The Li River runs past the garden: this is the classic Guilin base, with 42-square-metre entry rooms, river-view balconies and grounds that read like a small park — mini zoo, boat lake, outdoor pool. Five minutes from the city centre by taxi, forty-five from Liangjiang airport.
Mid-May to June for mirror-flooded terraces; September to October for gold · Relaxed · Easy to moderate
The Guangxi everyone photographs, in the right order: a city night in Guilin, a dawn above the Longji terraces while the day-trippers are still on the motorway, then the Li River cruise downstream to the karst towers of Yangshuo. Six days with no wasted transfer and one sunrise that justifies the early alarm twice over.