Guilin

Guilin needs 3 days: a cruise on the Li River among the karst peaks that inspired centuries of traditional Chinese painting, on one, the Longji rice terraces on another, and Elephant Trunk Hill by the river on the third. April-October is best, with the river at its most photogenic flow. It's inexpensive for China. Its landscape of needle-shaped limestone peaks, formed by the erosion of an ancient seabed over millions of years, appears on the 20-yuan banknote and has been considered for centuries the most painted landscape in Chinese artistic tradition.