Guilin · Nightlife

The circuit joins the Li and Taohua rivers to Shanhu, Ronghu, Guihu and Mulong lakes through the middle of Guilin, passing under lit bridges and through a ship lock between river and lake level. Boats go in the evening from piers on Shanhu and near Jiefang Bridge and the loop takes roughly an hour and a half.

Two pagodas standing in the water in central Guilin, one sheathed in copper and one in glazed tile, floodlit after dark and linked to each other by a tunnel under the lake. Walking the lakeshore path costs nothing; going inside and up is ticketed and only worth it if you want the view down the lake.

Zhang Yimou's outdoor night show, performed on the Li River itself with twelve karst hills as the set and a cast of several hundred, many of them local fishermen and villagers rather than professionals. It runs in the evening with a later second performance added in busy months — confirm the night's times locally, because the schedule moves with the season and the weather.

The pedestrianised bar, cafe and restaurant strip running back from the Li River through Yangshuo town, and where most of the late drinking in the region happens. It is loud and openly aimed at visitors; the lanes leading off it are calmer and cheaper for a meal.

Guilin's central pedestrian street, running north from near Shanhu Lake and Jiefang Bridge, with food stalls and small bars still going after the daytime sights have closed. Treat it as somewhere to eat late in the city rather than a night out in its own right.