Guilin · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Karst country on a budget — skip Guilin city fast and base yourself among the peaks at Yangshuo.
Yangshuo and the villages
Hostels line West Street, but the better cheap beds sit out at Xingping and along the Yulong river, where a bed comes with a peak out the window.
What a day costs
Roughly ¥150–300, about $20–42: dorm ¥50–100, rice noodles and clay-pot food ¥40–80, e-bike hire ¥40–60, one river trip more.
Buses, trains and bamboo rafts
Local buses cover Guilin to Yangshuo in about ninety minutes for ¥20–30, or the high-speed train does it in half an hour. E-bikes handle everything else.
Free by day
Cycling the Yulong river lanes, walking Xingping's old stone streets and climbing to the free viewpoints above the village cost nothing but legs.
West Street, Yangshuo
Loud, touristy and unavoidable — but the climbing hostels off it are where solo travellers pair up for routes, caves and the next morning's ride.