7 Days in Nanchong

The run north to Langzhong takes about 130 kilometres and 2 hours; the Jialing circles three sides of the Ming-Qing grid — 1.78 square kilometres of it — where Zhang Fei kept garrison for 7 years before his murder in 221.

1. nanchong langzhong ancient city
2. nanchong zhangfei temple

Rows of wooden desks still stand in the Qing exam hall, the Huaguang Tower leans over the river bend, and the Taichu calendar of 104 BC — Luo Xiahong's work — set the first month of the lunar year.

1. nanchong langzhong gongyuan
2. nanchong langzhong huaguang tower

Down at Qingju the river ties a 359-degree knot, its neck under 400 metres; the temple terraces of Lingyun hill share the same Gaoping district and make an easy afternoon.

1. nanchong jialing first bend
2. nanchong lingyun mountain

Zhu De's birthplace makes the memorial day: born in Yilong in 1886, remembered in courtyard dwellings under the Linlang hillside, an area raised to the national 5A list in 2016.

1. nanchong zhude former residence

About an hour out, the farmstead of the man born in 1872 who chaired the China Democratic League until his death in 1955 — plain rooms, mulberry fields beyond.

1. nanchong zhanglan former residence

An hour east in Peng'an, the old wharf town of Zhouzi stands over the Jiangxin isle meadows; from about April the river herds swim out to graze — the celebrated hundred-cattle crossing — and ride the ferry back at dusk.

1. nanchong zhouzi old town

The big reservoir in Nanbu county holds over 1.3 billion cubic metres and calls itself southwest China's largest man-made lake; its international fishing contest runs each September — then the road back to the evening train.

1. nanchong shengzhong lake