10 Days in Yunfu

Yunfu has quarried and carved stone for more than 400 years — the "stone capital" tag shows up in shopfronts everywhere. Start with the Panlong cave and its rare calcite "cave flowers", then let the evening markets feed you.

1. yunfu panlong cave
2. yunfu city markets

South to Xinxing county, home ground of Huineng (638-713), the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. The Guoen Temple was founded in 683 and is the place where he taught in his final year and died in 713; his home village lies a short ride away. Facts and hours only.

1. yunfu guoen temple
2. yunfu huineng former residence

South of Xinxing's county seat, the Tianlu range tops out at 1,251 m — terraced tea gardens, waterfalls and a cool ridge walk even in Lingnan's warm months. Stay on the mountain or roll back down to town for the night.

1. yunfu tianlu mountain

A soak morning at the Jinshuitai spring pools near the Shuitai border, then the short hop to Shuidong at Yaogu town, where nearly 600 Ming-Qing buildings line lanes built by the descendants of the Song philosopher Cheng Hao. Back to the city for the night.

1. yunfu jinshuitai hot spring
2. yunfu shuidong village

About two hours west, Luoding keeps one of Lingnan's more complete old Confucian academies, the Xuegong, with its courtyards and exam halls, and the Ming-dynasty brick pagoda by the river below town. An overnight in Luoding splits the western run nicely.

1. yunfu luoding xuegong
2. yunfu luoding pagoda

The Longkan cave at Pingtang carries a Tang-dynasty dedication counted among the earliest dated rock inscriptions of Lingnan, cut high inside a limestone dome; then the road north into Yunan county for the Guangda fortified house at Liantan. Overnight there.

1. yunfu longkan cliff inscription
2. yunfu guangda fortified house

A morning among Lanzhai's ancestral halls and lime-plastered houses — the Nanjiang valley's best-kept village core — then the drive down to the West River bluffs for the afternoon light on the barge traffic. Overnight in Lian tan again or back to the city.

1. yunfu lanzhai village
2. yunfu xijiang riverfront

Honestly labeled — Zhaoqing, not Yunfu, and it has its own page on this site. About 20 minutes east by rail from Yunfu East: the Seven Star Crags set their limestone hills across a lake, with the Song-era city walls and the inkstone markets around them. Back to Yunfu by evening.

1. zhaoqing seven star crags

Another honest outside day — Foshan, an hour or so east by car or rail, with its own page on this site. The Ancestral Temple's opera stage and martial-arts halls, plus the old ceramics lanes, fill a long day before the evening return.

1. foshan ancestral temple

A last slow morning in the stone yards and markets — a paperweight of the famous "Yunfu green" makes the light souvenir — then the rail line toward Guangzhou and the airports beyond.

1. yunfu city markets