Yangzhou

"Go down to Yangzhou in the misty blossom month of March": Slender West Lake, Ge Garden and Dongguan Street, Huaiyang cuisine with morning tea, and bathhouse culture in a slow-paced canal city.

Yangzhou lies in central Jiangsu on the north bank of the Yangtze River, where it meets the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal, facing Zhenjiang across the river and about 100 km from Nanjing and 280 km from Shanghai. A canal city with a 2,500-year history, it was the wealthiest trading port in China in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and in the Qing dynasty the salt merchants gathered here brought its garden and food culture to a peak. In 2019 UNESCO named it a "City of Gastronomy." The core sights are concentrated in the old city and just north of it: the Slender West Lake–Daming Temple–Pingshan Hall line (the Shugang Slender West Lake scenic area); Ge Garden and Dongguan Street in the northeast of the old city; He Garden and Pishi Street in the southeast; and the Ancient Canal and the China Grand Canal Museum outside the South Gate (the Sanwan scenic area). Most are within 3 km of each other and can be linked by bike or on foot. The climate is subtropical monsoon with four distinct seasons: "go down to Yangzhou in the misty blossom month of March," and from late March to mid-April the Yangzhou "jade-flower" (qionghua), peach blossoms, willow catkins and Slender West Lake are at their most beautiful of the year, and also at their most crowded; May and September–November are comfortable, with osmanthus at He Garden and the red-leaf "autumn mountain" at Ge Garden; June–July brings the plum rains and July–August are hot and humid; winters are damp and cold, but snow on Slender West Lake and the morning-tea experience remain appealing. Getting there: from Yangzhou East Station (on the Lianyungang–Huai'an–Yangzhou–Zhenjiang high-speed line) it takes about 1 hour to Nanjing South and about 2 hours to Shanghai Hongqiao; Yangzhou Taizhou Airport is about 30 km from downtown; city buses and shared bikes are convenient and taxi flag-fall is low; driving from Nanjing or Zhenjiang via the Runyang Bridge takes about 1.5 hours. Allow 2–3 days: Slender West Lake + Daming Temple for one day; Ge Garden + Dongguan Street + He Garden + Pishi Street for one day; and morning tea + the Canal Museum + an Ancient Canal night cruise for half a day to a full day. Tips: for Yangzhou morning tea (Yechun, Fuchun, Quyuan, Gongheechun), get up early and arrive before 8 a.m. or expect a queue, and be sure to order sanding buns, crab-roe soup dumplings and dagan shredded tofu; Slender West Lake tickets cost CNY 100 in peak season (March–May, September–November) and CNY 60 in low season, and the garden combination ticket is better value; of the "Three Blades of Yangzhou," foot-pedicure and bathing are local experiences you can try at a reputable bathhouse; Huaiyang cuisine is delicate and slightly sweet, represented by lion's head meatballs, boiled shredded tofu and Wensi tofu; Dongguan Street is crowded on holidays, so go early in the morning or at night.

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