5 Days in Liaoyang

The 70.4-metre, thirteen-tier Jin-dynasty pagoda beside a temple tracing its founding to the Han era and reopened after the 2004 rebuilding; the museum sits in a 1920s courtyard.

1. liaoyang white pagoda park
2. liaoyang guangyou temple
3. liaoyang city museum

Nurhaci's capital from 1621 until 1625, earthen walls and the rebuilt Tianyou gate, the early-Qing royal tombs nearby 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 first brought to light in 1918 and nationally protected since 1961, then the memorial to Cao Xueqin — one scholarly tradition makes Liaoyang the ancestral home of the novel's author — and the Qing scholar Wang Erlie's residence.

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

Forested gorge walking at Hehuogou in Gongchangling district, favoured by painters, then an overnight with the mineral springs whose use reaches back centuries.

1. liaoyang hehuogou
2. liaoyang tanghe hot springs

A slow morning by the Tanghe reservoir's water and orchard slopes, a spring-side lunch, then the HSR from Liaoyang station toward Shenyang or Dalian.

1. liaoyang tanghe reservoir