7 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.

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

North into Yunan county's Nanjiang valley — the Guangda house at Liantan is a vast Qing-era fortified dwelling, raised in the early 1800s by one clan against bandit years, and the village of Lanzhai alongside keeps ancestral halls and village opera memories. Overnight in Liantan.

1. yunfu guangda fortified house
2. yunfu lanzhai village

The road home follows the Xijiang — the West River — barges and bluffs the whole way back toward the city. A last market meal, then the rail line toward Guangzhou.

1. yunfu xijiang riverfront
2. yunfu city markets