Hi, i'm french, living in China for about one year now and i have been to Guilin in May
You should take the boat or some bus to go to Yangshuo, this is a smaller place, and much more interesting for pictures. The classic tour consist of a tourist boat trip from Guilin to Yangshuo, but if you don't have much time you can take some bus (about 1h instead of the whole day, and much cheaper) and go directly to Yangshuo.
Yangshuo is small but there is some "west street" (Xi Jie / [span style=\'font-size:14pt;line-height:100%\']西街[/span]) which is full of bars, hotels and souvenir shops. This is a place were you won't feel lost even if you're travelling alone, it's full of english speaking people and i saw many people with large camera bags, so you should be able to find someone able to give you all the advices you may need. The west-style food is much better than the one i'm used too in other chinese cities (try the french restaurant too "LE VOTRE" and the "RED STAR EXPRESS" bar/restaurant).
If the weather allows you can try to rent a bike, there is also a hot-air balloon option (not tested that i saw it too late). You can try some small bamboo boat trip (1 to 4 people with one guy pushing the boat with some perch), this is quite slower than the bigger boat and gives you more opportunities to take pics and/or go were you want. The view from YueLiangShan (moonhill), is quite interesting as well. You can try the small villages around Yangshuo as well, they are quite interesting for pictures but the Lonely Planet gives some security warning.
I guess it won't be too crowded in the end of may, but can be a bit hot and humid (take an hotel with air conditionning, fans aren't enough there).
Other places of interest near guilin are the Dragon Spin (LongJi Titian) which is a one day trip to see some terrace culture (sorry i don't know how to say in english). Can be worth trying to go in the end of afternoon and come back the next day to have the sunset/sunrise. there is some minorities village living on tourists, but i'm not 100% sure you can find any hotel there. (although lots or restaurants and such things). Note that all people wearing minorities clothes in touristic area are expecting you to give them money to take picture of them.
Although I hadn't planned on it, it now looks as if I will be going to China--Shanghai for the most part. But I will have 3-4 days to go to Guilin in Guangxi Province to photograph the fishermen, mountains, river etc. at Guilin.
I have seen some spectacular photographs made along the river there.
I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed there. Does anyone know of a guide familiar with photography who can take someone to the right places at the right times? Is it crowded in late May? Hot? Best times of day to photograph. Any hotels you'd care to recommend? Restaurants? As you can see, I am just getting into this and need to learn as much as possible quickly.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
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