14 Days in Nanning

The 5A hill of about 290 m, rated in 2014, with a nine-storey pagoda first raised in the Ming Wanli years and rebuilt in the 1980s; an evening circuit of Nanhu's hundred-plus hectares.

1. nanning qingxiu mountain
2. nanning nanhu park

The drum-shaped 2008 museum keeps hundreds of bronze drums and halls on Zhuang and other highland cultures; the folk-song festival waterfront makes an easy evening.

1. nanning guangxi museum of nationalities
2. nanning min ge lake

The Qing-Republican quarter reopened in 2018; the museum's Western Han bronze phoenix lamp was unearthed at Hepu in 1971; Zhongshan Road runs long after dark.

1. nanning sanjie liangxiang
2. nanning guangxi museum

Thirty-six km southwest, a river town of about a thousand years — stone lanes, Ming-Qing houses and the stages and temples of its merchant days.

1. nanning yangmei ancient town

Half an hour north, karst galleries with a constant cool draught; take the afternoon back in town for rice noodles and bookshops.

1. nanning yiling cave

A day in the national nature reserve north of Wuming — the range tops out at about 1,760 m, with cloud forest, streams and a summit road for non-hikers.

1. nanning daming mountain

About 80 km west in Long'an County, the karst hills of Longhushan shelter thousands of macaques along a river valley; boats and walkways keep the day gentle.

1. nanning longhu mountain

Fifty km northeast, the pass taken in the December 1939 battle, now a memorial site visited with respect; back in town, the early-20th-century cannon platform in People's Park.

1. nanning kunlun pass
2. nanning renmin park

An honestly labelled neighbouring-prefecture day — both sites sit in Daxin County, Chongzuo, about 200 km from Nanning; the falls drop some 70 m in three tiers on the Vietnam border, and the Mingshi river meadows lie half an hour on.

1. nanning detian falls

A recovery day in the capital — a slow market morning, an afternoon nap, then the lit-up embankment cruise or walk along the Yongjiang.

1. nanning yongjiang riverfront

A neighbouring-city day, labelled as such — 1.5 hours by rail to an old street of 1880s arcades, the 24-km Silver Beach at dusk and a night in Beihai.

1. nanning beihai old street
2. nanning beihai silver beach

The 25-square-km volcanic island, China's youngest, an hour-plus by fast ferry — banana groves, sea cliffs at Crocodile Hill and seafood landed that morning; overnight on the island.

1. nanning weizhou island

An early beach walk before the midday ferry, then the rail carriage back to Nanning with the evening free along Zhongshan Road.

1. nanning weizhou island

A market breakfast, a last slow circuit of the lake parks and the train or flight home from the Green City.

1. nanning renmin park
2. nanning min ge lake