14 Days in Wuhu

The lake-and-hill postcard in the city core, then the century-old walking street where Three Squirrels — the snack brand founded in 2012 and listed in 2019 — keeps its flagship presence.

1. wuhu mirror lake
2. wuhu zhongshan road

The Happy World park that opened in April 2008 anchors a resort that grew into four parks and took the national 5A listing in 2016; the Dream Kingdom next door followed in December 2010, and the water park runs in summer.

1. wuhu fantawild resort

A treaty port since 1876, the city keeps its old customs house on the river walk — downstream the 2000 road-and-rail bridge spans the Yangtze — and the rebuilt Jiuzi quarter, named for the city's ancient moniker, draws the evening.

1. wuhu riverside customs
2. wuhu jiuzi ancient town

South into Nanling county, roughly 60 kilometres out, the hillside park where peony beds open in April among weathered limestone — go in flower weeks or come for the rocks alone.

1. wuhu yashan flower sea

Restored walled-quarter streets, then the temple on Zhe hill with its brick pagoda above the city — the hill doubles as the local lungs for an afternoon climb.

1. wuhu ancient city block
2. wuhu zheshan temple

A neighbouring-city day, labelled as such — about 45 kilometres north in Ma'anshan, the river cliff counted among the Yangtze's three classic rock faces, steeped in the drowning legends around Li Bai.

1. wuhu maanshan caishiji

Downstream of town, the facing cliffs the Tang poet Li Bai versed in his river crossing — east and west gates pinching the Yangtze into a funnel, best from a boat deck or the river bank.

1. wuhu tianmen hill

In Fanchang county, kilns that fired bluish-white porcelain from the Five Dynasties into the Northern Song, and the cave excavated in 1998 whose diggers dated its stone tools to around two million years back.

1. wuhu fanchang kiln site
2. wuhu renzidong cave

A neighbour-city day, labelled as such — under an hour north on the line opened in 2020 to Hefei, for the provincial museum's Chu bronzes and the old town's shaded lanes.

1. wuhu hefei provincial museum

A quiet riverside loop — customs house at opening light, teahouse afternoons and an evening stroll through the lit water town.

1. wuhu riverside customs

Back into Nanling county for the ancient copper workings of Dagongshan, where Bronze-Age galleries fed the smelters of the Central Plains — a site-museum day among the worked hillsides.

1. wuhu dagongshan copper mines

The Oriental Heritage park, the folklore-side sibling to the roller coasters — legends, stage shows and slower boats for a legs-weary week.

1. wuhu fantawild oriental

A second honest Hefei day — whatever the first visit left behind, from the garden of the Song-era memorial hall to the tech-quarter storefronts.

1. wuhu hefei day

Morning in the restored walled-quarter streets, then the early-1900s consulate-and-church blocks on Yugeng hill, and an afternoon train or flight out.

1. wuhu ancient city block
2. wuhu yugengshan block