The most practical travel guide for Jiangsu in China

👃 6:32 AM at Ye Chun Tea House - The first wisps of steam curl from bamboo baskets holding "three-diced" buns , their pork-and-crab filling perfuming the misty morning air. Silver-haired regulars debate chess moves using lacquered pieces that click like coded messages against stone tables. This is Yangzhou's daily rebirth ritual - slow, savory, and steeped in 2,500 years of breakfast traditions. 👂 2:17 PM on Xiaopanfeng Lane - A sudden summer rain transforms blue-gray roof tiles into a percussion orchestra. Under crimson oil-paper umbrellas, silk embroidery shopkeepers laughingly reposition their Jiangnan-style hand fans , the metallic clinks of their copper display stands keeping rhythm with the downpour. Time dissolves like sugar in Huaiyang broth. 👅 7:09 PM at Dongguan Street Well #4 - The night market erupts in a symphony of sizzling woks. An octogenarian vendor demonstrates the Eight Secret Strokes of Yangzhou Fried Rice , his iron spatula dancing between flame...

🌅 6:32 AM at Fengcheng River Dock - Mist rises like phantom opera singers from the water as tea masters perform their morning ritual at Yelou Teahouse. The clink of porcelain accompanies the soft splash of bamboo poles pushing through hyacinth-choked canals. An old man on the neighboring boat smiles through missing teeth, steam from his xiaolongbao merging with the river fog. 🌻 2:17 PM in Qianduo Flower Fields - A mosaic of yellow erupts across fractal waterways, farmers' bamboo hats bobbing between rapeseed blooms like lotus leaves. The air hums with bees drunk on pollen and the distant warble of a boatwoman's folk song. Watch for the golden retrievers that patrol the dikes – unofficial ambassadors of this liquid labyrinth. 🦢 7:49 PM at Qinhu Wetland Boardwalk - Twilight transforms the reeds into silhouette calligraphy as the last egrets return to nest. The marsh exhales coolness stored from daytime, carrying whispers of forgotten water towns. A fisherman's carbide l...