Use Guilin as a gateway and sleep among the peaks instead

Guilin city is pleasant and one night is plenty. The landscape you came for starts downstream, and the countryside around Yangshuo is where you want to wake up.

A workable shape for four days: arrive in Guilin, boat or raft down the Li the next morning, then two or three nights in a guesthouse along the Yulong River or in Xingping. Book the countryside beds early in spring and autumn; there are not many of them.