Lishui travel guide

Lishui, China

By the Travel Wiki editorial team

Lishui

Introduction

Lishui is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Zhejiang province, China. Its name literally means "Beautiful Waters," and the city sits at the meeting point of several neighbouring areas: Quzhou, Jinhua and Taizhou lie to the north, Wenzhou to the southeast, and the province of Fujian to the southwest.

Before you go

Lishui has been settled since the Neolithic age, and the city itself was founded in 589 AD as Chuzhou; the name Lishui is first attested in 621, when it was a county administered from Chuzhou. It only took its present name during the Ming or Qing dynasty, and the administrative unit you'll encounter today was created in 2000. During the Sino-Japanese war it served as the administrative capital of unoccupied Zhejiang after the fall of Hangzhou.

One practical point before you arrive: the first character of the name is pronounced "lí", not the usual "lì".

Getting there

Lishui has no airport of its own, so most travellers arrive by high-speed train. Lishui station sits on the southeast side of the city, just minutes by car or bus from the centre. Bullet trains connect it to major cities: Wenzhou South is about 35 minutes away, Hangzhou East around 1.5 hours, and Shanghai Hongqiao roughly 3 hours.

By bus, Lishui East bus station serves cities in Zhejiang and a few major cities in other provinces. Most buses to destinations within Lishui prefecture pass through a small bus station in front of the train station on their way out of town; arriving in Lishui, you will instead be dropped off on the ring road, 300 m west of the station.

Getting around

Lishui has no metro or tram network, so getting around the city proper relies on buses, taxis and your own two feet. Public buses run fairly often, though frequency varies by route; single- and double-digit routes are the cheap local workhorses, while longer-distance buses, often with three-digit numbers, cost more. Pay in coins or bills — no change is given — or tap a prepaid bus card. Taxis are easy to find around most major sites and drivers are generally honest, but very few speak English, so have your destination written out in Chinese, both name and address, to show your driver. The central part of the city is manageable on foot for short trips between nearby sights, but the mountainous terrain and the spread-out prefecture mean walking is best kept to local distances rather than crossing town.

For anything beyond the city core, rail is the backbone of regional travel. Lishui station sits on the southeast side of the city, just minutes from the centre by car or bus, and bullet trains connect it to major cities across the region. The Jinhua–Wenzhou Railway also runs through the prefecture and, together with the No. 330 National Highway, forms the backbone of the area's public transport system. Long-distance buses leave from Lishui East bus station for destinations across Zhejiang and a few major cities in other provinces, and most buses heading elsewhere within the prefecture pass through a small bus station in front of the train station on their way out of town — if you arrive on one of these, you'll be dropped on the ring road about 300 m west of the station rather than at the terminal itself.

Where to stay

Lishui's accommodation is concentrated downtown, where you'll be within easy reach of the East Bus Station and the railway station. The New World Hotel on Liqing Road offers a broad range of rooms and suites, from single and business standard to administrative and presidential types, all with modern facilities.

Food & drink

For everyday eating, head to Western Plaza on Xueyuan Road, a two-storey complex packed with dozens of restaurants and food stalls. The food is almost entirely Chinese, with a couple of sushi counters and an Italian place tucked into the corner of the second floor, and dishes are very reasonably priced. Lishui Vegetarian Restaurant on Dangshan Road serves an all-Chinese vegetarian buffet with drinks, and it draws a crowd around 6pm, so time your visit before or after the rush. For sushi, Heart Sushi on Youshan Road offers a picture menu and plenty of choices, including avocado.

Wandi Plaza is where you'll find most of the city's better restaurants. Try the Beijing duck, baked fish, a Thai spot on the second floor, or the Xinjiang restaurant, which serves everything from caramelized sweet potatoes to grilled mutton and has a decent range of vegetarian options; a picture menu helps if you don't read Chinese. For local specialties in pretty, calm surroundings beside a river offshoot, Sparrow near Daxi Brook is a large two-storey place known for lotus porridge and brown sugar dessert, and it works best for big groups. To drink, Wandi Plaza's pedestrian street has Hey Juice for bubble tea with an English menu, and First Generation, a Japanese-inspired tea and cake shop spread over three floors. Near the riverfront, BeerGo is a restaurant and craft beer bar popular with expats, serving sliders, fries and the like.

