5 Days in Shijiazhuang

Start with the Changxin palace lamp and the jade suits of Liu Sheng, who died in 113 BC, and Dou Wan, unearthed in 1968 at Mancheng; the Warring States Zhongshan bronzes set up later days. Free, closed Mondays.

1. shijiazhuang hebei museum
2. shijiazhuang city markets

About 40 km north, the seat founded in 586 holds the 21.3-metre bronze Guanyin cast in 971; walk the wall paths and the lanes summed up locally as nine towers, four pagodas, eight great temples.

1. shijiazhuang longxing temple
2. shijiazhuang zhengding ancient city

Morning around the four pagodas — timber-cored Lingxiao at about 41 m, a Tang-style Xumi, the ornate Song Hua and the Jin-era Chengling stupa — then back to the city's western edge for Pilu Temple's water-land murals with their hundreds of painted figures.

1. shijiazhuang zhengding four pagodas
2. shijiazhuang pilu temple

Some 45 km south, the open-spandrel arch finished around 605 under Li Chun has stood roughly 1,420 years on a 37.02 m span; the active monastery nearby carries the Zhaozhou name of the Tang master famous for the "go drink tea" koan.

1. shijiazhuang zhaozhou bridge
2. shijiazhuang bailin monastery

About 90 km northwest, the compound where the CPC Central Committee worked from May 1948 to March 1949, with the memorial museum beside it; near Sanji town, the Warring States Zhongshan capital site whose royal tombs, dug in the 1970s, supplied the museum's bronzes.

1. shijiazhuang xibaipo
2. shijiazhuang zhongshan ancient city