Li River Cruise vs Bamboo Raft: Which to Choose
Four hours on a tour boat, one hour on a motorised raft, or a quiet float on the Yulong. Three different rivers, three different prices, and the ¥20 note view you can walk to for free.
The karst scenery between Guilin and Yangshuo is the reason most people come to Guangxi, and there are four ways to see it from the water. They are marketed interchangeably and they are not remotely the same thing.
One is a four-hour cruise on a large tour boat. One is a one-hour ride on a motorised raft down the best stretch of the same river. One is a genuinely quiet float on a different, smaller river. And one is free and involves walking.
Choosing wrong is the most common way to be disappointed in Yangshuo.
The four options at a glance
| Li River cruise | Li River raft | Yulong raft | Xingping walk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River | Li | Li | Yulong | Li, from the bank |
| Duration | ~4 h | ~1 h | 1–1.5 h | 2–3 h |
| Cost | ¥360–480 pp | ~¥200–250 pp | ¥120–180 per raft | free |
| Scenery | very good | the best stretch | pretty, gentle | the ¥20 view |
| Quiet | no | no | yes | yes |
| Doubles as transport | yes | no | no | no |
Option 1: The Li River cruise, Guilin to Yangshuo
What it is: a four-hour journey on a large multi-deck tour boat, from a pier outside Guilin down to Yangshuo. Departures cluster in the morning, typically leaving around 09:20 and arriving in Yangshuo in the early afternoon.
Price: the official four-star fare is around ¥360 per adult, with variations up to roughly ¥480 depending on operator and package. Three-star boats are cheaper and are aimed at the domestic market, with different catering.
What you get: air conditioning, assigned seating, an open upper deck, a buffet lunch on four-star boats, and space for full-sized luggage. That last point matters — the cruise doubles as your transfer from Guilin to Yangshuo, so you can check out of a Guilin hotel in the morning and check into a Yangshuo one in the afternoon.
The scenery builds through the journey. The first hour is unremarkable. The middle two hours, roughly from Yangdi to Xingping, are the postcard stretch. The final hour tails off.
The problems:
You are on a boat with several hundred other people. The upper deck fills immediately and stays full. Getting a clear photograph over the rail requires standing in position rather than wandering.
Boats travel in convoy. Departures are scheduled together, so you are in a line of vessels, and several of your photographs will contain the boat in front.
Four hours is a long time for a view that is genuinely spectacular for about two of them.
Take the cruise if: you are moving from Guilin to Yangshuo anyway, you have luggage, you want a comfortable seat, or you are travelling with anyone for whom a small open raft is impractical.
Option 2: The Li River bamboo raft, Yangdi to Xingping
What it is: a small raft carrying four to six people down the single best section of the Li River — the stretch the cruise boats pass through in the middle of their journey. Roughly an hour.
Price: around ¥200–250 per person depending on the operator and season.
The honest description: these are not bamboo. In 2026 the Li River rafts are built from PVC pipe shaped to look like bamboo, and they are driven by loud two-stroke outboard motors. You are on the best water in the region, with an engine running behind you.
What you get: you are low on the water, close to the cliffs, and moving through the best scenery without four hours of preamble. The rafts are more manoeuvrable than the cruise boats and the pilots stop for photographs.
Take the Li River raft if: you want the best stretch of the Li without committing a whole day, and you are staying in Yangshuo rather than moving from Guilin.
How to do it: get to Yangdi by road from Yangshuo (about an hour), take the raft downstream to Xingping, and return to Yangshuo from there. Most guesthouses arrange the transport.
Option 3: The Yulong River bamboo raft
What it is: a different river. The Yulong runs parallel to the Li, roughly 15 km through the countryside south and west of Yangshuo, and it is small, shallow and slow.
Price: around ¥120–180 per raft, with two passengers per raft. Note the pricing unit — this is per raft, not per person, which makes it the cheapest option here for a couple.
Duration: one to one and a half hours for a typical section.
