7 Days in Xinyang

Settle in, walk the Shi riverfront greenway, then graze the night markets for Xinyang stews and Nanwan fish-head soup.

1. xinyang shi riverfront
2. xinyang city markets

The reservoir finished in 1955 — 75 sq km of water, 61 islands. Morning boat to the tea and bird islands, an afternoon on the shore, fish-head soup back in town.

1. xinyang nanwan lake

Up the lake's western shore to the five-clouds, two-pools, one-stockade picking zones of the tea with a 1915 Panama gold medal and a place in China's top ten — pre-Qingming leaf starts late March.

1. xinyang shihegang tea mountains

38 km south, one of China's four great summer retreats — over a hundred early-1900s villas under pines, July days near 24°C, and a stone summit for sunset.

1. xinyang jigong mountain

15 km east to the model village its farmers painted into being, then 45 km on to the Luoshan monastery with its east-facing gate, monks and nuns under one roof, and unshaved heads.

1. xinyang haotang village
2. xinyang lingshan temple

25 km north at Changtaiguan, a Warring States city mound where 13 bronze bells came up in 1957 — the recording China's first satellite broadcast in 1970. The city museum holds the full story.

1. xinyang chengyang city site
2. xinyang museum

A leg-stretch on the low ridge on the Shi's south bank, a market lunch, then the HSR from Xinyang East.

1. xinyang zhenlei mountain
2. xinyang shi riverfront