What to see and do

Lishui's sights cluster around its waterfront, where the Lishui Riverside Park stretches along the north bank of the river between the photography museum and the city museum. The park takes in small gardens, koi ponds, waterfalls, a sand playground, pavilions, the old city gate and a skateboard park; in summer you can rent quad-bikes or take a boat ride, and on weekday mornings you may hear people practising traditional instruments. Rising on the waterfront is the Astronomy Tower, a striking building devoted to its subject, with a small rotating exhibition on the ground floor, displays on Chinese astrology above, an occasional star show higher up, and a small temple at the top with fine views over the city and river. Nearby, the Lishui City Museum holds wide-ranging exhibitions covering history, animal life and the city's three treasures of pottery, sword-making and stone-carving, while the two-storey Lishui Photography Museum shows rotating work by photographers from around the world alongside a permanent display of cameras. Beyond the centre, Lishui rewards those willing to travel a little further. Two Ming-dynasty pagodas survive: Shahe Pagoda, on the hillside south of the train station, is best visited at sunset for its westward view of the city and mountains, with a connected temple reached through a small shrine built into a rock; the more secluded Jinshan Ta sits on a mountain reached by trail past a farming village and a local Buddhist temple. Lingshan Temple spreads across a hillside northeast of the city, its complex of older and newer temples including a dragon cave temple. In the Liandu area, the Ancient Weir Painting Village occupies both banks of the river, its lanes of shops, restaurants and cafes drawing painters who set up easels along the water, while the East and West Scenic Area offers rock formations, canyons, caves and temples along a waymarked circular hike. The old mountain paths, Kuocang Ancient Road and Guanling Ancient Road, lead through mountain tops, bamboo forest, old villages and temples, and the ancient village of Xixi, reachable by city bus, retains a lived-in atmosphere in its narrow streets. For more active days, Baiyun Shan in the north of the city has paved hiking trails with pavilions and a large Buddhist temple at the top, and in summer the Lishui Adventure Island Water World opens with its rides and dining options.

When to go

Lishui has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate, with short, mild winters and long, very hot, humid summers. Frost occurs occasionally in winter, the coolest stretch of the year, but the cold is not severe enough to shut down travel.

Three days in Lishui

Day one: Arrive in Lishui, the city whose name means Beautiful Waters, in Zhejiang province, China. It sits within reach of Quzhou, Jinhua, Taizhou, Wenzhou and Fujian, so you can approach it from several directions. If you come by air, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Wenzhou Longwan International Airport are the gateways to aim for, with direct connections from some of them. By rail, Lishui East is served from Wenzhou South, Hangzhou East and Shanghai Hongqiao, and there are bullet trains on these routes. From Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, make your way to Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station for the train. Once in the city, most travel is by public transport, and taxis are metered, so pay your fare as you go. Settle in and get your bearings.

Day two: Give the day to the old town of Chuzhou, the historic heart of Lishui. Its roots reach back to the Neolithic period, and it has been a settled place for a very long time, with layers from the Ming and Qing dynasties still visible in its streets and buildings. Walk slowly and let the place set its own pace. The weather here shifts through the year, so expect warm and humid spells in summer and colder, damp conditions in winter; pack accordingly.

Day three: Use your last day to look further into the region's past, including the years of the Sino-Japanese war, which left their mark on this part of Zhejiang. Lishui's position between Quzhou, Jinhua, Taizhou, Wenzhou and Fujian made it a crossroads, and that history rewards a little time. When you are ready to leave, head back to Lishui East for trains toward Wenzhou South, Hangzhou East or Shanghai Hongqiao, or set off for one of the airports you arrived through.

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