Why it is different: the Yulong rafts are manually poled. No engines. The river passes under old stone bridges, past rice paddies and bamboo groves, with small weirs that the raft slides over with a modest splash. There are no cruise boats because the water is too shallow for them.
It is quiet. That is the entire argument, and for a lot of people it is decisive.
The scenery is gentler — rolling karst hills and farmland rather than the dramatic vertical cliffs of the Li. Prettier rather than more impressive.
Take the Yulong raft if: you want a calm, quiet hour on the water, you are travelling as a couple, or you have already seen the Li from the cruise and want something different.
Combine it with cycling. The Yulong valley is flat, rural and pleasant to ride. A common Yangshuo day is a bike out along the river, a raft on one section, and a ride back.
Option 4: Walk to the ¥20 view, free
The image on the back of the twenty-yuan note is a view of the Li River near Xingping, and you can reach it on foot.
From Xingping town, walk out along the riverside to the marked viewpoint. It takes twenty to thirty minutes each way, costs nothing, and there is a spot where people hold up a banknote to line up the hills.
Better still, the walk from Xingping to Laozhai Hill — a steep 20-to-30 minute climb up a staircase behind the town — gives you the best single view in the region, looking down on the river bend from above. There is a small charge for the hill.
Xingping itself is an old town on the riverbank, about an hour from Yangshuo by bus, and it is a considerably calmer base than Yangshuo's West Street. Several people who go for a day end up moving their accommodation there.
Take the walk if: you are on a budget, you dislike organised activities, or you want the actual best view rather than the most sold one.
What to actually do
One day in the area, moving Guilin to Yangshuo: take the four-star cruise. It handles your transfer and shows you the river.
Based in Yangshuo, two or three days: skip the cruise entirely. Do the Yangdi–Xingping raft one morning and the Yulong raft plus cycling another. You will see more, for less, with fewer people.
On a tight budget: bus to Xingping, walk the riverside, climb Laozhai Hill, bus back. This is the best value day in Guangxi.
Travelling with young children or limited mobility: the cruise. The rafts have no shade, no facilities and minimal seating.
If you only do one thing: Yangdi to Xingping by raft, then climb Laozhai Hill before you leave.
Booking and practical notes
Book the cruise in advance in peak season through a licensed operator or your accommodation. Boats run to schedule and sell out. Check whether you are being sold a four-star or three-star boat and what the lunch arrangement is.
Rafts are generally booked locally, through a guesthouse or at the departure point, and are subject to river conditions.
Rafts stop running when the water is too high or too low. After heavy rain the Li can be closed to rafts for safety, and in dry periods some stretches become unnavigable. This is unpredictable and it is a real risk on a short visit — have a backup plan.
Life jackets are provided and should be worn.
Sun exposure. The rafts have small canopies at best. Hat, sunscreen, and water.
Everything gets wet. Waterproof bag or a dry pocket for your phone. The Yulong weirs will splash you.
Weather. Guangxi is wet. The rainy season runs roughly April to August, with the heaviest falls in May and June. Mist on the karst is atmospheric; heavy rain on an open raft is not. Build a spare day into any Yangshuo stay.
Best months: April to October for warmth and full rivers, with September and October the best compromise between water level and rainfall. Winter is clear and cold, with lower water and a thinner range of raft options.
Avoid: the first week of October and the first week of May.
Where the touts operate
West Street in Yangshuo and the areas around the piers have persistent sellers offering cruises and rafts at unclear prices.
Book through your accommodation or a licensed operator instead. The specific patterns to watch for are a quoted price that turns out to be per raft when you assumed per person or vice versa, a "cruise" that turns out to be a short shuttle rather than the full Guilin–Yangshuo route, and a raft that stops partway to sell photographs. The scams guide covers the general shape of this.
Agree the route, the duration and the total price before you get on anything.
Official sources
- Guilin municipal tourism information: https://www.guilin.gov.cn/
- Yangshuo county tourism information: https://www.yangshuo.gov.cn/
Fares, departure schedules, raft operating status and river conditions change constantly. Confirm locally for your dates.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.