilin herbal-cuisine wellness banquet (*yaoshan*), pairing seasonal ingredients with the Guilin-style use of medicinal herbs in everyday cooking — a calm closing meal before the final night at the hotel.
A final breakfast at the hotel, then the morning is yours. Walk the riverfront, pick up souvenirs, or simply rest before your journey home.
When your departure time arrives, your guide meets you for a private transfer to Guilin Liangjiang International Airport or the Guilin Railway Station in time for your onward flight or train.
