3 Days in Langfang

The HSR from Beijing South takes about 21 minutes to Langfang, a city about 60 km from both Beijing and Tianjin. The city museum covers local history — the 1900 battle at Langfang included — free (closed Mondays), the forest park stretches the legs, and the Yulong river park runs its light show after dark.

1. langfang museum
2. langfang nature park
3. langfang yulong river park

An hour south (about 60 km), this canal town claims some 2,400 years; look for its "three treasures" — the opera stage, the memorial archway and the Wenchang pavilion — plus courtyard mansions, lanterns that fill the lanes on the 15th day of the first lunar month and, in autumn, the once-famous Shengfang crabs.

1. langfang shengfang ancient town

East loop, about an hour each way — a recreated Ming-Qing Beijing walls-and-courtyards resort of roughly 130 hectares in Xianghe (walls, canals, opera stages), then the curved-brick Dachang Ethnic Palace, built in the mid-2010s for the Hui county's cultural centre. Evening HSR back to Beijing or Tianjin.

1. langfang xianghe first city
2. langfang dachang ethnic palace