7 Days in Panjin

Settle in beside the Liaohe, then an easy afternoon of carved calligraphy in the stele forest inside the lakeside park — a quiet primer on how much writing this river has carried.

1. panjin liaohe stele forest

Ride the full roughly 18-kilometre corridor of suaeda flats; in September and October the carpet is at its deepest red, in April it greens up — photograph from the boardwalks, the flats are protected ground.

1. panjin red beach corridor

At first light the estuary belongs to the birds — Saunders's gulls nest here May-June after returning in March-April, red-crowned cranes pause in March and November, and thousands of shorebirds feed on the mudflats.

1. panjin liaohe estuary wetland

Boardwalks into one of the world's largest reed beds, then an afternoon in the paddies where Panjin rice and river crabs share the flooded fields — crab season peaks in September and October.

1. panjin reed sea
2. panjin rice crab fields

The delta's old fishing town with its fishing-goose heritage of following the seasonal catch, clam-drying racks and seafood stalls, then a slow afternoon on Jinbo beach's sandy arc.

1. panjin erjiegon fishing port
2. panjin jinbo beach

An honestly labelled neighbour-city day, about 90 minutes southwest — Bijiashan's temple-crowned islet connects to shore across a pebble causeway roughly 1.6 kilometres long that surfaces twice a day with the tide; the city's Liaoshen campaign museum tells the 52-day 1948 campaign.

1. panjin jinzhou bijiashan

A return to the corridor in different light — the red reads differently at noon than at dusk — then crab noodles by the station and the train out.

1. panjin red beach corridor