Join us Friday 14th – Sunday 16th May 2027 for our main festival weekend, also known as Disco de Wheels.
Or come earlier for our six-day pre-ride from Bajiaozhai National Park, on the Hunan–Guangxi border, from 8th–14th May.
It’s hard to describe the Yangshuo Bike Festival. It’s less about the actual bike and more about the sensorial pleasures of travelling by bike.
Imagine riding through the limestone pinnacles and lush green rice paddies of Yangshuo, alongside some of China’s most beautiful rivers, through the extraordinary South China Karst landscape.
Add headphones and a soundtrack, and picture yourself in sync with all the other slightly weird people who think this is a good idea.
This is our rolling festival — Disco de Wheels — with tunes DJ’d through wireless headphones to enhance an already entrancing landscape.
Silent disco on a bike is the signature event of the Yangshuo Bike Festival weekend.
And then you stop for food.
Moon Hill taro and bok choy broth. Stuffed pumpkin flowers. Osmanthus flower cake. And definitely the famed Guilin rice noodles, with twenty different pickles to choose from.
This is where the sweet freshness of Guangdong begins to shift into the sour, pickled flavours of Guangxi — and then towards the chillies that get hotter as we approach the Hunan border.
We celebrate local markets, farmers and fantastic countryside food, making every meal part of the journey. It all culminates in our Saturday night feast, with local musicians playing against the backdrop of Yangshuo’s extraordinary mountains.
Why Yangshuo?
Yangshuo sits among one of the world’s most extraordinary landscapes — limestone karst peaks rising almost vertically from fertile river plains between the Li River (漓江, Lí Jiāng) and 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 landscapes celebrated for centuries in Chinese painting.
But there is another reason Yangshuo matters to us.
There was a time when bicycles were king here.
Backpackers arrived, hired bikes and disappeared into the countryside. Local farmers became guides, leading visitors along village lanes and farm tracks to Moon Hill, the Yulong River and Jade Dragon Bridge. Lunch might mean stopping at the market, tying the ingredients to the handlebars and riding home for the guide’s family to cook.
It was informal, sometimes chaotic, and wonderfully personal. The farmer-guide became part of the Yangshuo experience — not simply showing you the landscape, but inviting you into it.
Yangshuo is a very different place today. Tourism has brought great restaurants, comfortable hotels and new ways to explore the countryside. But some of that older, slower Yangshuo has become harder to find.
In many ways, the Yangshuo Bike Festival is our attempt to keep a little of it alive.
Local guides and people from Yangshuo’s cycling community have always been part of the festival. We want them riding, eating and enjoying it with us — not simply working in the background.
We celebrate the farming culture, local food and characters of the countryside, while adding a few ideas of our own.
The music may be new. The idea underneath it is much older:
Local people. Local food. Back roads. And bicycles.
Where is Yangshuo?
Getting to Yangshuo
Yangshuo is in Guangxi, southern China, and is now remarkably easy to reach by high-speed train.
From Hong Kong West Kowloon, the journey takes around 3½ hours. You can also reach Yangshuo by high-speed rail from Shenzhen, Guangzhou and cities across China, or fly into Guilin.
We’ll arrange your pickup on Friday from Yangshuo Station, Guilin train station or Guilin Airport, and get you back again on Sunday.
If you have the time, stay Sunday night. It gives you a chance to enjoy the festival wind-down, and Monday often offers more convenient train and flight options.
Festival Highlights
Two days of relaxed riding through Yangshuo’s extraordinary karst countryside, with plenty happening along the way.
- Disco de Wheels — our signature rolling silent disco, with wireless headphones and music curated for the ride and the changing landscape.
- Fantastic local food — farmhouse dishes, local specialities and, naturally, bowls of Guilin mifen.
- Saturday night feast — dinner beneath the karsts, with music and a few surprises.
- Back-road Yangshuo — quiet farm tracks, rivers, villages and places we’ve spent years finding.
- Local guides and characters — the people who have always been at the heart of cycling in Yangshuo.
- Six-day pre-ride — for those wanting a bigger journey, ride with us from Bajiaozhai on the Hunan–Guangxi border into Guilin and Yangshuo before the festival begins.
Cost
Festival Weekend — 14–16 May 2027
RMB 3,900 per person
Includes accommodation, bike hire, meals, festival activities, wireless headphone rental, festival T-shirt, guides, local transfers, and pickup and drop-off at Yangshuo Station, Guilin train station or Guilin Airport.
In other words, once we pick you up, we take care of pretty much everything.
Bajiaozhai to Yangshuo Pre-Ride — 8–14 May 2027
RMB 7,500 per person
Six days of riding from the Hunan–Guangxi border through to Guilin and Yangshuo, including accommodation, bike hire, meals, guides, transfers and support vehicle.
You can then roll straight into the Yangshuo Bike Festival weekend.
Who Is It For?
The festival weekend is deliberately relaxed. You don’t need to be a serious cyclist — you just need to be comfortable riding a bike and enjoy the idea of exploring the countryside on two wheels.
It tends to attract a wonderful mixture of cyclists, music lovers, food people, photographers, travellers and the simply curious.
Kids are welcome too, provided they’re comfortable on a bike and happy riding as part of the group.
The six-day pre-ride is a different proposition, designed for stronger riders looking for a longer journey before the festival.