10 Days in Liaoyang

Settle in and open with the 70.4-metre Jin-dynasty pagoda in its park as the lights come on.

1. liaoyang white pagoda park

The temple tracing its founding to the Han era and reopened after the 2004 rebuilding, and the museum in a 1920s merchant courtyard.

1. liaoyang guangyou temple
2. liaoyang city museum

Nurhaci's capital from 1621 to 1625 with the rebuilt Tianyou gate, the early-Qing royal tombs, and the river named for Prince Dan of Yan.

1. liaoyang dongjing city site
2. liaoyang dongjing mausoleum
3. liaoyang taizi river

Han painted tombs known since 1918 and nationally protected since 1961, the Cao Xueqin memorial and the Qing scholar Wang Erlie's residence.

1. liaoyang hanwei mural tombs
2. liaoyang cao xueqin memorial
3. liaoyang wang erlie memorial

Honestly labelled neighbouring-city day — about 80 kilometres east for the boat ride along roughly three kilometres of underground river near 10 degrees; bring a warm layer.

1. benxi water cave

A second honest neighbour day in Benxi — forested ridges with old maple stands; late September to mid-October turns them scarlet.

1. benxi guanmenshan forest park

Honestly labelled neighbouring-city day — under half an hour to Anshan for hundreds of granite summits and old monasteries, then the jade Buddha carved from one 260-tonne block of stone.

1. anshan qianshan
2. anshan yufuyuan

Forest gorge walking in Gongchangling, favoured by painters, then an overnight beside the mineral springs.

1. liaoyang hehuogou
2. liaoyang tanghe hot springs

A slow day between the Tanghe reservoir and the hillside where ground temperatures run in reverse — warm in winter, cool in summer.

1. liaoyang tanghe reservoir
2. liaoyang lengredi park

A last park and market loop, a bowl of Northeast-style dumplings, then the HSR from Liaoyang station toward Shenyang or Dalian.

1. liaoyang white pagoda park