7 Days in Shaoxing

Settle downtown along Cangqiao Straight Street — the UNESCO Asia-Pacific heritage award came in 2003 — and find a river-side table for dinner.

1. shaoxing cangqiao street

Lu Xun (1881-1936) was born behind the native-place gates and left for Nanjing in 1898; the free blocks take a reservation, and the Xianheng tavern downstairs serves fennel beans from the stories.

1. shaoxing luxun native place

At Lanting, 42 literati gathered in 353 and produced the 324-character Orchid Pavilion Preface; the calligraphy festival runs each spring since 1985. The Shusheng Quarter keeps the lanes tied to Wang Xizhi (303-361).

1. shaoxing lanting
2. shaoxing shusheng quarter

East Lake's Han-dynasty quarries read best from a black-awning boat; on Kuaiji Mountain the mausoleum grounds hold the public rites to Yu the Great each Grain Rain, a ceremony revived in 1995.

1. shaoxing east lake
2. shaoxing dayu mausoleum

The paired wall poems — Lu You's Chai Tou Feng of 1151 and the reply attributed to Tang Wan — read better with the morning light; the garden's evening stage show runs most nights.

1. shaoxing shen garden

Northwest in Keqiao, Anchang runs its La Yue festival every twelfth lunar month, a tradition renewed since 1999; the clerk-adviser museum explains the town's shiye trade, and sausage stalls line the canal.

1. shaoxing anchang town

Keyan's quarry cliff carries the 30-metre Yungu stone; the adjacent Luzhen park, opened in 2003, stages the fiction streets of Lu Xun's stories. Evening HSR — Hangzhou is 20 minutes.

1. shaoxing keyan