Atlas of China
Yangzhou 扬州Yángzhōu
Salt merchants' gardens, Slender West Lake and morning tea by the canal
About Yangzhou
Yangzhou grew wealthy as a Grand Canal and salt-trading city, and under the Qing its merchants laid out the gardens and villas along Slender West Lake, a waterway that developed from the Tang city moats. Ge Garden, planted with bamboo, and He Garden are among the best-kept merchant residences, while Daming Temple honours the monk Jianzhen, who taught there before sailing to Japan in the 8th century. Its kitchens are one of the two homes of Huaiyang cooking.
What to eat in Yangzhou
- Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭)
- Lion's head meatballs (狮子头)
Featured places in Yangzhou
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Slender West Lake 瘦西湖
A ribbon of willow-fringed water lined with the pavilions of Qing salt merchants
Listed sites in Yangzhou
26 sites in Yangzhou are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Daming Temple 大明寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A Buddhist temple on the Shugang hills, founded in the Daming era (457–464) that gave it its name, where the monk Jianzhen taught before his voyages to Japan, which he finally reached in 753 after five failed attempts. - Dongguan Street 东关街 4A scenic area
A 1,122 m flagstone street that ran from the Great East Gate of Yangzhou's old city to Dongguan by the canal, once one of the city's busiest trading streets. - Ge Garden 个园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A salt merchant's garden rebuilt in 1818 by Huang Zhiyun on the site of an older Ming garden and named after its bamboo, whose clustered leaves resemble the character 个 (ge). - Han Guangling Tomb Museum (Hanling Yuan) 汉陵苑 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum on the Shugang hills built around the tomb of Liu Xu, the first Prince of Guangling in the Western Han, and the tomb of his consort, both excavated at Tianshan in Gaoyou from 1979 and later moved here. - He Garden 何园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A large late-Qing residence and garden, also called Jixiao Shanzhuang, built from 1862 to 1875 by He Zhidao, a former circuit intendant in Hubei, who added the older Pianshi Shanfang garden in 1883. - Memorial of the Last Battle of the War of Resistance, Gaoyou 抗日战争最后一役文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
In December 1945, more than four months after Japan announced its surrender, the New Fourth Army's Central China Field Army under Su Yu attacked Gaoyou, whose Japanese and collaborationist garrison had refused to surrender to it; the town fell on 26 December and the Japanese garrison surrendered in the auditorium of its headquarters. - Nashan Geopark 捺山地质公园 4A scenic area · on the map
Nashan, a 146 m hill in the countryside of Yizheng, is an extinct shield volcano whose interior was exposed by quarrying from the 1980s. - Phoenix Island Eco-Tourism Area 凤凰岛 4A scenic area · on the map
A wetland park on the islands among the rivers north-east of Yangzhou, laid out around water, islands, woodland and birds. - Sanwan Park & China Grand Canal Museum 运河三湾 4A scenic area · National heritage site
In 1597 Yangzhou's prefect Guo Guangfu replaced a straight stretch of the canal, nearly 200 m long, with a 1.8 km course of three bends to raise the water level and slow the current; after 2014 factories and wharves were cleared from its banks, which reopened in 2017 as a wetland park. - Song Jiacheng Archaeological Park (Yangzhou City Ruins) 宋夹城 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The Jiacheng was a walled enclosure the Southern Song built between Yangzhou's main city and the fortress on the Shugang hills; its earthen walls, about 2.6 km round and still 1–3 m above the surrounding ground, are ringed by water and now form a park with paths and the excavated north gate. - Wenyou Terrace, Gaoyou 文游台 4A scenic area
A group of halls in the north of Gaoyou that began in 976 as a temple to the god of Mount Tai. - Yangzhou Museum & China Block Printing Museum 扬州博物馆 4A scenic area
