7 Days in Shijiazhuang

The Changxin palace lamp and the jade suits of Liu Sheng, who died in 113 BC, and Dou Wan, dug at Mancheng in 1968; 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 temple founded in 586 keeps the 21.3-metre bronze Guanyin cast in 971, then wall paths and the nine-towers-four-pagodas street pattern.

1. shijiazhuang longxing temple
2. shijiazhuang zhengding ancient city

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

1. shijiazhuang zhengding four pagodas
2. shijiazhuang pilu temple

Some 45 km south, the arch finished around 605 under Li Chun has stood roughly 1,420 years on a 37.02 m span; the monastery nearby carries the name of the Tang master Zhaozhou.

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, its memorial museum alongside; near Sanji town, the Zhongshan capital site whose tombs, dug in the 1970s, supplied the museum's bronzes.

1. shijiazhuang xibaipo
2. shijiazhuang zhongshan ancient city

West into Jingxing county — stone paving with cart ruts worn deep by traffic from Qin times at the old pass, then Cangyan Mountain about 70 km southwest, where timber bridge-halls span the gorge and legends tie the site to a Sui princess.

1. shijiazhuang qinhuang ancient post road
2. shijiazhuang cangyan mountain

A slow morning among the stone houses and lanes of Yujia village, settled by families linked to descendants of the Ming minister Yu Qian, then back east for a market supper and the evening train.

1. shijiazhuang yujia stone village
2. shijiazhuang city markets