Minibuses to Yangshuo leave the train station forecourt through the day whenever full (¥5); if you can't find them here, flag them down farther south on the Yangshuo road. Buses from the long-distance station to elsewhere in the province and beyond are easy to book a day in advance: options include heading north to Sanjiang and Guizhou Province; to Guangzhou (either direct or via Wuzhou and the Xi River ferry); or to the holy peaks at Heng Shan in Hunan. Flying is similarly straightforward, with Guilin linked to cities right across the mainland, as well as to Hong Kong, Korea and Japan; agents both here and in Yangshuo can book you a taxi to the airport.

Because few trains actually originate in Guilin, the city has always been a notoriously difficult place to leave by rail, requiring advance planning for anything better than standing room or hard seat - inadvisable for the lengthy trips to Changsha, Guangzhou, Shanghai or Kunming. The ticket office opens daily 8am-5pm, with destinations and fares for all classes listed (in Chinese) above the windows. If you can't get what you want here, agents in both Guilin and Yangshuo can sort things out, though they need three days' notice and charge varying mark-ups.