[A 15-day road trip south from Beijing]
Passing through -- Kaifeng, Jiujiang, Lushan, Wuyishan, Xiamen, Gulangyu, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Wuxi, Zhouzhuang, Yangzhou, Taierzhuang and other places~

This is Dad’s account on Lvye, but the travelogue will be written from my perspective~
The general plan is: setting off from Beijing on New Year’s Day, passing through Kaifeng, Jiujiang, Lushan, Wuyishan, Xiamen, Gulangyu, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Wuxi Turtle Head Isle, Zhouzhuang, Yangzhou, Taierzhuang and other places, and returning to Beijing on the 23rd. The total journey is about 6,000+ km

D1 [Kaifeng]
At 7:30 am on New Year’s Day, we entered the Beijing-Tongzhou Expressway and arrived in Kaifeng around 1:30 pm. We decided to visit Iron Pagoda Park first. The park isn’t big, [attach]1413356[/attach]


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Kaifeng Iron Pagoda is now located in Iron Pagoda Park in the northwest of Kaifeng City, Henan Province. It is actually a brick pagoda, but because the exterior is covered with iron-red glazed bricks that look like iron, it is commonly known as the “Kaifeng Iron Pagoda.”

When in Kaifeng, it seems there’s no reason not to visit --- the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao

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After visiting the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao, we drove to --- Kaifeng Prefecture, but later found out that Kaifeng Prefecture was a later reconstruction, so we didn’t go in. [attach]1413369[/attach]

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At the Great Buddha’s Temple, not sure if it was because it was New Year’s Day, but the streets nearby were packed with traffic, very congested.
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As for Longting (Dragon Pavilion), you can actually see the pavilion from the outside, so even using a DSLR to zoom in, it still looked very clear, so we didn’t go in~
For dinner, we had food at Zhongxinglou and soup dumplings. I’d suggest not going to Zhongxinglou... according to the server, they changed the menu and raised prices during the Spring Festival....
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D2 [Jiujiang]
Early on the second day of the New Year, we left Kaifeng and arrived in the afternoon. First, we found our hotel --- Jinjiang Inn Walmart Branch, which is right by the lake, with a view of the water from the room, and the location is very convenient.   Our family decided to settle in and then take buses + walk to visit the attractions in Jiujiang. The first stop was Yanshuiting.
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Yanshuiting is located on Gan Tang Lake on the southern bank of the Yangtze River in Jiujiang City. It is said to be the former site of the military command platform of the famous Three Kingdoms general Zhou Yu. The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi built the pavilion in the lake, taking the line from his poem “Pipa Xing” — “Parting amid boundless river moonlight” — and named it “Jinyue Ting” (Moon-Immersed Pavilion). During the Song Dynasty, the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi, while lecturing in Jiujiang, built another pavilion on the lake dike, inspired by the verse “Mountain hues veiled in misty haze,” and named it “Yanshuiting” (Mist-Water Pavilion).

After visiting Yanshuiting, we decided our next stop would be Xunyang Tower. On the way to the bus, I often remembered the classical poems I recited as a child -- “Sending off a guest at night on the Xunyang River, with maple leaves and reeds rustling in the autumn wind...”
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On the street where Xunyang Tower is located, you can also see huge boats docked there, which was a pleasant surprise for me, having grown up in Beijing~ [attach]1414603[/attach] The first floor of Xunyang Tower also has ceramic figures of the 108 heroes from “Water Margin,” incredibly lifelike~
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Staying at the Jinjiang Inn in Jiujiang, the attached Starlink Heart Restaurant serves really tasty food~~ And you can get an 12% discount (88% of the price) with a Jinjiang Inn membership card
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D3 [Lushan]
Still setting off before dawn at around 6 am, we headed to Lushan. Who would have thought, the thick fog on Lushan!! Truly ---- just as the saying goes, “you only realize you’re in the mountain when you’re in it.”
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We’d only heard that Lushan has heavy fog, but didn’t know it could be this thick, with visibility as low as 5 meters.. Now I understand why Lushan is famous for its cloud-and-mist tea... The mountain roads on Lushan aren’t as steep as Huangshan’s, but because of the dense fog, it took over an hour to reach the mountaintop. My dad, a veteran driver with 16 years of experience, squinted and stayed 120% focused on the road. If I were driving... I’d probably have been in tears, stuck with nowhere to go!
Lushan Museum, Lulin No. 1 [attach]1414932[/attach][attach]1414936[/attach]
Meiling Palace [attach]1414937[/attach]
Didn’t expect there to be monkeys roaming on Lushan --- [attach]1414939[/attach]
Former Site of the Lushan Conference [attach]1414938[/attach][attach]1414940[/attach]


After exploring Lushan, in the afternoon we drove toward the porcelain capital ---- Jingdezhen
Compared to Jiujiang, Jingdezhen is far less clean, possibly because Jiujiang is situated near the river and is often washed by rain.
[attach]1414948[/attach] Upon entering Jingdezhen, the utility poles on the streets are all made of ceramics.
There wasn’t much to see in Jingdezhen, so we decided to rest early at the hotel and head to Wuyishan early the next morning feeling refreshed.


