Plan your visit

Visiting the Longji Rice Terraces

Hours, prices and access verified by the Longji Rice Terraces Tours team — last checked August 28, 2026

What the ticket costs, what it does and does not cover, when the gates run, and what the ground is like underfoot. The terraces are a working farm before they are a viewpoint, and planning around that is most of the job.

Checked in August 2026 against the scenic area’s published tariff and its own map board at the entrance. Prices move; confirm before you travel if your day depends on the figure.

What a ticket costs

The gate price is CNY 80. Booking sites that quote CNY 95 or CNY 100 are bundling the shuttle bus into the figure, not charging you more for the same entry.

One adult ticket is CNY 80 and it is a through-ticket: it covers Ping’an Village, Jinkeng Dazhai, Guzhuang (the Ancient Zhuang Village) and Huangluo Yao Village on the same piece of paper, and it stays valid for three days. That last detail is worth more than it sounds — it is what makes it practical to walk one valley in the afternoon, sleep in a village and walk the other before breakfast.

What the ticket does not cover

Entry only. Everything that moves inside the scenic area is charged separately, and the amounts are small but they add up if you are not expecting them.

• Scenic-area shuttle bus — CNY 40 per person. Compulsory rather than optional if your vehicle carries ten seats or more, because large coaches are not allowed up the village roads. A private car drives straight through.
• Electric buggy at Ping’an — CNY 30 one way, CNY 50 return. It replaces roughly half an hour of climbing between the village gate and the viewpoints.
• The Dazhai ropeway. Paid at the station, and bundled into the fare on one of the day tours here if you would rather not think about it.
• The long-hair performance at Huangluo — about CNY 80 per person. One day tour includes it; on the rest it is a decision you make on the day.

Bring cash. Village stalls, buggies and small restaurants run on mobile payment or notes, and foreign cards are rarely accepted anywhere past the gate.

Opening all day, gates until half past five

Two different figures circulate and both are right, because they measure different things. The scenic area itself is open all day — people live in these villages, guesthouses take bookings, and the terrace lines are lit after dark.

The ticket gates, the shuttle buses and the ropeway keep set hours, roughly 07:30–17:30, and for a day visitor arriving by road that is the real cutoff. Arriving at four in the afternoon means you can buy a ticket and see very little of the hill before the light goes.

Almost every day tour from Guilin leaves between 8am and 8:30am for exactly this reason, and gets back between five and seven in the evening.

How long the visit takes

Half a day on the hill covers one valley properly: the climb, both of its numbered platforms, a village lunch and time to stand still. Four to six hours is what the better tours allow, and it is the right amount.

Under two hours you are looking at the terraces rather than walking them, which is a legitimate way to do it if you are passing through — but it is worth knowing before you pick a tour, because the itineraries rarely say so plainly.

Seeing both Ping’an and Jinkeng Dazhai properly is a two-day job, or one very long private day. Your three-day ticket already allows for it.

Underfoot: stone steps, not trails

The paths between the paddies are dry-stone stairways and narrow field bunds, built for people carrying loads rather than for walkers. That makes them steady rather than rough: there is no scrambling anywhere, and no section that needs boots.

Trainers or light walking shoes with a proper sole are enough. After rain the stone is slick and the descent is the part that catches people out, so take it slowly and use the rails where they exist.

From the Ping’an road it is a 20 to 30 minute climb to the first platform. The electric buggy removes most of that, and at Dazhai the ropeway removes almost all of it.

Accessibility, honestly

Almost every one of these tours is marked not wheelchair accessible, and the terrain is the reason: stairways with no ramp alternative on the upper paths. One three-day private tour is wheelchair-accessible and one day tour is marked stroller accessible.

If steps are the difficulty rather than distance, the Dazhai ropeway is the answer. It lifts you to Golden Buddha Peak, where the viewing area is level and the landscape is the widest in the scenic area. Pair it with the buggy at Ping’an and a visit is possible with very little climbing.

Infant seats are available on one private tour, and several others will fit them on request when you book.

Do you need a visa?

Quite possibly not, and this is the single change that has made Guangxi easier to reach. China’s unilateral visa-free scheme admits passport holders from 45 countries for stays of up to 30 days, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Korea and Japan among them, and it now runs to 31 December 2026.

The United Kingdom and Canada were added from 17 February 2026. Check your own passport against the current list before you book flights, because the scheme is extended year by year rather than made permanent.

Booking ahead, and when it matters

A few days is enough for most of the year. Through the harvest weeks in late September and October, give it a week or more — one operator reports its private days running about seven weeks ahead on average.

Three national holiday weeks fill the platforms: Chinese New Year, the first week of May and the first week of October. One shared trip blacks them out entirely rather than run a compromised day.

Every tour here refunds in full up to 24 hours before departure, so an early booking costs you nothing but keeps the good departures open.