10 Days in Zhongshan

Arrive by intercity rail — the Guangzhou-Zhuhai line opened in 2011 — or over the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, the 24-kilometre crossing that opened in June 2024; shake out your legs in the shipyard-turned Qijiang Park.

1. zhongshan qijiang park

The museum marks where Sun Yat-sen was born on 12 November 1866; the two-storey house of 1892 and the lanes around it carry the visit. Free entry with an online reservation.

1. zhongshan sun yat sen former residence
2. zhongshan cuiheng village

Morning among the early-20th-century street sets of the backlot, then out to Yakou, where the village still farms its rice fields in common rows and the canteens serve the morning's catch.

1. zhongshan film city
2. zhongshan yakou village

The arcade street renamed for Sun Yat-sen in 1925, the merchant museum inside a restored arcade, and the seven-storey pagoda of 1608 on Yandun Hill at dusk.

1. zhongshan sunwen west road
2. zhongshan xiangshan commercial museum
3. zhongshan yandun hill pagoda

A slower loop of the county seat — museum halls in the morning, Zimaling's lake paths after lunch, and the Shiqi roast-pigeon streets for dinner.

1. zhongshan city museum
2. zhongshan zimaling park
3. zhongshan shiqi food streets

Zhan Garden, billed as the largest private classical garden in Lingnan; the hot-spring resort opened in December 1980; and the Luosanmei climb where Deng Xiaoping spoke of not turning back in 1984.

1. zhongshan zhan garden
2. zhongshan hot springs
3. zhongshan luosanmei mountain

Two towns in the north-west — Xiaolan, whose chrysanthemum shows run each autumn with a grand gathering every 60 years (latest 2014), and Guzhen, whose lighting showrooms claim some 70 per cent of the national trade.

1. zhongshan xiaolan chrysanthemum
2. zhongshan guzhen lighting

The green centre of the prefecture — the main peak reads 531 metres and the Xiaoyao Valley trail keeps to shade and streams most of the way.

1. zhongshan wugui mountain
2. zhongshan xiaoyao valley

Labelled as a neighbouring-city day — half an hour south, Lovers' Road runs about 28 kilometres past the 8.7-metre Fisher Girl of 1982 and the shell-shaped opera house of 2017.

1. zhuhai

A cross-border day, labelled as such — exit-and-entry formalities apply at Gongbei or Hengqin (the latter runs around the clock); check current permit and visa rules before you go, and keep the evening return loose.

1. macao