7 Days in Ganzhou: Song Heritage & Hakka Country

Settle in and walk the 11th-century brick wall, about 3.6 km standing, finishing at Bajing Terrace where the Zhang and Gong rivers become the Gan River.

1. ganzhou song city wall
2. ganzhou bajing terrace

The roughly 400 m plank bridge on about 100 boats has carried foot traffic since around 1163; later climb Yugu Terrace, fixed by Xin Qiji's 1176 ci, and drift the 230-metre Ming-and-Qing lane.

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

Half a day, 10 km northwest: Tang-to-Song grottoes with hundreds of carvings and inscriptions, walkways linking the cliff faces; easy return for an evening by the wall.

1. ganzhou tongtian rock

A pace day — market-street breakfast, teahouses, a second look at whichever stretch of wall you liked; Ganzhou rewards lingering more than ticking.

1. ganzhou city markets

About 140 km south, Longnan's enclosed compounds — Guanxi New Walled Village, begun in 1798, is the best known — are an hour from Ganzhou West on the HSR line opened in December 2021; labeled honestly as a day outside the county town.

1. ganzhou longnan hakka walls

Northeast to Ruijin, roughly 150 km, where the Chinese Soviet Republic was proclaimed on 7 November 1931; the Yeping and Shazhouba complexes preserve the meeting halls and the famous Red Well, reached in about two hours by the rail line opened in 2015.

1. ganzhou ruijin soviet sites

A last slow walk on the ramparts — dusk or dawn is when the wall is best — then gather luggage; Ganzhou West's HSR links Shenzhen in about two hours and Nanchang under two.

1. ganzhou song city wall