5 Days in Ganzhou: Song City & Hakka South

Walk what remains of the 11th-century brick wall — about 3.6 km of it — and end at Bajing Terrace, where the Zhang and Gong rivers join into the Gan River; the terrace took its name from the eight views painted here in the Song era.

1. ganzhou song city wall
2. ganzhou bajing terrace

Morning on the roughly 400 m pontoon bridge of about 100 boats, crossing since around 1163; afternoon up Yugu Terrace, tied to Xin Qiji's 1176 ci, then the 230-metre lane of Ming-and-Qing storefronts.

1. ganzhou jianchunmen pontoon bridge
2. ganzhou yugu terrace
3. ganzhou zaoer lane

A half-day about 10 km northwest: grottoes begun in the Tang and enlarged in the Song hold hundreds of cliff carvings; return mid-afternoon for teahouse time in the old quarter.

1. ganzhou tongtian rock

An honest day out of the county town, about 140 km south: Longnan's enclosed Hakka compounds — Guanxi New Walled Village, begun in 1798, is the showpiece — sit an hour or so from Ganzhou West on the HSR line opened in December 2021.

1. ganzhou longnan hakka walls

Breakfast through the market streets, a last loop of Zao'er Lane for keepsakes, then Ganzhou West's HSR puts Shenzhen about two hours away and Nanchang under two.

1. ganzhou city markets