Originally Posted by 1kBill
The Li River cuise is the thing to do in Guilin, as others have mentioned, however, you have to check on when you are going as the water level drops in the summer months and that might hamper or even cancel the cruises; city is also interesting to walk around, not as frantic as other Chinese cities, at least on weekends.
If the big cruising boats aren't able to navigate the river, there should still be speedboats (with drivers) you can hire to take you down the river. I actually prefer the speedboats. The big boats turn the cruise into a show. You eat a mediocre lunch on board while a tour guide blares through a megaphone about the names of the different hills and which poet/painter committed suicide on which peak and whatnot. The speedboats zip down the river much faster, giving you the same scenic views without the megaphone fatigue (if you want to know the "history" get yourself a good guidebook), and allowing you to spend time in Yangshuo, which despite its disneyfication is still a pretty fun town (or at least still was still fun last time I was there in 2002, when it had been completely remade since my 1998 visit, when it was even more fun).