Yangzhou's main museum shares a modern building beside Mingyue Lake with the China Block Printing Museum, so the pair is known locally as the 'Double Museum'; both opened here in 2005. - Yucheng Postal Stop 盂城驿 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The largest relay station on the Ming–Qing Grand Canal, founded in 1375 beside the canal at Gaoyou to keep post horses and boats and lodge officials; it burned in 1557, was rebuilt in 1568 and was repaired several times under the Qing. - Zhuyuwan Scenic Area (Yangzhou Zoo) 茱萸湾 4A scenic area · on the map
A peninsula park in Wantou, north-east of Yangzhou, that combines gardens, woodland and water with the city zoo. - Crane Mosque 仙鹤寺 National heritage site
One of the oldest mosques in China, founded in 1275 by Puhaddin, an Arab missionary said to descend from the Prophet Muhammad, and rebuilt in 1390 and again in 1523. - Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou Memorial Hall 扬州八怪纪念馆 National heritage site
A museum to the Qing painters known as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, opened in 1993 in the former Xifang Temple, where one of them, Jin Nong, lodged from the age of 70 until his death in 1763. - Gaoyou Pawnshop (Tongxing Pawnshop) 高邮当铺 National heritage site
A pawnshop outside Gaoyou's old north gate, opened in the early to mid Qing and said by local tradition to have belonged to the minister Heshen; it traded until 1927, reopened briefly and closed for good during the war against Japan. - Jia Salt Merchant Residence & Erfen Mingyue Lou 贾氏盐商住宅 National heritage site · on the map
The house and garden of the late-Qing Zhenjiang salt merchant Jia Yuan, a residence of linked halls and courtyards with the Erfen Mingyue Lou garden, named after the Tang poet Xu Ning's line giving Yangzhou two of the world's three shares of moonlight. - Longqiuzhuang Neolithic Site 龙虬庄遗址 National heritage site · on the map
A Neolithic settlement dated to about 7,000–5,000 years ago, found in the 1970s and excavated in 1993–95, when 402 burials and a house site were uncovered; it gave its name to the Longqiuzhuang culture of the Jianghuai region east of the Grand Canal. - Lu Salt Merchant Residence (China Huaiyang Cuisine Museum) 卢氏盐商住宅 National heritage site
Built in 1897 for the Jiangxi salt merchant Lu Shaoxu, this is the largest surviving salt merchant's house in Yangzhou, with more than 130 rooms on over a hectare: a nine-courtyard residence in front and the Yi Garden, with a stone boat, pavilion and pond, behind. - Tomb of Emperor Yang of Sui 隋炀帝墓 National heritage site · on the map
The tombs of Emperor Yang of Sui, who was killed in a mutiny at his Jiangdu palace in Yangzhou in 618, and of his empress Xiao, found on a building site at Caozhuang in 2012 and identified the next year by an epitaph naming 'the late Emperor Yang of Sui'. - Tomb of Puhaddin 普哈丁墓 National heritage site
The walled cemetery of Puhaddin, an Arab missionary said to be a 16th-generation descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, who came to Yangzhou in the late Southern Song and died in 1275. - Wang Xiaoyuan Residence 汪氏小苑 National heritage site
A salt merchant's house in the Dongquanmen lanes, built in the late Qing by the Huizhou merchant Wang Zhuming and enlarged by his eldest son in the early Republic, and one of the most complete merchant residences of that period in Yangzhou. - Wu Daotai Mansion (Wu Family Residence) 吴氏宅第 National heritage site
A large mansion begun in 1888 for Wu Yinsun, a Qing official who had served as circuit intendant at Ningbo, and laid out after the intendant's office there. - Xiaopangu Garden 小盘谷 National heritage site · on the map
A compact garden and house in the lanes of south-east Yangzhou, laid out in the late 18th century and rebuilt after 1904 by Zhou Fu, Viceroy of Liangjiang, with the residence on the west and the garden on the east over about 5,700 m². - Yipu Garden 逸圃 National heritage site
A compact house and garden on Dongguan Street, built in 1910 for the banker Li Hesheng, with a five-courtyard residence on the west and the garden on the east, separated by a fire lane.
On the map
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