5 Days in Zibo

Start at the Badaju morning market, whose barbecue sets — thin pancake, scallion, dipping sauce — went viral in 2023; then the lakefront Haidai Tower, home to the multistory Zhongshuge bookstore. Grill-table dinners are the city's evening ritual.

1. zibo badaju market
2. zibo haidai zhongshuge

Half an hour east in Linzi, seat of the Qi state for some 800 years — the Qi Culture Museum lays out the bronzes, and the ancient-city walls nearby entered the first national heritage batch in 1961. FIFA credited Linzi's cuju as football's origin in 2004, and the football museum retells a game played here some 2,300 years ago.

1. zibo qi culture museum
2. zibo football museum

A second Linzi day — the chariot museum's Spring-and-Autumn pit unearthed in 1990, the Eastern Zhou horse pit of Duke Jing with an estimated 600-plus sacrificed horses, and a walk along the rammed-earth walls of the old capital.

1. zibo ancient chariot museum
2. zibo xunma pit
3. zibo qi ancient city

In Pujiacun, Zichuan district, the courtyard home of Pu Songling (1640-1715) keeps the study where his tales of foxes and scholars took shape — some 490 stories fill the Strange Tales collection; the neighboring Liaozhai park stages scenes from the book.

1. zibo pusongling former home
2. zibo liaozhai park

The Zhoucun merchant quarter, a 4A site of Ming-Qing shopfronts nicknamed the Dry Wharf, keeps courtyard banks, a dye-house and sesame shaobing ovens — the baking craft joined the national intangible-heritage list in 2008. Evening train from Zibo station.

1. zibo zhoucun ancient city