Guilin · Things to do

The run downstream from Guilin through the tower karst that UNESCO added to the South China Karst World Heritage site in 2014 as its best known example of continental fenglin. Tourist boats leave in the morning from piers south of the city rather than from the centre, and the trip takes about four hours; the reach near Xingping is the view printed on the ¥20 note.

Terraced hillsides above Zhuang and Yao villages roughly two hours north of Guilin by bus, with Ping'an and the Dazhai/Jinkeng valley the two usual bases and a cable car up from Dazhai. They look best flooded and mirrored in May and June and gold in late September and October; in high summer they are simply green.

A lit limestone cave in the hills north-west of central Guilin, walked as a guided loop through stalactite chambers and ending at a large still pool that reflects the roof. The ink inscriptions on the walls, the oldest of them from the Tang dynasty, are the more interesting part; the coloured floodlighting is not to everyone's taste.

The flat lane along the Yulong, a tributary of the Li, is the best cycling in the region: bikes and e-bikes rent by the day in Yangshuo town and the route runs past the old Yulong Bridge and the bamboo rafts working the shallows. There is no ticket for the road itself, and half a day is enough.

The walled Ming princely residence in the middle of Guilin, begun in 1372 and so older than the Forbidden City, and now shared with a university campus. A single limestone peak stands inside the walls and a stone stairway takes you up it for a view over the whole city; the ticket covers both. Allow two hours.