This Old Place International Youth Hostel Xingping

Rooms and decor

Picture a narrow stone street in an old Ming-Qing Chinese town, lined with low tile-roofed brick buildings, red lanterns hanging outside the noodle shops, black-sesame sweet stalls, and little tea houses with long benches spilling onto the street — that is the scene out front of This Old Place International Youth Hostel Xingping, a guesthouse planted right in the middle of Xingping's old market street. The building is an old brick structure fixed up to host guests more comfortably, but it keeps the old timber beams, exposed brickwork, and floorboards that creak softly underfoot. Rooms range from bunk-bed dorms for backpackers to private doubles and twins for couples. Open some of the old wooden windows and you look out over old tiled roofs running toward karst peaks that shoot straight up into the sky. That kind of view is why people come back, and why reviewers give it 8.7 on Agoda and 8.9 on Booking.

Food and amenities

The heart of this place is not the rooms — it is the ground-floor café and the owner. The café is open all day from morning until late, pouring drip coffee from Yunnan beans, seasonal fruit smoothies, homemade bread, and easygoing Western food like pasta, omelets, and veggie burgers, all for just a few dozen yuan. It is a good spot for breakfast before you head out, or for a beer in the evening while you trade stories with other guests. The owner and team speak English and genuinely know the area — from the basics of how to take a bamboo raft to the 20 Yuan Note Viewpoint for the best light, to which villages to bike out to, all the way up to the standout here: a tour to photograph the cormorant fishermen on a bamboo raft at sunset, a centuries-old practice. The image of an older fisherman holding a torch midstream, cormorants perched on the raft, karst peaks sinking into a deep orange sky — that is the shot many reviewers call the photo of their whole Guilin-Yangshuo trip.

Location and getting there

Xingping itself is a 1,000-year-old market town on the Li River, the most scenic bend of the river and the very view printed on China's 20 yuan note. The guesthouse sits right on the old market street — step out the door and you are among fresh-fruit stalls, real Guilin noodle shops, and tiny lanes that photograph well at every turn. Another 5 minutes on foot brings you to the Li River pier, the launch point for everything in town: a bamboo raft to the 20 Yuan Note Viewpoint, a raft to the old village of Yucun, or a pre-dawn climb up Laozhai Hill for sunrise over the karst peaks, about a 20-minute walk from the guesthouse. For Yangshuo, buses and vans leave the market entrance every 20 minutes and take about an hour. Coming from Guilin, the bus from Guilin's coach station takes about 1 hour 40 minutes straight to the Xingping market entrance, no complicated transfers.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. Because the building is an old brick structure converted into a guesthouse, the walls are fairly thin — some nights, conversation from the next room or noise from the busy market street below (which runs until around 10 pm) can leak through. Light sleepers should ask for a room facing into the building or on the top floor, and packing earplugs is reassuring. Bathrooms in the private rooms are small, and the hot water is inconsistent when everyone showers at once; some reviewers complain of a cold patch mid-shower, so the move is to shower very early or very late for full heat. And because this is a budget guesthouse in an old building, there is no elevator and no bag service — heavy luggage goes up the stairs yourself, so brace for that if you pack heavy. Finally, during Chinese holidays and weekends Xingping market gets especially busy and rooms fill fast, so book at least 2 to 3 weeks ahead, particularly around October (Golden Week) and Chinese New Year.

Our take

This Old Place International Youth Hostel Xingping is best for backpackers, budget couples, and photographers who want the closest possible access to the cormorant fishermen and the karst peaks. If the picture in your head is waking up, heading down to the lobby for drip coffee with travelers from all over, then taking a bamboo raft to the 20 Yuan Note Viewpoint, coming back at midday to a room whose window frames old tiled roofs and peaks, and at dusk having the owner take you out to shoot the fishermen on the Li River — this place delivers, for a starting rate of just around $20 a night. But if you expect a hotel with an elevator, a roomy bathroom, steady hot water, and walls that block sound, this may not be the answer — look at a 3-4 star in Yangshuo town and drive to Xingping as a day trip instead. Overall we give it 8.7/10, because the location, the atmosphere, and the owner's charm remain a draw that is hard to find in other Xingping guesthouses.