Life advice: In 2025, you must visit the Longji Rice Terraces to see the waves of wheat blowing in the wind

With the start of autumn passed, counting the days on your fingers, in just over a month, the rice will slowly ripen. Every year from late September to late October, the Longji Rice Terraces welcome the most “breathtaking” autumn scenery of the year.

The autumn-exclusive beauty of the "Crown of the World's Terraces" has only a 3-week golden viewing period each year. If you don’t stay overnight, it feels like you’ve missed out. Choose a guesthouse with a full view of the terraces, brew tea and chat with friends on the terrace at night, watch fireworks, then look up and count the stars to get an early taste of the peaceful countryside life.

For those who don’t know how to explore the Longji Rice Terraces, you must check out this guide. We’ve prepared transportation, accommodation, and food tips for you.

🌀 Introduction to Longji Rice Terraces:
The Longji scenic area covers dozens of square kilometers and is divided into many villages. Just remember two — ✔Jinkeng Village ✔Ping’an Village. 90% of visitors choose one of these two.
Tickets: Adults 80 RMB, children 1.2-1.4 meters tall 40 RMB, children under 1.2 meters free.
Local transport: Round-trip shuttle bus at Ping’an Village is 50 RMB per person, round-trip cable car at Jinkeng is 100 RMB per person.

🌀 How to get to Longji Rice Terraces?
🔸 Self-driving: Suitable for friends from nearby provinces, but the mountain roads are winding and quite challenging.
🔸 Scenic area shuttle: Available from train stations, but you need to transfer to a local shuttle at the scenic area entrance.
🔸 Car rental with driver: Suitable for families with multiple children or groups of families traveling together.

🏡 Where to stay at Longji Rice Terraces?
🔸 Accommodation is recommended first at Jinkeng Village. Because Jinkeng terraces were developed later than Ping’an, the guesthouse facilities are more complete. Also, some guesthouses allow you to drive directly to the door, unlike Ping’an where all guesthouses require walking to reach, so keep this in mind.
🔸 Jinkeng Village includes many natural villages, such as Dazhai Village and Tiantou Village, and choosing a guesthouse requires good knowledge of the local terrain to find rooms with unobstructed views.
🔸 Recommended guesthouses: Yundu Panorama, Sky City, Yunya Qinqi, Moye Chenxi, Hezhou Guesthouse, Qingshan No.1, Yinmo.

🍙 Longji specialty foods
✔️ Bamboo tube rice
✔️ Free-range chicken (highly recommend the “three ways to eat one chicken,” very fresh and sweet)
✔️ Stir-fried mountain bamboo shoots with eggs or cured meat pairs well
✔️ Yao-style tofu
✔️ Longji cured meat platter
✔️ Longji glutinous rice wine (super tasty, but don’t overdrink!)
TIPS: Restaurants are inside guesthouses; you eat where you stay, and menus and prices are similar across places.

⭕ For those who don’t want to plan, here’s a suggested itinerary:
D➊: Arrive in Guilin — Elephant Trunk Hill — Sun and Moon Twin Towers — East and West Alley — stay in Guilin
D➋: Li River cruise — Silver Cave — Impression Sanjie Liu show — Yangshuo
D➌: Yulong River bamboo rafting — stroll through the Ten-Mile Gallery — Fuli Bridge — Longji Rice Terraces — cable car to Jinfo Peak viewing platform
D➍: Early morning Longji sunrise, then Elephant Trunk Hill, Jingjiang Princes’ City, overnight in Guilin.
D➎: Guilin Haiqinglan — return trip.