Huizhou

About Huizhou

Huizhou sits where the Dongjiang River bends toward the Pearl River Delta, a fast-growing Guangdong city that still keeps an old-fashioned heart around its West Lake. Pagodas, causeways and willow-shaded bridges ring the water, and the city has been linked with the poet Su Dongpo ever since he was exiled here in the 1090s and wrote that eating three hundred lychees a day would make him happy to stay in the south forever.

To the north rises Luofu Mountain, one of China's famous Taoist peaks, with temples tucked into its forested valleys. Further out, Longmen County offers the hot springs and waterfalls of Nankunshan, while the old riverside quarter around Shuidong Street shows the city's Lingnan arcaded shophouses.

Huizhou's long coastline on Daya Bay is its other great draw. Huidong County has some of the cleanest beaches in Guangdong, from the twin crescents of Shuangyue Bay to the long sands of Xunliao Bay, and at Gangkou a national reserve protects green sea turtles that come ashore to nest. Shenzhen is close enough for a long day trip in either direction.