14 Days in Wuzhou

Walk the arcade grid of 22 streets with some 560 qilou houses, watch the Guijiang meet the Xijiang in two colours, then the Longmu Temple and its 38-metre statue — all within about 2 km.

1. wuzhou qilou city
2. wuzhou yuanyang river
3. wuzhou longmu temple

Morning on the 386-metre summit trail of Baiyun Hill; the 1930 memorial hall on Beishan was the first Sun Yat-sen memorial hall completed in China.

1. wuzhou baiyun mountain
2. wuzhou sun yat sen memorial hall

Riverside park on Zhushan with the former British consulate building from the 1897 treaty-port years; the city museum covers the Xijiang shipping trade.

1. wuzhou zhushan riverside park
2. wuzhou city museum

Half-day drive about 40 km southeast to Dapo town — old Cangwu countryside, now Longxu district — for the three-storey 1925 fortified house of Li Jishen; village lunch, back to town mid-afternoon.

1. wuzhou li jishen former residence

A day out in Liubao town, about 60 km north in Cangwu county — tea terraces, old workshops and the water route that carried the dark tea to Southeast Asia.

1. wuzhou liubao tea town

Recovery day — late breakfast of rice noodle rolls, tea-house afternoon, riverside evening at the confluence. The excursion run starts tomorrow.

1. wuzhou qilou city

Day trip into neighbouring Hezhou, about 170 km or two and a half hours each way by expressway, for the stone lanes and arch bridges of Huangyao — set out by 8 am, return after the lanterns.

1. huangyao ancient town

Markets and a long lunch, a riverside walk to recharge, and an early night — the Guangdong stretch begins tomorrow.

1. wuzhou yuanyang river

HSR from Wuzhou South to Zhaoqing East in about 40 minutes for the Seven Star Crags lake district; honest note — this day is outside Guangxi, in neighbouring Guangdong. Return by evening.

1. zhaoqing

HSR about 90 minutes to Guangzhou South; the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall and Shamian island in the afternoon; overnight in Guangzhou to ease the pace.

1. guangzhou

A museum or Canton Tower morning, then the 90-minute HSR back to Wuzhou for a home-cooked-feel dinner in the arcades.

1. guangzhou

West into Wuzhou's own Tengxian county, roughly 100 km or about two and a half hours by road, for the red Danxia cliffs of Shibiao Mountain and the Beiliu river valley — honest note, it is a longish drive on a county road.

1. wuzhou shibiao mountain

A closing loop through the arcades — turtle jelly, paper-wrapped chicken, last souvenirs — and a dusk visit back to the Longmu temple steps.

1. wuzhou qilou city
2. wuzhou longmu temple

Bingquan soybean milk for breakfast at the foot of Baiyun Hill, a final river walk, then the HSR from Wuzhou South.

1. wuzhou qilou city