48 Hours in ZHAOQING CHINA
48 Hours in Zhaoqing
Weekend trips from Hong Kong are so convenient since the West Kowloon High-speed Train station provides access to multiple mainland China destinations. We have been taking advantage of that! But like I mentioned from my First Impressions: Zhaoqing post, this weekend trip would have not happened if I didn’t accidently booked the wrong hotel a few weeks back. (Ctrip can be quite tricky sometimes as the ad suggestions look almost identical to the search results…) But luckily, it was a fortunate mistake since Zhaoqing is one of the most unique and beautiful cities in China I have been to thus far!
There are direct trains to Zhaoqing from Hong Kong but it doesn’t come as frequently. Therefore, we took a Friday night train after work to Guangzhou and stayed over night by Guangzhou South Station (the high-speed rail station in Guangzhou) and took a morning train of only about 45 minutes from Guangzhou to Zhaoqing.
Transportation
High-speed Train
o Hong Kong-Guangzhou (about $300 HKD or $35 USD) one way
o Guangzhou – Zhaoqing (about $30 HKD or $4 USD) one way
Within Zhaoqing
There are no subways and taxis are a bit difficult to come by. The local buses are super convenient and come very frequently without being overly crowded. However, they stop either at 6:30pm or 9:00pm which is kind of annoying.
o $2 RMB of $0.30 USD bus rides anywhere
Accommodation
We stayed at the Wyndham Foshan Shunde Hotel the first night, which is near the Guangzhou South Station. It was an extremely big property and the room was super clean, spacious, and came with a king size bed, nice beautiful bathtub and separate shower for $60 USD. We bought breakfast with the front desk for $10 USD each and WOW what a feast! The selection was super fresh and if I had to guess, more than 100 options ranging from both Chinese breakfast with fried noodles, buns, vegetables to Western breakfast such as baked goods, cereal, etc. There was also an omelette station, Chinese rice noodles station, fresh fruits, juices, just SO MUCH WONDERFUL DELICIOUSNESS I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH!
For the second night, we stayed at the Donglin Hotel, which is about 3 km, to Star Lake Park area. The 4-star hotel was only $30 USD per night. Our room was very clean and spacious with a king size bed and street-view and had a large bathroom with excellent shower with nice water pressure. It also come with free breakfast although the selection was mostly Chinese style and limited with the basics such as congee, hard boiled eggs, scallion pancakes, steamed taro and sweet potatoes.
The front desk ladies were exceptionally friendly though and we actually bumped into the owner of the hotel, who was so kind that he offered to have his friend drive us to Dinghu Mountain for free, which was about 25 minutes away when we couldn’t get a taxi during our first few attempts.
Day 1
Dinghu Mountain National Park
An “AAAAA” park status (so you know it’s good!!), Dinghu Mountain, or in Chinese it literally means a “Three-Legged Vessel Lake Mountain”, is about 16 km from Zhaoqing city center. As you can gather from the name, it has a series of beautiful mountain ranges with luscious trees and a crystal greenish blue lake on top of the mountain.
Tickets
Entrance: $78 RMB or $11 USD
Shuttle Ticket: $20 RMB or $3 USD
Boat Ride for Butterfly Valley: $20 RMB or $3 USD
Getting Around
If you are super sporty and enjoy a nice hike, you can hike the entire mountain and see the key points of interest on top. You can also purchase a shuttle ticket which saves much more time and takes you stop by stop to all the key points of interests for extra $20 RMB or $3USD.
Key Points of Interest
The giant “Ding” or three legged vessel located on top of the hill, over looking the lake. You can spend $10 RMB or $1.50 USD and buy ten bouncy ribbons with good fortunes written on them and try to throw it in the giant ding for good luck. Pretty fun and definitely had a nice arm work out doing that!
Butterfly Valley for the boat ride on the Lake, featuring gorgeous views of the mountains around. The lake has a jade-green color from the algae and reflection of the trees surrounding it. Along with the traditional Chinese bamboo boats gives it such a zen vibe.
Qingyun Temple that has been around for almost 1000 years. I believe there are still practicing monks there as we bumped into a few. There are clusters of multiple temples with traditional architecture.
Flying Water Pool for the clearest water you will ever see and a beautiful waterfall! You can hike there by going down the mountain from Qingyun Temple. The entire walk is about 30 minutes.
Zhaoqing Paifang Plaza （肇庆牌坊广场） Evening Musical Fountain Show
Music LED Light Fountain Show at Zhaoqing Paifang Plaza
Every evening at 7pm, the fountains on Star Lake near the Zhaoping Paifang Plaza would have a nice LED lighted musical show. We didn’t stay for the entire show but my guess is at least 15 minutes. The ambiance of the plaza is nice because you can catch a lot of locals hanging out there.
Next to a large mall, We spotted some tourists and locals watching the fountain show, a bunch of teenagers skate boarding, and the best of all - Guangdong Province Plaza Dance Competition!!! We saw so many different aunties dance troupes with colorful costumes. It was the best!
Yan Qian Cun (岩前村）
Avengers to abruptly changed Taylor Swift documentary at Number 21, a movie-themed bar at Yanqian Village
Also could be translated to Yan Qian Village, the neighborhood is close to the Paifang Plaza in a quiet street next to the other side of Star Lake. Converted from a traditional village, the street features a lot of privately operated themed Bed & Breakfasts and bars. We saw a few bars that even had live music and ended up in one called Number 21, a movie restaurant bar with a large screen that you can literally watch a movie and dine or drink at the same time.
As taxis are limited and buses stop usually by 9 or 10 pm. Best to get DiDi (Chinese Uber) on your phone or plan ahead!
Day 2
Ancient City Wall
First built in the 1020s, the ancient wall of Zhaoqing has been preserved throughout the years. There are a few entrances where you can go up and walk on top of the wall. There is also a main gate that has been kept to appear just like in ancient China times with the bright red double wooden door with gold spikes throughout.
The most interesting part about the ancient city wall area for me was that a lot of the neighborhoods around it are still preserved. For example, we saw across the street by one section of the wall a large mosque and muslim village. And next to the main gate, we saw a village with houses dated back to 1902. We also spotted a few cute cats along the way as well!
Licha Village (Bagua Village) 黎槎村 (八卦村）
One of my favorite places from this trip! We took a bus from downtown Zhaoqing and transferred to bus 315 to go to this 800 year old village about 25km away from downtown Zhaoqing.
The village got its name from the way the houses within the village are planned out - like a traditional Chinese bagua, or yin-yang sign. I highly recommend visiting this place if you visit Zhaoqing! I loved it so much that I wrote a separate post dedicated to it in more details, which I shall post in the upcoming week!
Seven Star Crags Park (七星岩)
Located in the center of town, this beautiful nature rock formation with a large lake national park is an absolute must-see! The type of crags with traditional pagodas, pavilions, and bridges truly showcases the Chinese culture and aesthetic for architectural beauty.
And don’t miss out on the cave boat rides! There are two caves in the park, one more famous and bigger than the other. Sadly, we were not aware of this so went to the smaller cave boat ride, which was still really nice and well done! The bigger and more famous one is obviously, the Seven Star Crags, that we somehow missed…
Tickets
Entrance: $70 RMB or $10 USD
Cave Boatride: $20 RMB or $3 USD
Getting Around
While the park is big, it’s quite walkable and have bridges throughout the lake that you can cut across to different sections of the park, including an island!
I had an absolutely amazing time this weekend in Zhaoqing. I would have to say is the best place we’ve been to thus far since moving to Hong Kong. And the best part is it’s so underrated right now so it’s super affordable and not very crowded! So what are you waiting for?!
