Not the Qinhuai River, but Jingzhou... so beautiful you won't want to leave
Not the Qinhuai River, but Jingzhou... A detailed travel guide to Jingzhou. Due to limited holiday time, we could only choose somewhere near Wuhan. It takes 1h30 by high-speed rail from Wuhan to Jingzhou. After arrival, we took a taxi to Laojiaofang Restaurant on Zhang Juzheng Road. The fresh beef hotpot and charcoal-grilled tofu are highly recommended. For other dishes, order according to your preferences.
We stayed at the Kaiyuan Yingcheng Resort Hotel in Jingzhou. Before booking, we compared it with Wanda Fuli and Borui hotels, and chose Kaiyuan mainly because it's a resort that opened in 2021, so it's newer and more comfortable. The hotel is centrally located, convenient for visiting Fantawild, the Ancient City, the Museum, and the train station - just CNY 10+ by taxi, and it's easy to get a ride. The hotel provides a shuttle service that's available on demand and will take you to your designated building. The resort environment is beautiful, very relaxing, and great for photos!
Day 1: Since we went during summer vacation, after arriving and resting at the hotel for a while, we took the children to play in the hotel pool, which they really enjoyed. In the evening, we strolled around the resort taking photos (the large dock, sorghum fields, and foxtail grass fields make for excellent photo opportunities). At night, we took a taxi to Dasai Lane for street food.
The street food at Dasai Lane offers great value for money. We recommend the stinky tofu, glutinous rice with beans, guokui (Chinese flatbread), cold shrimp, and red bean paste. Actually, you can't go wrong with any choice. After eating our way through Dasai Lane, we walked to the Yangmatou area near the Yangtze River. It's very pleasant to enjoy the river breeze at a small bar. Even in the 38-degree summer heat, Yangmatou is cool at night with a great atmosphere and vibrant nightlife. Near Yangmatou, there's a plant shop called "Happiness for You" - it looks like a Western-style house from the outside, and the interior features tastefully arranged plants. It's quite spacious and perfect for photos. Highly recommended.
Day 2: Hotel buffet breakfast at 7am - strongly recommend the handmade rice noodles, my friend had two bowls. Then we took a taxi to Fantawild (I have a separate guide for Fantawild, check my homepage if interested). We stayed at Fantawild until around 5pm before returning to the hotel to rest (if you have enough energy, you can experience Fantawild's night activities). Then we went to the Jingzhou Ancient City, which isn't very big.