Plan your visit
Getting to the Longji Rice Terraces from Guilin
Three ways up, one road, and a rule about vehicle size that catches people out at the gate. Here is what each option costs you in money and in hours.
Seventy-seven kilometres, and two and a half hours
The scenic area’s own map board at the entrance gives the distance from Guilin as 77 kilometres. Bus timetables measure the route at 107, because the road they take is not the shortest line.
Either way you should plan on two to two and a half hours each way. The road climbs and turns constantly for the last hour, so the time is about the bends rather than the distance. That is why every day tour leaves between eight and half past.
Past the entrance you are not there yet. It is another 17 kilometres up to Ping’an or 23 to Jinkeng Dazhai, and those kilometres are the ones that decide how your day goes.
By public bus from Qintan Bus Station
Buses leave Guilin from Qintan Bus Station at 31 Cuizhu Road in Xiangshan District. The first goes at about 06:25 and the last at around 18:10, roughly every twenty to forty minutes through the middle of the day.
Fares are quoted at between CNY 50 and CNY 60 depending on the service. Some buses run to the Longji junction and leave you to transfer; others go closer. Ask at the window which yours does before you buy.
You will still need the CNY 80 gate ticket, and then transport up to whichever village you have chosen. Budget the whole day, and check the last departure back before you climb anything.
By private car and driver
A car and driver is the flexible option and it is cheaper than most people assume. Two of the fares here are priced per vehicle rather than per head, so a group of four splits one figure between them.
What you get is the route of your choosing, your own start time and somebody who waits while you walk. What you do not get, on the transport-only fares, is a guide or the gate ticket — both are stated plainly on the card for each one.
If you want the car and the guide together, the private tours that include both are set out on the private tour page.
Just the car and the driver
Eight hours, hotel pickup in Guilin or Yangshuo, and six hours at the terraces. You buy the CNY 80 ticket at the gate and choose your own lunch.
On a guided day tour
A guided day is the one that removes decisions. Pickup is from your hotel, the driver handles the road, and on most of them the gate ticket is already in the fare, so you walk past the queue rather than into it.
Join-in coaches are the cheapest way to do it with a guide, and they run to a fixed timetable that gets you back to Guilin in the evening. Private days cost more and go where you ask.
The one thing to check before you book is which valley it visits, because that is rarely in the title — the village table sets it out tour by tour.
From Yangshuo instead of Guilin
Five of the options here will collect you from a Yangshuo hotel. It is a longer drive — you are starting further south — so those days begin earlier and finish later than the Guilin ones.
One tour will pick you up in Guilin and drop you in Yangshuo at the end for an extra fee, which is worth knowing if you are moving on rather than doubling back. A reviewer here says it saved them a whole day of planning.
If you are still choosing a base, Guilin makes the terraces easier and Yangshuo makes the Li River easier. Doing both properly takes two days from either.
The vehicle rule that catches people out
The same restriction is why two operators state plainly that you should stay in Guilin the night before a tour rather than trying to arrive in Longji with luggage. Vans and suitcases do not mix with stone stairways.
Smaller private cars drive straight through to the village car parks, which is one of the quieter advantages of booking a car rather than a coach seat.
Which gate you arrive at
There is one main entrance and one ticket office, and the split comes after it: left for Ping’an, right and further for Jinkeng Dazhai. Your ticket covers both, so the choice is about time rather than money.
Coaches drop at the village car parks, from which everything is on foot or on the buggy. The ropeway station at Dazhai is at the car park, so you can be at Golden Buddha Peak within half an hour of stepping off the bus.
Getting back, and the last bus
On a tour this is handled: the coaches leave the terraces between four and half past five and put you back in Guilin between five and seven. On the three-day trips you sleep in the terraces and it does not arise.
Independently, work backwards from the last bus rather than forwards from the viewpoint. The scenic area is open all day, but the gates, shuttles and ropeway run roughly 07:30–17:30, and the service back to Guilin thins out through the afternoon.
The simplest insurance is a return that somebody else is responsible for. Every option on Longji Rice Terraces Tours includes the drive back, and every one of them refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead.
All four options, side by side
| How | Time each way | Rough cost | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public bus from Guilin | about 1 hr 30 to the junction, then a transfer | CNY 50–60 plus the CNY 80 ticket | Travellers with a spare day and no fixed schedule |
| Private car and driver | two to two and a half hours | From $78 per person, or $136 for the car | Anyone who wants their own route and their own timings |
| Join-in day tour | two to two and a half hours | From $65 per person, ticket usually included | First visits, and anyone who would rather not plan |
| Three-day private trip | Longji on day two | From $328 per person | Travellers pairing the terraces with the Li River |
Bus fares are quoted between CNY 40 plus a local transfer and CNY 60 direct, depending on the operator and whether the service runs to the gate or to the Longji junction. Tour fares are the starting prices published by each operator in August 2026.