The Li River or Li Jiang () is the name for the upper reaches of the Gui River in northeastern Guangxi, China. It is part of the Xijiang River system in the Pearl River basin, flowing from Xing'an County to Pingle County.
Background
The Li River originates in the Mao'er Mountains in Xing'an County and flows in the general southern direction through Guilin, Yangshuo and Pingle. In Pingle, the Li merges with the Lipu and Gongcheng, becoming the Gui, and in turn falls into the Xijiang, the western tributary of the Pearl River.
thumb|right|Tourist rafting boats cruise from [[Yangshuo County, on the Li River]]
The upper course of the Li River is connected by an ancient Lingqu canal with the Xiang River, which flows north into the Yangtze; this in the past made the Li and Gui Rivers part of a highly important waterway connecting the Yangtze valley with the Pearl delta.
The course of the Li and Gui Rivers is flanked by green hills. Cormorant fishing is often associated with the Lijiang.
Cruises on the Li are famous, attracting millions of visitors per year.
Geology
thumb|left|Upper reaches of the Li River
The Li and its tributaries drain the area from Guilin to Yangshuo, descending from at Guilin to at Yangshuo. Mean flow past Guilin is 215 cubic meters per second, and alluvium sediments consisting of well-sorted gravels covered by silty sand, forming floodplains and terraces along its route. Yet, it is the of Devonian and Carboniferous limestones and karst terrain within the Guilin basin, that gives the area a dramatic landscape. Two distinctive types of karst are found, Fengcong, and Fenglin, which have evolved for the past 10–20 million years, within the Cenozoic.