7 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

Tanxi Mountain in Zichuan pairs cliff stairways and streamside walks with the arc glass footbridge opened in 2017 above the valley; allow the better part of a day on the trails and bring a windproof layer for the bridge.

1. zibo tanxi mountain

South into Boshan, the province's glaze quarter since at least the Ming era — Yuanshan's forest trails in the morning, then Yanshen Ancient Town, kiln rows converted from old ceramic workshops where studios still throw and fire.

1. zibo yuanshan forest park
2. zibo yanshen ancient town

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