Guilin

Guilin's karst mountain landscape, hundreds of limestone peaks rising abruptly from flat farmland and river plains, has served as a reference point in Chinese ink painting for centuries, its specific silhouette recognizable enough that it appears today on the back of China's 20-yuan banknote. The formations result from millions of years of water erosion acting on soluble limestone bedrock, producing the steep, isolated peaks that distinguish karst terrain from more gradual mountain ranges.

A cruise along the Li River between Guilin and the smaller town of Yangshuo remains the classic way to experience that landscape, drifting past peaks with names drawn from their perceived shapes, reflected in water calm enough on most days to nearly double the visual effect. The journey takes several hours and covers roughly 80 kilometers of river, widely considered one of the essential scenic boat trips in China.

Yangshuo itself, smaller and more relaxed than Guilin, has developed into a popular base for exploring the surrounding countryside by bicycle, its rural roads winding between rice paddies and karst peaks at a pace considerably slower than most Chinese tourist circuits. Rock climbing has also grown popular on the area's limestone cliffs, drawing a different kind of visitor than the river cruise crowds.

The Longji rice terraces, also known as the Dragon's Backbone for their curving, layered shape climbing the surrounding hillsides, sit a few hours northwest of Guilin and have been cultivated by local Zhuang and Yao ethnic communities for centuries. Visiting during planting season in late spring, when the terraces fill with reflective water, or during the harvest in September and October, when they turn golden, offers two very different but equally striking versions of the same landscape.

Reed Flute Cave, a limestone cave near central Guilin, has been illuminated with colored lighting to highlight its stalactites and stalagmites, some formations recorded in ink inscriptions left by visitors dating back over a thousand years, evidence that this particular cave has drawn curious travelers for a genuinely long time before modern tourism ever existed.