Guilin Transportation

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In Guilin you can take a river Li cruise that will take you down the river to Yangshuo. The plan is roughly this:
- Morning sailing down the river and watching the amazing landscapes of the mountains.
- Lunch at Yangshuo
- Some spare time in the town
- Back to Guilin by bus
The best views are near Yangshuo so a good option is to take the bus to Yangshuo and hire there a 2 hours tour along the river. Cheaper too.

Though many tourists arrive to Yangshuo by boat tour from Guilin, I found that a waste of time and money. I chose to take the public bus to Yangshuo (1 hour) and from there I made the river trips to see the mountains.
The buses to Yangshuo leave from the main bus station.

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Descending Li River all the tourists, camera in hand, waited anxiously for the cliche: a raft standing in the river, with a fisherman covered by the traditional hat.

Everybody failed.

Now, life depends on tourism, and fishing is less rewarding than travelling tourists. The rafts were there but with colourful umbrellas over a comfortable chair.

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I don’t know if the announced number of 70 000 people descending Li river each day is correct or not. What I know is that we feel like being part of a long caravan, always with a couple of boats ahead and behind us.

70 000, with 100 people per boat makes 7000 boats, which seems too exaggerated, but, anyway, you do never count on a calm and lonely presence in the river.

Guilin International Airport is located in the Liangjiang Town of Guilin City, about 28 km (about 17.4 miles) southwest from the city center (40 minutes by car).
After searching for a while to find flights` schedule from Guilin to Beijing and vice versa, I found this site below. Hope it helps.
You can take an airport coach bus to go to the city. The cost is 20RMB ($2.5) per person.

It costed us $191 (per person) to fly from Beijing to Guilin and $242 (per person) for the way back to the capital. Flight duration was 2 hours something.

I very much enjoyed Yangshou (about 2 hours away from Guilin). We stayed in Guilin just because it was the city we flew into, but didn't spend much time in that city becuase it does take a while to get from one place to another. Options for getting from Guilin to Yangzhou:
1) Local bus - 2 hours and gives you the option to roam around, get a boat ride, rent a bike, etc. at your leisure in Yangshou.
2) Guided boat ride - I think this is an all day excursion including lunch. This option is more of a group activity, so just depends on your interest.

I recommend considering very carefully flight and train options as you look at your itinerary. China is a gigantic place and getting from one destination to the next, not matter which transport you use, may take surprisingly longer than you think. Enjoy!

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I booked my Li River Cruise at the Backstreet Youth Hostel, where I was staying, and it cost RMB400 which included a bus pick-up from the hostel and lunch on the boat. This was the "western" boat cruise where the boat and food are better than the cheaper "Chinese" cruise. It's probably better to do the Western cruise even though it's more expensive as you're with other western travellers even though were still quite a few Chinese as well.

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I took the overnight train (No. T38) from Guangzhou's main train station to Guilin which took about 11 hours. I decided to take comfy soft class which cost RMB383 but it was well worth it. The train left on time at 19:50 and not soon after boarding I took myself off to get something to eat in the buffet car where I got talking to some western tourists. The train arrived in Guilin on time at about 06:45.

I then left Guilin on a double decker train to Nanning (No. N701) that was absolutely packed with people. The train left on time at 08:22 and arrived at 13:00. The seats were small with very upright backs that were a bit comfortable for the 4.5+ hour long journey but it was helped along by me speaking to a young student guy who spoke some English. I was a great source of fun with my fellow passengers as I was showing them my British passport and money which they had never seen before! The train only cost RMB65.