14 Days in Neijiang

The memorial to Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), the ink painter born here, opened in 1992 inside a park above the Tuo; drift through the river lanes of Dongxing old street afterwards.

1. neijiang zhangdaqian memorial
2. neijiang dongxing old street

The Shengshui temple by the river was first built in the Tang Xiantong years of the 860s; up Xianglong hill, Tang-Song carvings line the cliff above the city.

1. neijiang shengshui temple
2. neijiang xianglong hill carvings

Some 40 km southeast, Longchang keeps seventeen stone arches built between 1838 and 1887 and protected nationally since 2001; the reservoir at Guyu Lake draws winter birds.

1. neijiang longchang paifang
2. neijiang guyu lake

Above Longchang's plain, the walled village of Yunding was begun in the Ming Hongwu years of the late 1300s — stone gates, clan houses and a ridge-top outlook over farmland.

1. neijiang yunding stockade

Half an hour north, Zizhong's Confucian temple began in the Northern Song, its present halls Qing restorations; the standing figure of Confucius honours, by local tradition, his music teacher Chang Hong, a son of this town.

1. neijiang zizhong temples
2. neijiang zhonglong hill

An hour into the hills of Zizhong County, Luoquan grew around salt wells over a thousand years; a Qing-era salt-god temple stands over the main street, and the town remembers the 1911 meeting held here as the Railway Protection Movement turned from petitions to arms.

1. neijiang luoquan ancient town

A quieter sibling of Luoquan in the same county — a hillside old street of guild halls and timber shops stepping down to the fields; an unhurried day among locals.

1. neijiang tiefo ancient town

An honest neighbouring-city day — about an hour south to Zigong, where the dinosaur museum opened in 1987 over the Dashanpu fossil bed and the Shenhai well, finished in 1835, remains the world's first to pass 1,000 metres in depth.

1. neijiang zigong day

A second day in the salt city — the salt-industry museum inside the Xiqin guild hall, begun in 1736 and finished in 1752, with a slow afternoon around the lantern park; back to Neijiang for the night.

1. neijiang zigong day

Another honest cross-city day — about an hour each way by train into Chongqing municipality for the riverside lanes of Ciqikou, the Jiefangbei crossroads and the stilted houses of Hongyadong lit up at night.

1. neijiang chongqing day

A second day across — the Three Gorges museum, opened in 2005 above the People's Hall, the Chaotianmen point where the Jialing meets the Yangtze, and a late train back to Neijiang.

1. neijiang chongqing day

The old house of the journalist Fan Changjiang (1909-1970) in Tianjia township in the morning; the galleries of the Daqian park again in the afternoon, with more time for the painting halls.

1. neijiang fan changjiang memorial
2. neijiang zhangdaqian memorial

A rest day in the city — a slow walk of the Tuo riverbank, an afternoon in an old-street teahouse and a farewell table of the dishes the town is known for.

1. neijiang dongxing old street

A market breakfast, one last look at the river and the rail line home — Chengdu under an hour away since 2015, Chongqing a little more.

1. neijiang zhangdaqian memorial