Foreigners’ Street
West Street
Yangshuo’s oldest street, from the Li River landing to the Shizijie crossing: flagstones, Guibei-style facades and the cafés of the former Foreigners’ Street.
Yangshuo, China
Walk Yangshuo with 31 audio stops narrated by experts. From the Li River cruise among limestone peaks to the backpackers’ street, the arch of Moon Hill and the stone bridges of the Yulong River, every place explains how a county town became the most famous landscape in China.
Photo: Luka Peternel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Foreigners’ Street
Yangshuo’s oldest street, from the Li River landing to the Shizijie crossing: flagstones, Guibei-style facades and the cafés of the former Foreigners’ Street.
Green Lotus Peak
Limestone peak beside the Li River in Yangshuo: the great 带 character of 1834, more than 20 rock inscriptions, the Jianshan Lou and the Yingjiang Pavilion over the cliff.
Park among karst hills
Historic park in Yangshuo beside West Street: the Xilang rock and its Tang poem, Xu Xiake’s caves, the calligraphed gates and the Woyun Pavilion on the summit.
World Heritage
Raft trip along the Yangdi–Xingping stretch of the Li River: World Heritage karst peaks, the Nine Horses cliff and the landscape of the 20-yuan note.
Karst arch
Karst tower on the outskirts of Yangshuo pierced by an arch of about 50 metres that changes phase like the Moon: an 800-step stairway, a stalactite roof and the cradle of Chinese climbing.
Historic Li River town
Riverside town on the Li River in Yangshuo: a kilometre-long flagstone street, the opera stage of the Guandi Temple, the great banyan and the old Rongtan landing.
Bamboo raft descent
Bamboo-raft descent of Yangshuo’s Yulong River: irrigation weirs, the Ming bridge of 1412, the Xiangui Bridge of 1123 and the confluence with the Li.
Yangshuo Audio Guide
Between the Yangdi quay and the bend at Xingping, the Li River threads through clusters of World Heritage limestone peaks, passes beneath the wall where nine horses are sought and ends in the reflection that China printed on its 20-yuan note. On the banks of the Li, the ancient town of Xingping was for more than three centuries the capital of Xiping County and keeps its flagstone street, guild halls and an opera stage of 1739. In Yangshuo, West Street climbs from the landing: in 1935 three metres were cut off every house to widen it, from the 1970s it was the backpackers’ Foreigners’ Street and its old-town look was remade between 1999 and 2004. Beside the quay, Bilian Peak holds more than 20 rock inscriptions and a character almost six metres tall written in 1834, and a few steps away Yangshuo Park, opened in 1915, hides the caves that Xu Xiake explored by torchlight in 1637. On the outskirts, Moon Hill shows an arch of about 50 metres that changes phase like the Moon and gave rise to sport climbing in China, and the Yulong River is descended on a bamboo raft, hopping weirs beneath stone bridges, one of them from 1123, the oldest in Guangxi.
With the EarGuide Yangshuo audio guide, every place reveals its history through professional narration prepared by guides who know the Li River and the Guangxi karst inside out. Unlike a free walking tour or a conventional guided visit, you set the pace, the order and the stops. No groups, no timetables, no internet connection.
No internet needed
Download the routes before you head out and explore without using data.
Smart geolocation
The narration starts by itself when you reach the point of interest.
Frequently asked questions
The EarGuide app is free. The Yangshuo audio guide includes 7 independent routes with about nine hours of professional narration spread across 7 places and 31 audio stops, and it is found inside the app itself.
No. EarGuide works entirely offline. Download the routes over WiFi before you set out and you can use the audio guide with no connection and no data use throughout your tour of Yangshuo, including on board on the Li River. The map shows your GPS position in real time even without coverage.
The Yangshuo audio guide is available in Spanish and English, with professional narration prepared by guides and experts in the history of Yangshuo and the karst landscape of the Li River.
The audio guide brings together 7 independent routes with about nine hours of narration in total, from 40 minutes to two hours per route. They are designed to be spread over two or three days: you can do them separately or string together the ones that lie close, such as West Street, Bilian Peak and Yangshuo Park, in the centre of town, in a single outing.
They are different experiences. The EarGuide audio guide lets you explore Yangshuo without timetables or groups, pause and resume whenever you like, and replay any explanation as often as you need. It suits independent travellers, families and anyone who prefers to understand a place at their own pace, with no prior knowledge of China.
The Yangshuo audio guide covers 7 places: the Li River, Xingping Ancient Town, West Street, Bilian Peak, Yangshuo Park, Moon Hill and the Yulong River, with stops that range from the landscape of the 20-yuan note and the cormorant fishermen to the arch of Moon Hill and the stone bridges of the Yulong, one from the Ming era and another from 1123.
Only in part. West Street, Bilian Peak and Yangshuo Park lie less than 1 km from one another, in the centre of town. Moon Hill is about 6 km to the south and the Yulong River about 7 km to the west, reachable by bicycle, scooter or taxi. The Li River cruise leaves from Yangdi, about 20 km to the north, and Xingping Ancient Town is about 16 km away, so for those it is best to go by bus, taxi or boat.
Yes. Purchases belong to your EarGuide account, not to one app or one phone. A city unlocked in the EarGuide app is also unlocked in that city’s own app, and the other way round, on both iPhone and Android. Just sign in with the same account on the other device. The store’s “restore purchases” button only covers the app the purchase was made in, so signing in is what carries it across.
The Yangshuo audio guide is inside the EarGuide app, free and ready to use offline. Carry it in your pocket and explore the Li River and its villages at your own pace.
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