10 Days in Fuyang

The city museum shows the finds from the 1977 excavation of the Han tomb of the Marquis of Ruyin at Shuangguidui, including astronomical dials among the oldest known. Finish on the Kuixing tower at the old city corner, with a market dinner.

1. fuyang museum
2. fuyang kuixing tower

The lake northwest of the city is where Su Shi served as magistrate in 1091 and where Ouyang Xiu retired and died in 1072; pavilions and causeways trace the Song literary past. Evening lights along the Shaying river.

1. fuyang yingzhou west lake
2. fuyang shaying riverfront

The northern city's garden zone mixes botanical beds, a small zoo and lakeside lawns — an easy family-paced day before the county runs.

1. fuyang eco park

An hour or so south, Yingshang county holds the 5A-rated Balihe wetland park, laid out on land that flooded regularly before the 1990s, and a riverside old street honouring Guan Zhong, the Qi chancellor born here who died in 645 BC.

1. fuyang balihe scenic
2. fuyang guanzhong old street

Also in Yingshang county, the Digou scenic area strings boardwalks through reed beds and a bamboo grove, with a village temple on the side; a quieter counterpoint to Balihe.

1. fuyang digou scenic

Markets, laundry, a long gelatiao lunch and tickets sorted — the excursion block starts tomorrow.

1. fuyang city markets

An honest neighbour day, about half an hour apart by HSR on the Shangqiu-Hangzhou line. Bozhou, hometown of Cao Cao (155-220), keeps his underground troop-tunnel network under the old town, several kilometres of passage, plus the carved Huaxilou stage and the Hua Zu temple for the physician Hua Tuo (c. 140-208); back to Fuyang by evening.

1. bozhou

An honest neighbour day, under two hours by road. The Bagong hills are where the Battle of Fei River was fought in 383, and legend credits the local prince Liu An with tofu-making in the 2nd century BC — the town still serves a tofu table. The walls of nearby Shou County, chiefly of Song date, ring an old garrison town; back to Fuyang by evening.

1. huainan

A quiet loop of the river parks and tea houses, reviewing photos and packing slowly — the last day is an easy one.

1. fuyang shaying riverfront

The seven-storey brick Wenfeng Pagoda stands near the old city's waterways; a market breakfast of pillow-shaped zhenmo bread follows, then the HSR from Fuyang West, on the Shangqiu-Hangzhou line since late 2019.

1. fuyang wenfeng pagoda
2. fuyang city markets