Welcome to the 10th Yangshuo Bike Festival
14–16 May 2027
Optional 6-day pre-festival ride: Bajiaozhai (Hunan) to Guilin, 8–14 May
Join us as we cycle through emerald rice paddies, beneath shady pomelo orchards, beside jade-green rivers alive with fishermen, and along quiet country lanes lined with farms producing the ingredients for the remarkable food Guangxi is famous for.
Our rides finish each day with long lunches, local discoveries and good company. The festival itself culminates in a relaxed countryside feast, music, conversation and a celebration of one of China’s most beautiful cycling destinations.
Why Yangshuo?
Yangshuo sits among one of the world’s most extraordinary landscapes—a maze of limestone karst peaks rising almost vertically from fertile river plains. The town lies between two of China’s most celebrated waterways: the Li River (漓江, Lí Jiāng) and the Yulong River (遇龙河, Yùlóng Hé).
Together, the mountains and water embody the Chinese idea of Shan Shui (山水)—literally “mountains and water”—the timeless landscapes celebrated in classical Chinese ink paintings, where mist, rivers and mountains merge into something almost dreamlike.
For many years, neighbouring Guilin attracted the tour groups, while Yangshuo remained a sleepy farming town discovered mainly by backpackers travelling Asia’s old “banana pancake trail.” West Street became famous for its cafés, pancakes and pizzas, while just beyond the town farmers still worked tiny rice paddies squeezed between limestone outcrops.
It was during this era that cycling became part of Yangshuo’s identity.
Local farmers began guiding visitors along narrow village lanes to Moon Hill, the Yulong River and the ancient Jade Dragon Bridge. Lunch might be cooked in the guide’s own home, after stopping at the market to buy a duck, a fish or fresh vegetables, all tied to the handlebars before setting off again. There were no cycling companies—just independent farmers proudly sharing the countryside they knew so well.
Those simple rides created the reputation that still draws cyclists from around the world.
Today Yangshuo is far busier than it once was. Tourism has transformed the town, bringing wonderful restaurants, comfortable accommodation and excellent cycling infrastructure. Yet the old Yangshuo still survives if you know where to look.
That’s exactly what we’ve spent years doing.
Our routes avoid the crowds wherever possible, following forgotten farm tracks, quiet riverside roads, ancient villages and hidden valleys where water buffalo still graze and life moves at its own gentle pace. You’ll experience the Yangshuo that first made people fall in love with this remarkable corner of China.
Getting to Yangshuo
Getting here has never been easier.
High-speed rail now connects Yangshuo with much of China, making the journey fast, comfortable and surprisingly inexpensive.
- Hong Kong West Kowloon: around 4 hours
- Guangzhou South: around 3 hours
- Direct services also operate from Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and hundreds of other cities across China.
The easiest way to book tickets is through Trip.com.
We also offer complimentary transfers throughout Friday from:
- Guilin Liangjiang International Airport
- Guilin Railway Station
- Yangshuo Railway Station (near Xingping)
- Gongcheng Railway Station
Silent Disco on a bike
A Rolling DJ turns the ride into a sublime, almost spiritual experience — a moving celebration through Yangshuo’s spectacular limestone karst landscapes. Riders pedal, sway, sing along, and share a soundtrack that transforms the road into a rolling dance floor. As part of the 10th Yangshuo Bike Festival, our pedal-powered silent disco adds a little magic (and a whole lot of laughter) to the journey.
This year’s festival expands upon the Bikeable Feast concept adding more delicious local food experiences, and also catering to non-riders with activities such as cooking demonstrations, tea appreciation, and workshops in the fields with the farmers. We are keeping the silent disco bike ride at an easy-riding level so that everyone can join in the fun on the Saturday, whilst offering harder rides and non-biking options as alternatives on the Sunday.
Festival highlights:
- DJ’s mobile-DJing a silent ‘disco de wheels’ disco bike-ride transmitted through wireless headphones, shifting the group-mood to the rise, fall and feel of the landscape.
- Traditional Chinese musicians and live western music at the Saturday night seasonal feast and party.
- Food with a view: fabulous local food including bottomless bowls of the most delicious Guilin mifen noodles in the world – as well as the aforementioned twilit rooftop feast with karst mountain backdrop.
- Relaxed rides for the main disco de wheels bike ride events plus non bike options such as qigong / tai chi workshops, cooking classes and a ‘Wisdom of the Farmers Walk’ through the fields.
- Optional tough rides
- A Rivertowns pre-ride from Hunan through the rainbow mountains – mostly pink – and for the geologists amongst you – Danxia landforms.
