Chishui is in a corner of Guizhou that has no high-speed rail — getting here takes longer than most comparable distances in China. From Zunyi (200 kilometres south), buses run in about four hours. From Guiyang, the journey is four to five hours by expressway. From Luzhou in Sichuan to the north, it is about two hours.
The difficulty of getting here is precisely why the area has remained less visited than more accessible parts of Guizhou. There are direct buses from Guiyang's main bus station, and several operators run overnight coaches that arrive in the early morning. The last stretch of road from the expressway into the city runs through the bamboo forest and the Danxia landscape — the journey itself begins to pay off before you arrive.