D4&5 [Wuyishan]
As soon as we entered Wuyishan, we could clearly sense how popular this tourist destination is—the streets were bustling with traffic, and there were more pedestrians than in Kaifeng or Jiujiang where we had been the previous days. [attach]1415462[/attach][attach]1415457[/attach][attach]1415458[/attach][attach]1415456[/attach][attach]1415477[/attach][attach]1415480[/attach][attach]1415479[/attach] Tiger Roaring Rock
One-Line Sky—Wuyishan’s One-Line Sky is really, really narrow. Compared to Wuyishan, Huangshan’s One-Line Sky doesn’t even deserve the name~ [attach]1415504[/attach]
A reminder: when climbing Tianyou Peak, be sure to bring plenty of water and snacks, because it’s seriously exhausting... the steps are very steep.
There aren’t many places to eat in Wuyishan, and none of the restaurants looked particularly clean, so we ended up eating a lot at the only KFC in Wuyishan. We stayed at a 7 Days Inn. We had originally planned to leave around six the next morning for the Tulou, but when we went to load our luggage, we discovered the car had been broken into. At first, we thought it was just our car, but then four other car owners also reported their vehicles had been tampered with—all parked on the same street. At first, we noticed the trunk wouldn’t close, and then, after being alerted by the other victims, we realized the lock near the driver’s side front door had also been pried. Fortunately, nothing was stolen. After reporting it to the police, we spent nearly three hours negotiating with them and the 7 Days staff before they finally agreed to provide compensation. But this delay threw off our schedule. With the trunk stuck open, we couldn’t get on the highway, so we asked the shop owner downstairs from 7 Days who sold Da Hong Pao tea if we could borrow some rope to tie it up temporarily... While we were doing that, the shop owner suggested we check if there was any nearby auto repair shop open. My dad came back about an hour later, and the car was fixed well enough. It really made us realize there are still a lot of good people out there. We had also planned to buy some black tea in Wuyishan, and since the shop owner had gone out of his way to help us, we decided to buy tea from him.
After buying the tea, we went back to the Wuyishan scenic area to continue sightseeing. The tickets we bought were valid for two days.
After finishing the tour, we re-planned our route. Since we had already booked a hotel in Xiamen for the sixth, we decided to skip the Tulou and head straight for Xiamen.

D5 evening + D6 [Xiamen]
On the way to Xiamen, one thing we noticed was just how many long tunnels there were![attach]1415497[/attach]
We arrived at our hotel in Xiamen around eleven at night. The fatigue of the day felt even heavier at night, so we slept very soundly.
When our family travels, we always wake up early to avoid the peak tourist crowds. That way, we can enjoy the sights with fewer people, and by the time it gets busy, we’ve already finished exploring.
Time to take the ferry~
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Xiamen University
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We’d heard for ages that the canteen at Xiamen University is famous, so we went there out of curiosity. And guess what we found below? A pancake!!! Actually, it was just a leavened flatbread with a tiny bit of chives in it— - -
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Nanputuo Temple (no entrance fee~ it’s right outside the exit of Xiamen University) — there were lots of pigeons in front of Nanputuo Temple
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We’d read online travel guides saying Yefengzhai is great, so we took a long bus ride there. And you know what? It was actually pretty nice~ the sand on the beach was very fine, kind of like Zhimao Bay in Dongdaihe~
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D7 [Tulou, Quanzhou]
It was only in Xiamen that we truly felt the warmth of the south—not cold or damp, just really comfortable~
Our original plan was to go to the Tulou right after Wuyishan, but unexpected events can’t be helped. We had initially decided not to go to the Tulou, but considering we had driven all the way from Beijing, and probably wouldn’t come specially to Fujian or the Tulou again, my dad suggested we go ahead and visit them.
And so, after checking out in the early morning, we set off for the Tulou!

The most famous Fujian Tulou is supposedly the “Four Dishes and One Soup,” but the closest to Xiamen is the Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster, so we went there first~~
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Yunshuiyao [attach]1418726[/attach][attach]1418742[/attach]
Yunshuiyao is beautiful, but it’s also become quite commercialized.

We had originally planned to go to the Tianluokeng Tulou Cluster, but honestly, they’re all pretty similar~ and according to online guides, they look better from a distance anyway~ so we headed to our next stop, Quanzhou~

Quanzhou
Kaiyuan Temple—its wall bricks are really unique, see the photo below~

Mosque—


We only visited Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou and walked around its bustling commercial streets, but personally, I don’t think Quanzhou is really a tourist city. You can see most of it in just a few hours.
From Quanzhou, we drove to Fuzhou and arrived there in the evening.

D8  Fuzhou
It’s quite fitting that Fuzhou is called the “City of Banyans.” Banyan trees line both sides of the streets, and shophouses are one of its distinctive architectural features. PS—Quanzhou also has shophouses~

In Fuzhou, there’s running water in front of every home too~
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What must you eat when you come to Fuzhou? Fish balls!!! They’re so delicious~~~~ Try the ones at Tongli Meat Dumplings or Yonghe Fish Balls in the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys—highly recommended~~~ And there are all kinds of fish balls with names you can’t even pronounce~
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Three Lanes and Seven Alleys [attach]1419284[/attach][attach]1419285[/attach][attach]1419286[/attach]
Mujin Baozi—southern buns tend to be a bit sweet, and Mujin Baozi claims to be a time-honored brand~ Bought some to try, and they were pretty good
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[To be continued tomorrow]