Bicycle rental guides in Guilin and Yangshuo, recommended cycling trails in China.

Guilin

Many bike shops in Guilin offers mountain bike rental services; however there are not too much bike choices as most of the bikes are very common with poor parts and are seldom maintained. 

Travelers may find those shops on side roads around the revolution bridge, the back door/side door of the universities. 

Usually people may need to mortgage ID cards/Passport as a deposit for bike rentals (some less important documents like driving license is possibly to be rejected in some shops), if they do not want to do that, a certain amount of cash needs to be kept. The deposit amount depends on the bike level you have borrowed, e.g. you may need to pay RMB500-800 Yuan for a bike that worth around 1200. Most of the sales men in the shops do not speak English! 

Test the bikes before departure for your safety, choosing unfamiliar bikes is not recommended as you may not know how to control it well (about its gear changing, parking, etc.) Always keep the bikes with you and don’t rely on locks, the locks are nothing important when a thief wants to walk off with it! Lock the bikes on iron bars or something rooted inside the ground (trees, streetlights, etc.) when you leave them.  

You can book a bicycle rental in Guilin on our website. 

Here are some biking routes to discover the less commercialized and peaceful places worth to see in Guilin.

The highlight city scenery in Guilin is with water (rivers, lakes, etc.) wherever you find rivers, that might be a good choice to ride follow it, especially the areas where Li river passing through.

1. The river bank section of Yushan bridge (虞山桥) to Nanzhou bridge (南洲大桥) (down to the river bank will be awesome ), it's close to the Yushan Park in the north. 

2. The river bank section of Jingpingshan bridge (净瓶山大桥) to Lijiang bridge (漓江大桥) will bring you into the Chuanshan park (穿山公园) for free! (Road on this section is being rebuilding but the scenery is cool! Always follow the river bank, you will find peaceful villages and local cultures.)

3. Biking around the areas around the Reed flute Cave is a good choice to see the rural areas. (You can do this continuously after 1st option)

4. The lakes and rivers inside the city center would be fine. You can find them close to the Guilin Middle School (桂林中学) on the map. 

Keeping away from the crowd, talk to your soul in such an awesome place!  The red lines show the city highlight cycling routes. 

Yangshuo

Renting a bicycle in Yangshuo is simple as the town is now very commercialized. Tandem bicycles are everywhere around the town, the main streets in Yangshuo are always crowded. Local riders seldom goes to Yangshuo as it is over-commercialized, it is not the peaceful and pure place described in Travel Advisor anymore. 

The booming domestic tourism in China has demoralized many people; natives in Yangshuo built viewing decks and restaurants on the key points along the Li River. The increases of income also killed many pure routes, biking on the main road around Yangshuo now become an unpleasant journey. 

However, there are still some ways to explore the rural life of Yangshuo by biking to somewhere less crowded. Here is some routes worth for biking (45-70KM). 

1. Country road by bike from Yangshuo to Jiuxian (旧县, also called the old county of Yangshuo), then continue biking by country roads along the Yulong bridge will lead you to Baisha, then find turnings to the Yulong Bridge, riders will passing through a village called Guanqiao Cun (观桥村), the whole trip has nothing to do with the national road of G321, you might be on the wrong way if you find it. You can go back to Yangshuo from the national road if you do not want to cycle back from the same road. 

2. Bike from the X143 county road from the north to Guban village (古板村), then go on cycling to Xingping town. (Ferry boats are available when you arrive in Xingping, travelers can choose hotels on both sides of the river, but if you cycle back to Yangshuo from the eastern bank of Li River, you may need to cross the river first). You also have an optional biking to Putao, and then find the national road of G321 back to Yangshuo. 

3. Find Jima village (骥马村) in the southwest of Yangshuo and the Gongnong bridge on the national road(visit the Moon Hill or Big Banyan Tree is available during the biking trip), then continue biking through the eastern paths to Aishan village (矮山村),then back to Yangshuo.  

4. Same route as the 1st one but visit Langzi village (朗梓村), it is in the southeast of Yulong Bridge, then follow the National road or the road to Aishan village mentioned in 3rd route back to Yangshuo. 

More less travelled China cycling tours