The Li and Yulong Rivers
Flowing quietly through Guangxi’s celebrated karst landscape, the Li and Yulong rivers reveal the region’s geology and rural life in their most graceful forms.
Though differing in scale, both waterways trace routes shaped by the slow dissolution of limestone, carving valleys that now cradle some of China’s most iconic scenery.
The Li River rises in the Mao’er Mountains north of Guilin and winds southward for 164 kilometres before joining the Gui River near Yangshuo. Over millennia, its persistent flow has exploited joints and fractures in the limestone, widening them into the broad valley that now frames Guilin’s famous towers. These near‑vertical pinnacles, remnants of an ancient limestone plateau, stand like isolated sentinels above the river’s meanders. Their steep flanks and abrupt silhouettes are characteristic of tower karst — the final stage in the long cycle of dissolution, collapse and erosion that has shaped Guangxi’s terrain.
Travelling downstream, the river widens and narrows in rhythm with the underlying geology. In some stretches, the towers cluster closely, forming narrow corridors where mist gathers at dawn. In others, the valley opens into fertile plains where villages have long cultivated rice, taro and vegetables. Here, a network of small canals, dykes and pumps taps the Li’s steady flow to irrigate terraced fields and low-lying paddies. Seasonal adjustments in water levels are carefully managed, allowing farmers to sustain multiple crops each year despite marked variations in rainfall.
The special touches like private lunches at the base of the limestone mountains in Guilin, to the private bamboo river rafting were spectacular. We will all remember these moments for the rest of our lives!S.G., USA
The Yulong River, a tributary of the Li, offers a more intimate encounter with the same landscape and its traditional irrigation practices. Smaller and shallower, it flows gently through a patchwork of orchards and paddies, its waters diverted by weirs, sluice gates and simple stone-lined channels. These structures, some of them maintained for generations, distribute water evenly across the valley floor, supporting citrus groves, vegetable plots and small rice fields that extend almost to the river’s edge.
Along both rivers, the sounds of agriculture are changing. In places where water buffalo once ploughed the irrigated plots, small motorised tillers and tractors now work the saturated soils, their engines replacing the slow strength of animal labour. Yet the underlying pattern of life remains anchored to water: planting and harvesting still follow the availability and control of irrigation flows, and farmers continue to walk the narrow bunds, adjusting gates and channels to guide the rivers’ bounty.
Springs emerging at valley floors, losing streams vanishing beneath gravel beds, and discrete cave entrances in the hillsides all hint at the hidden circulation of water beneath this landscape. The Li and Yulong rivers are the visible expression of that system, sustaining both the scenic beauty and the intricate agricultural mosaic of this remarkable region.
