7 Days in Huzhou

Small Lotus Villa from 1885 and the 1924 Jiaye Library anchor the canal quarter; the Hundred Rooms row lines the river north of town. Overnight in Nanxun.

1. huzhou nanxun old town
2. huzhou xiaolianzhuang garden

South of Nanxun, Shanlian has made the hu writing brush for centuries — workshops show the hundred-plus hand steps; on the way back, walk the long Ming-Qing river row of the Hundred Rooms.

1. huzhou shanlian hubi town
2. huzhou baijianlou

The Deqing hill reads 724 meters at the top, with some 200 villas left from its resort years; streams, pools and the sword-sharpening legend fill a full day above the heat.

1. huzhou moganshan

Reed boardwalks and the crested-ibis station at the wetland lake, then the little canal town of Xinshi for a river-side lunch and quiet lanes.

1. huzhou xiazhu lake
2. huzhou xinshi old town

Bamboo covers roughly a million mu of Anji county; the great bamboo sea was a sword-fight film location and its canopy paths stay cool in the height of summer.

1. huzhou anji bamboo sea

The pumped-storage reservoir tops the ridge as the Jiangnan lake, near 1,000 meters up; further southwest, Longwangshan at 1,587.4 meters claims the headwater of the Huangpu.

1. huzhou jiangnantianchi
2. huzhou longwangshan

The pagoda-within-a-pagoda stacks a Tang stone core under a Song wooden shell; walk the old Yishang street quarter, close on the Taihu shore by the Moon Hotel, and ride out from Huzhou station.

1. huzhou feiying pagoda
2. huzhou taihu lakeshore