5 Days in Yongzhou

A commandery by 111 BC, Lingling keeps the flagstoned Liuzi Street with its temple to Tang writer Liu Zongyuan, exiled here ten years (805-815) and author of the Eight Records of Yongzhou. The Ming-dynasty Huilong pagoda stands by the Xiao River.

1. yongzhou liuzi temple
2. yongzhou lingling ancient city
3. yongzhou huilong pagoda

South to Shuangpai county for the Yangmingshan forest park — in late April and May its slopes carry tens of thousands of mu of wild azaleas in bloom — on the order of 6,600 hectares — and the rest of the year the streams and the mountain temple make an easy circuit.

1. yongzhou yangmingshan

South again to Ningyuan county, about 90 minutes from the city. The mausoleum of the legendary Emperor Shun sits below Jiuyishan's peaks, still the site of official memorial ceremonies; the county town's Confucian temple was founded in 965.

1. yongzhou jiuyishan shun mausoleum
2. yongzhou ningyuan confucian temple

Southwest to Jiangyong county, about two and a half hours. The Nüshu eco-museum documents the syllabic script passed between local women for generations, listed as national intangible heritage in 2006; Shanggantang village below has been settled by the Zhou clan for some 1,200 years, with a Song-era three-arch stone bridge.

1. yongzhou nushu eco museum
2. yongzhou shanggantang village

Back in the city, Ping Island sits where the Xiao joins the Xiang — the landscape that named the poetic word "xiaoxiang" — and the Chaoyang Yan grotto nearby carries cliff inscriptions from the Tang onward. A market lunch, then the train — Guilin is about 2 hours west if the journey continues by rail.

1. yongzhou ping island
2. yongzhou chaoyang yan
3. yongzhou city markets