Originally Posted by
Maykita
Here is what we did: arrived late one night into Guilin, stayed at the Sheraton. Arranged for a driver to meet us at 5:30 am to take us to Yangdi, a place on the Li River where we could take a bamboo boat along the prettiest stretch at sunrise. The driver picked us up downriver at Xingping, where we had breakfast and continued to Yangshuo. We had that full day to bike and hike around Yangshuo and enjoy the amazing scenery. We stayed that night near Yangshuo. We arranged at the lodge for a driver to take us the next day to the rice terraces (at Ping An), where we had some hours to hike. The driver waited for us, then took us to the airport for a late flight out. So the timing is not impossible if you do one of the nights in Yangshuo, though obviously there are tradeoffs. We only had a little time, but greatly enjoyed the trip.
It's certainly workable if he's taking a late flight out, but definitely not ideal. With the time he has, I'd still recommend he just focus on Yangshuo and dispense with the terraces. Actually, what he should do is take a day off of Beijing (unless he must be there for 6 days for business reasons) and put it on this part of the trip, which then makes including a visit to the terraces--even as a daytrip--a better prospect.