10 Days in Lianyungang

Settle by the harbour quarter begun in 1933, where the 1935 railway met the sea and land-bridge containers have rolled west since 1992; seafood rows for the first night.

1. lianyungang lianyun old street

Toward Yufeng at 624.4 metres, Jiangsu's highest, the water-curtain cave of the 16th-century novel and the nine-storey pagoda of Haiqing temple, standing since 1023.

1. lianyungang huaguoshan

The 6.7-kilometre causeway to Jiangsu's largest island — wide Dashawan, cove-sheltered Sumawan, and an evening cycle back along the causeway.

1. lianyungang lian island

Ridge paths over Haishang Yuntai above the coast and container berths, then the old street's stone lanes a second time for the port museums.

1. lianyungang haishang yuntai
2. lianyungang lianyun old street

Eastern Han Buddhist rock images on Kongwang Hill, the Neolithic carvings of Jiangjunya on the neighbouring hill, drum tower and wells in the old city streets.

1. lianyungang kongwang hill
2. lianyungang haizhou ancient city

Morning cascades of the Longtan brook at Yuwan, then Banpu — where Li Ruzhen, the 19th-century author of Flowers in the Mirror, lived and a Qing-era vinegar house still trades.

1. lianyungang yuwan valley
2. lianyungang banpu ancient town

South to Guanyun county for the granite slopes of Dayi Mountain and its Neolithic stone-coffin burials, a protected site, with the county's famous local delicacies on the market lanes below.

1. lianyungang dayi mountain

North to Ganyu, venerated as the home village of the Qin-era envoy Xu Fu, then a boat to Qinshan Island with its roughly 2.6-kilometre gravel spit — sailing depends on tide and wind.

1. lianyungang xufu village
2. lianyungang qinshan island

Honestly labelled neighbouring-province day — about 1.5 hours north across the Shandong line to Rizhao's Wanpingkou beach park and the waterfront lanes of Dongyi town, with an early return or a seafood dinner north.

1. lianyungang rizhao wanpingkou

Honestly labelled neighbouring-city day — about an hour by HSR west to Xuzhou for the Western Han Chu-king mausoleum with its terracotta guards unearthed in 1984, then an afternoon lap of Yunlong Lake before the train onward.

1. xuzhou han culture scenic area
2. xuzhou yunlong lake