Yangshuo Cycling: 10-Mile Gallery Road

Yangshuo is a beautiful little town situated nearby to Guilin, China. Although well known for its Western food and café’s all along the pedestrian West Street, Yangshuo cycling out into the countryside is what it’s best known for. Easily accessible from the downtown center, the 10-Mile Gallery biking route is flat and paved, although there’s also a slew of shoot-off unpaved streets if you desire the extra challenge.  

Additionally, particularly on the main draw on Kangzhan Road, there are multiple tourist spots along the way that you can stop at and wander around. Most spots unfortunately charge a fee, starting at 14 yuan to see the large Banyan tree and getting progressively higher. However, the cycling route itself is free and you can choose where to stop, if at all, along the way.   

How to Get to Yangshuo

Yangshuo is about an hour and a half car ride away from Guilin and is easily accessible by both train and bus. Both run frequently throughout the day, and give you plenty of options depending on how you want to arrive.

Alternatively, you can take a cruise ship or a bamboo raft for a portion of the leg of the journey if you so desire. 

Guilin to Yangshuo

By Train: Guilin has three railway stations that service high-speed trains to the Yangshuo Train Station: Guilin Train Station (the most central), Guilin West and Guilin North. The high-speed train takes 25-30 minutes to arrive at the Yangshuo Train Station. From there, you have to take a bus or taxi to Yangshuo proper, which is about 25 kilometers away – the train station is actually located closer to Xingping town than Yangshuo town. 

A high-speed rail ticket to Yangshuo costs 24 yuan. There are convenient, easily labeled buses from the train station to take you directly to Yangshuo or Xingping: the ticket to Yangshuo will be 10-15 yuan. 

By Bus: Buses to Yangshuo leave from the Guilin South Bus Station frequently, about every 20 minutes or so. The bus to Yangshuo takes around 2 hours and drops you off in Yangshuo proper – the Yangshuo Bus Station is around a 30-minute walk from the popular Yangshuo West Street, or a quick taxi ride away. 

Note: there is only one Yangshuo Bus Station now, which was previously the Yangshuo South Bus Station – the Yangshuo North Bus Station is not used anymore. 

The ticket price can fluctuate and is slightly arbitrary, since they’re local buses and the price is up to the discretion of the ticket distributor on the bus. There are no posted fares. I paid 35 yuan to get back to Guilin from Yangshuo: the bus shouldn’t set you back more than 40 yuan, and could be as low as 25 yuan. 

The Guilin South Bus Station is around a 30 minutes bus ride from the downtown Guilin Train Station, and is serviced by multiple bus lines, including the K99 bus. All public buses in Guilin cost 2 yuan. Alternatively, a Guilin taxi could take you to the South Bus Station to get to Yangshuo. 

By Boat or Raft: You could take a raft or cruise ship from the Yangdi Pier to Xingping or to Mural Hill (where there’s a free shuttle bus to get you the rest of the way to Xingping). From there, you could hop on a bus to Yangshuo. If you wish to organize a river cruise, talk to your hostel or hotel and find the best price options, as they vary based off of time and quality. 

Xingping to Yangshuo

By Bus: Buses to Yangshuo leave from the centrally located Xingping Bus Station every 15 minutes until 18:00. The ticket costs 10 yuan and is perhaps a 30-minute ride. You can just hop on the bus and pay your ticket on it, rather than beforehand. 

Renting a Bike in Yangshuo

First and foremost you have to get yourself a set of wheels (duh!). Bike rentals abound in Yangshuo, and are all along parts of West Street (although they may be hidden in back areas), places on Pantao Road, and along the way on Kangzhan Road. 

Bear in mind that Yangshuo is quite a sleepy town. I had been accustomed to getting up at around 8:00 a.m. while traveling and went to find a café  -- much to my amusement (and dismay), there was literally nothing open on West Street. I strolled around and couldn’t find a single bike rental spot, either. 

So, unless you like early morning walks (it was actually really nice to see a quiet, closed-up West Street), sleep in and look for a bike around 10:00 a.m. or so – you’ll have a lot more options to choose from. 

I rented a bike off of West Street for 40 yuan for the day, with a 200 yuan deposit. Like most places in China, you can pay by cash or by WeChat. If you want to look around for a better deal, go off of West Street and you can probably find a bike rental for 30 yuan or so. I’d recommend choosing a mountain bike, unless you absolutely know that you’re going to stick to the paved road. I enjoy going off pre-described paths, and the mountain bike was a must while going down bumpy, gravel back roads. 

Getting to 10-Mile Gallery Road

The main road is easy enough to get to: Find Kangzhan Road and follow it away from Yangshuo town. You’ll readily enough find signs advertising the Yangshuo Scenic Route, as well as different destinations to stop at. 

The road goes straight down Kangzhan until the Moon Hill destination, where there’s a tollbooth a short ways down (alternatively, you can avoid this toll booth section by cutting off onto an unpaved side street, going under a little bridge, and coming to a nearby town). From Moon Hill, you can turn around and head back to the Gongnong Bridge, where you can make a left, which will loop you back to Yangshuo town.

Alternatively, if you’d rather take the less-traveled route first, you can enter from the opposite direction, heading down Yuxi Road and going through Jima Town. You’ll eventually reach the intersection next to the Gongnong Bridge on Kangzhan Road. 

Although the main drag is the most populated and has the most options to see, I highly recommend completing the whole route rather than just going up and down Kangzhan Road. 

The other portion of the route is less popular, and gets you right alongside the Yulong River. You also pass through some nice small towns where you can stop and get lunch if you so desire. The roads are well labeled, but there’s less of a clear direction as you start to head towards Jima town. 

I recommend weaving down the river path for a while, and then backtracking to Jima town and taking the left turn that’s labeled telling you to head back to Yangshuo. If you do get lost on a back street (I always do, after all), just check your map on your phone and see which direction you need to go to start heading back towards Yangshuo. 

Tips on Cycling Yangshuo

The main experience in Yangshuo is the actual cycling. However, there are plenty of other things to do while biking along the way. As I was nearing the end of my trip, I chose to just enjoy the bike ride and didn’t stop at any of the spots along Kangzhan Road. However, depending on what you’d like to do, cruise past the main options and see what catches your attention. Check out Travel China Guide's succinct list of places to see on the 10-Mile Gallery Road. 

Go off the Main Road

Of course, this is up to you, but especially along the last leg of Kangzhan Road there are multiple unpaved dirt or gravel paths leading off that you can take. Most of them loop back to the main road, so it’s unlikely that you’ll get lost – a few lead to some small towns that are worth it to check out. 

While I was on these paths, many of the houses I passed had dogs that were unleashed. As long as you don’t go up the driveway (I accidentally did this once), they shouldn’t even bark at you and seem unfazed by both cyclists and walkers. 

Stop at Local Stands

There are a ton of strawberry farms along the way, and multiple little stands selling strawberries. The standard price for me was 20 yuan for 1 jin, and they’re absolutely delicious.

Additionally, there are a few spots along the way where you can buy real honey. I bought a bottle of orange honey for 60 yuan (the middle size option; the smallest went for 30 yuan), and also was able to sample multiple different types of honey based off of which flowers were used. 

Find a Town to Eat Lunch

There are multiple towns near the main biking route, and it’s worth it to cycle off and find one or two, especially if you’re looking for lunch – the options will also be cheaper than what’s offered on the main road.

A nice option with beautiful views is Qiqiushu Village. There are multiple outdoor eating spots situated right along the road where you can sit and continue to take in the karst mountain landscape.