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Jinhua sits where the Yiwu and Wuyi rivers meet to form the Wu River, a crossroads of central Zhejiang that was long known as Wuzhou. The old name lives on in Wu opera, the lively regional theatre, and the city is famous across China for its cured Jinhua ham and as the home of the Taoist immortal Huang Daxian.
Its history runs deep: the poet Shen Yue raised the Bayong Tower in the 5th century, the Song poet Li Qingzhao sheltered here, and in the 1860s a Taiping prince ruled the region from a mansion still covered in murals. Jinhua was named a national historic and cultural city in 2007, and its walled core, Guzicheng, has been restored lane by lane.
A day in town covers the old city, the Yuan-era hall of Tianning Temple, the ancient Tongji Bridge and the riverside park of Yanweizhou. North of the centre, Jinhua Mountain rises steeply above the plain, its limestone slopes riddled with caves such as Shuanglong, whose inner chamber is still entered lying flat in a small boat.
Only the Great Hall survives of this temple on Piaoping Road, founded under the Northern Song. Rebuilt in 1318, it reused older timbers, some dated to about a thousand years ago, beneath a graceful hip-and-gable roof. It is a major national heritage site, and the small park around it is quiet.
Raised on a tall stone platform above the Wu River, the tower was first built in 494 by the poet and official Shen Yue, whose eight poems about it gave it its name. Li Qingzhao later praised it in verse while sheltering in Jinhua. Today's building is a Qing rebuild with fine river views.
From 1861 to 1863 the Taiping prince Li Shixian ran his Zhejiang campaign from this compound, once a prefectural office and examination hall. It is the largest and best-preserved Taiping building, and over a hundred murals of dragons, lions and daily life were rediscovered under lime in 1963.
Completed in 1342 under the Yuan dynasty, this bridge across the Wu River once carried a roofed gallery on stone piers. Wars and floods damaged it many times, and newer spans were later added alongside, but the old stone arches still carry traffic and walkers. Cross it at dusk for river views.
First walled in 903, Jinhua's inner old city lost most of its walls in 1938 but kept its lanes. Restored Ming and Qing houses, antique and curio shops along Bayong Road, and the rebuilt Baoning Gate now fill the quarter, which also holds the Shiwang Mansion. Explore it on foot in the evening.
Opened in 2010 at the corner of Dongshi Street and Jiangjun Road in the old city, the municipal museum gathers local treasures. Highlights include an old map of the walled city, a carved stone dragon from the Shiwang Mansion and Buddhist bronzes. Allow an hour or two.
Huang Binhong, born in Jinhua in 1865, became one of the great masters of modern Chinese landscape painting, known for dense, dark-inked mountains. His family house was moved and rebuilt within the old city, where its rooms introduce his life and work. It is an easy stop in Guzicheng.
Built between 2002 and 2005 along the riverbank, this park holds 17 small pavilions designed by Chinese and international architects, with artist Ai Weiwei as chief curator. Each structure, from a book bar to a cafe and a restaurant, plays with form. Architecture fans should allow two hours.
On Jinhua Mountain about 8 kilometres north of the city, this cave has a large outer chamber with old inscriptions and an inner chamber reached by lying flat in a small boat, where rock folds resemble two dragons. Writer Ye Shengtao made it famous. Binghu Cave nearby hides an underground waterfall.
Rising north of the city to Dapanjian at 1,311 metres, the range shelters forests, reservoirs such as Lunu Lake and a chain of limestone caves. It is linked to the legend of Huang Chuping, the hermit worshipped as Huang Daxian, whose ancestral palace stands on its slopes. Go on a clear day.
At the swallow-tail point where the Yiwu and Wuyi rivers meet, this 25-hectare park opened in 2014, designed by Kongjian Yu's Turenscape to flood safely during high water. Wetland paths, terraces and footbridges link it to both banks, and the Wu opera theatre stands beside it. Visit in the morning.
Jinhua's original Song pagoda, studded with thousands of brick Buddha images, was pulled down in 1942. A new nine-storey pagoda in Song style, 99.99 metres tall, was finished on a hilltop above the river in 2017, with lifts inside. Its park rebuilds a city gate and wharf; the top has wide views.
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Log in to add photosPhoto: 猫猫的日记本, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Photo: Zhangzhugang, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: MNXANL, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
