Cangzhou is in Hebei, in North China.
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Hebei · City Guide
Cangzhou, an Iron Lion Cast in 953.
Overview
Why Go
The lion was cast in 953, stands over five metres and weighs around forty tonnes, which makes it one of the larger surviving ancient iron castings anywhere. It has stood outdoors for much of that time and shows it.
Wuqiao County is the acknowledged home of Chinese acrobatics, with troupes that have exported performers for generations. Several perform at once in a courtyard park, including sleight of hand, foot juggling and vocal mimicry.
The short-range striking style known abroad from films and games came out of Mengcun, a Hui autonomous county here, and is still taught in village courtyards rather than just in commercial schools.
More than two hundred kilometres of the Grand Canal run through this prefecture, one of the longer single-city stretches on the whole World Heritage line, with the old channel still winding through the towns.
Huanghua winter jujube is picked in October when it is still crisp and pale green going red, eaten like an apple rather than dried. It carries a protected-origin mark and does not travel well, which is why it is worth eating here.
See
The lion stands in a field outside the old county town, heavily corroded and braced, with an inscription still legible on it. There is very little else on site. An hour, and it is worth the drive out.
An open-air park of courtyard stages with troupes performing through the day and a longer evening show in the main theatre. Sleight of hand, balancing and mimicry. Much of a day.
A Hui autonomous county where Bajiquan is taught in courtyards and schools, with a memorial hall to the lineage. Arrange a visit rather than turning up; training is not a performance. Two hours.
The old channel loops through the city and the counties with restored banks, a canal museum and stretches visitors can walk or cycle. It is a working piece of landscape rather than a monument. Two hours.
The tomb of the Qing scholar who compiled the imperial library, and the Han mound of the prince credited with recovering Confucian texts after the Qin. Both small, both quiet. An hour each.
Reed beds and shallow water near the coast, on the migration route, with boardwalks and hides. Spring and autumn passage bring the numbers. Half a day, and bring binoculars.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Cangzhou.
Eat
Eaten fresh and crisp in October rather than dried, sweet with a clean snap. The saline coastal soil is what growers credit. Buy at the orchard; the shipped ones soften within days.
Braised donkey chopped and packed into a flat layered pastry, hot from the oven. Hejian makes the rectangular version; Baoding makes a round one and the two counties disagree about it permanently.
Cabbage salted with garlic and packed into glazed jars to cure, coming out dark, salty and intensely garlicky. Used a spoonful at a time in soups and steamed dishes rather than eaten alone.
Thin-skinned juicy pears from old orchards at Botou, picked in September and traditionally stewed with rock sugar as much as eaten raw. The county has exported them for over a century.
Do
Forty tonnes of iron cast in sections in the tenth century, and visitors can walk right up to it. Look for the casting seams and the inscription, then look at how much of it the weather has taken.
The courtyard acts at Wuqiao are close-up and cheap, and they are better than the big evening gala. Sit through two or three small ones before deciding whether visitors need the theatre show.
It is a breakfast, not a lunch, and the good shops sell out. Ask for it with the gelatinous meat mixed in if visitors want the version locals order. Hejian is forty minutes from the city.
The channel loops far more than a modern engineer would allow, which is why it survived the terrain. Pick a stretch inside the city and follow one bend end to end.
When
Mild and dry with the canal banks green and bird passage on the coast. The strongest window of the year.
Hot, humid and hazy on the plain. The acrobatics park runs indoors and out, which makes it the reliable option.
Pears then winter jujubes, clear cool air and the second bird passage. The other good window and the better one for food.
Cold, dry and windy, with the wetland frozen. The lion, the tombs and the acrobatics carry on and nobody else is there.
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Cangzhou is in Hebei, in North China.
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