Dragon Boat Festival without crowds: One-day tour guide to Qingguo Lane, Changzhou
Day 1⃣️
🍜 One soup, one noodle 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
✅ One of Changzhou's top ten noodle dishes
✅ Liu Yijun's checked-in noodle shop
✅ Delicious, every strand of noodle is coated with sauce, rich pepper flavor topping, and thick fish soup
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🏨 Hotel: Changzhou Wenpu Hotel 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Room type: Wenyue Elegant Suite
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📍 Panyue Mountain Changzhou Baolin Temple 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
✅ 9:00-16:00
✅ Free admission 🎫🆓 Built by Emperor Xiao Heng of the Southern Liang dynasty
✅ The name "Baolin" means "Pure Land forest, seven treasures in a row"
✅ Guanyin Pavilion is 91.9 meters tall, resembling a blooming lotus flower
⚠️ Must arrive before 15:30
⚠️ No photography of statues 📷
✅ Ancient architecture corridor, leisurely and serene
✅ Café: Wuyuan Coffee ☕️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Next to Emperor Liang Wu and the lotus pond (flowering season usually June-September)
🍑 Ordered a coffee and a drink, great for photos 📷. Because I was in a hurry to see the Guanyin Pavilion, the drink melted a bit on the way back. The barista kindly remade it and also gave me a new drink and a handwritten bookmark 🔖
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📍 Qingguo Lane 🌟
✅ Free admission 🆓 Formerly known as "Qian Guo Lane," one of Changzhou's old streets, leading directly to the South Street commercial center
✅ Along the canal, now a local trendy street area featuring ancient buildings, various specialty snacks, bookstores, coffee shops, handicrafts, and some art markets
⚠️ The market is in the evening; few stalls were open when I visited
✅ The street has several celebrity former residences, known as "the first lane of Jiangnan literati"
⚠️ No entry allowed, only signs at the doors indicating whose home it was
✅ Must check in at the white wall at the entrance (West Gate)
⚠️ The square in front of the white wall has no water surface, so no reflection photos of the white wall atmosphere
✅ Boat tour reference:
Time: 10:00-22:00
Price: 48 RMB/person (about 30 minutes, located at West Gate)
⚠️ Lots of mosquitoes
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🍣 Zhushang Japanese Cuisine 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💰 288 RMB/person buffet
✅ Unlimited lobster, salmon, Arctic surf clam, sweet shrimp, foie gras, etc.
✅ Great value for money 👍
⚠️ If you have a small stomach, don’t do the buffet. The two of us ordered two sashimi platters and were full
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Day 2⃣️
📍 Tianning Zen Temple (next to Hongmei Park) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
✅ Admission: 50 RMB/person (includes tower access)
✅ Founded in the Tang dynasty, over 1300 years old, offers a panoramic view of Changzhou
✅ Opening hours:
Tianning Zen Temple 6:30-17:30 (last entry 16:30)
Tianning Pagoda 8:00-17:00 (last entry 16:00)
✅ Elevator inside the pagoda goes directly to the 12th floor, 13th floor has the Shifang Yuanrong Glazed Hall and 5th floor has the Dharma Source Hall (Agarwood Art Museum) 👍👍👍
⚠️ No photography of statues 📷
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🥠 Changzhou Pastry Shop 🌟
✅ Local breakfast snack shop
✅ Sticky and chewy, can be eaten quickly
✅ Chose three sticky varieties, not sweet, mild rice fragrance but not tasty
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🥟 Huihui Potstickers 🌟
✅ Recommended by a big sister
✅ Halal restaurant
✅ Close to Changzhou Pastry Shop, walkable
❌ Beef vermicelli and regular potstickers are ordinary, the bottom of the potstickers is not crispy at all