- Turn your weekend festival into a fully fledged 10 day bike trip purposefully designed to make it worthwhile for those travelling from afar, and to get the serious satisfied before the frivolities of Festival weekend
Cost
Festival weekend (24-26 May): RMB TBA
includes everything from your pick up and drop off at at Guilin Airport or Yangshuo train station to your accommodation, bikes, festival activities, meals, transfers , guides and good times.
Festival Pre Ride ( 21-24 May) RMB TBA or TBA in combination with the festival weekend. Thats a RMB ??? discount if you do both!
Book and pay your deposit before the end of TBA for an extra ten percent off !
Includes: pick up and drop off at at Guilin Airport or Yangshuo train station, accommodation, bikes, festival activities, delicious meals, transfers, guides, support vehicles on pre trip and good times.
Where does this completely original event take place?
Wobujidao Village, 5 km outside of Yangshuo Town is this years base and the start of the main festival disco de wheels ride. Guilin will be the starting point of the pre-ride.
We will pick you up from Guilin Airport or a nearby train station. Just let us know your arrival time.
Throughout the weekend, we cycle through the mountain corralled rice fields of the Yulong Valley, Crossing through to the Li River then down a secret back way through mixed orchards and stunning limestone karst country to a secret beach and to other destinations in the lesser known countryside around Yangshuo.
This years pre ride starts in Pingan – 2 hours North of Guilin, with pick ups from Guilin Airport and train station from 3 pm on the 22nd May.
More about food
Its all around you on the ride. We’ll be cycling through it — and then dining on fresh produce — delicious sour plum duck, roasted ribs, fresh garden vegetables, stir fried tofu skins — in the open countryside. Terry Li – the Chef – is an incredible cook, a master of the sweet pickled chilli sour flours that make up the regional cuisines.
The duck is out of this world.
A highlight is the seasonal feast on the rooftop of our venue amidst the karsts on the Saturday night. This year there will be more food based activities added as alternatives for those who want a break from the bike on the Sunday. Walk top our cooking school in the karsts, learning the traditions of the fields from farmers who still sow rice when the cuckoo bird calls, and farm to the rhythm of the 24 solar seasons. Sunday non riders can participate in introductory tai chi and qigong workshops, join a cooking class, join the chefs table with Terry Li, and participate in rice wine making workshops.
Foodies will learn how to use a bamboo steamer, and cook with medicinal ingredients such as Goji and Chinese red dates – and learn the countryside version of sweet and sour , stuffed pumpkin flowers and other distinctly Yangshuo dishes.
Accessibility
This festival is in general open to all ages and levels of fitness, and features elements that will excite and engage the interests of music lovers, foodies, photographers, weekend adventures, and people who love local, original, authentic travel. Kids are welcome if they’re well behaved and enjoy bikes.
Want more than just a weekend in this stunning part of the world?
Pre Festival Extension Ride
Join us on our pre festival bike ride from the 8-14 May
This ride starts in Bajiaozhai It will be a slightly shorter version of this : https://bikeaways.com/destinations/bajiaozhai-to-guilin/
please bear with us while we update our website with The shortened itinerary and costs, including an early bird special
Apologies if youv’e come here from Travel and Leisure after reading the brilliantly written Lillian Chou Piece called Cycling Yangshuo, Guilin and Longji … and were expecting Longji as the pre trip. This one is just as good – and if you want a Longji preterit to this pretrip, we can arrange that too!
Support
We have a number of guides accompanying the ride which means you can ride at your own pace and not fall behind or get lost.
To be in on the disco de wheels you have to be in range of our bike riding DJ who will be riding the average pace of the majority of the group — or hanging with those who get into it the most.
Getting there and away
Guilin is the closest airport. It is then a 90 minute transfer by taxi to Yangshuo. Gongcheng Train station is only one hour from Yangshuo with trains arriving from Shenzhen and Guangzhou in approximately 2 – 2.5 hours. The even newer Yangshuo station is the best option and only forty minutes away.
The trip finishes after lunch at 3pm on the Sunday, allowing time for transfers (1.5 hours) to Guilin airport / (40 mins) to Yangshuo train station — though the festival will continue with post-ride beers in the Pomelo Garden at Jiuxian for those who want to stay on.
Who are the Yangshuo Bike Festival?
The event is operated and designed by Bike Aways and Bike Asia, who have spent years in the region designing and operating biking and cultural tours across Asia. The festival was conceived with the desire to create a travel experience that didn’t quite fit the usual traditional tour mode, but by taking the best elements of traditional tours and combining these with a festival approach, the aim is to offer an event that truly celebrates the destination.
How to join
To book, or to find more information on the festival and the pre-ride visit: email bruce@bikeaways.com +85295784162 scott@bikeasia.com +86 135 9730 0073