Why go
Every Chinese schoolchild knows Huaguo Mountain as the Monkey King's birthplace from the 16th-century novel Journey to the West — and the real mountain, with its water-curtain cave behind a genuine waterfall, temple complex and macaques, plays the part with gusto.
The quieter treasure is Kongwang Mountain on the edge of town, whose cliff carvings of the Buddha date to the 2nd century AD — some of the earliest Buddhist images in China, carved when monks first landed at this Han-dynasty port. Lian Island, reached by a 6-km sea dyke, holds the beaches.
- Huaguo Mountain — the Monkey King's legendary home, with a real water-curtain cave
- Kongwang Mountain's Eastern Han cliff carvings — Buddhism's first landfall in China
- Lian Island beach and fishing harbour
- The 6-km dyke walk out to Lian Island at low tide
Where to go
Day one: Huaguo Mountain (cable car up, walk down past the cave). Day two: Kongwang Mountain carvings and Lian Island's beach-and-harbour loop.
What to eat
Seafood by the harbour — grilled squid, clams with chilli, seaweed salads — and Jiangsu-style noodle soups. Crab season peaks in autumn.
Getting there
- HSR from Nanjing ~2h, Qingdao ~2h
- Role
- Port city, Jiangsu province
- Land Bridge
- Eastern terminus of the rail route to Europe
- Journey to the West
- Huaguo Mountain is the Monkey King's home
