Xingyi sits in the far southwest of Guizhou, where the province meets Yunnan and Guangxi — a borderland geography that has given it a distinct character and an exceptional natural setting. The city itself is a functional place without much to detain you, but its surroundings include two of the most dramatic landscapes in southwestern China, and most travellers who make it here feel the detour was worth the distance.
Wanfenglin, the Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks, is the centrepiece of the region. The name is not hyperbole: the area consists of thousands of conical karst towers rising from a plain covered in rice paddies and rapeseed fields, so many packed together that the horizon in every direction is a row of green cones. In February and March, when the rapeseed blooms yellow, the contrast against the grey-green limestone is striking. The peaks are best appreciated from viewpoints at dawn or dusk, when the mist sits in the valleys between them, but they reward time at any hour. The village of Wanfenghu sits within this landscape at the reservoir below the peaks.
Maling River Canyon is the other major draw: a deep gorge cut through the plateau east of the city, where the river drops through a series of rapids and waterfalls over 50 kilometres. The rafting here runs through over 80 significant rapids, and the canyon walls — sheer limestone rising 50 to 100 metres above the water — give the experience a scale that takes a while to register. In winter, when the river is lower, the canyon walks along the rim are the better option.
The Buyi and Miao populations in the Xingyi area have been less exposed to tourism than their counterparts around Kaili, and the villages in the Wanfenglin area retain a working character that the more-visited villages further east have largely lost. Xingyi has a regional airport and a new high-speed rail station opened in 2025; until recently it was genuinely hard to reach, which explains its relatively low profile.