Day nineteen

After a Chinese buffet breakfast, it was time to head to the railway station for the train to Linhai, which was about an hour away.

The taxi to the city center took another 20-30 minutes, and luckily, the hotel allowed an early check-in so I could drop my bag and visit the main attraction, the Linhai Great Wall.

The wall was part of the Walled City of Taizhou Fu. The first parts of the wall were erected in the year 317, and there used to be over six kilometers of wall.

Right now, about 4 kilometers is walkable, and it starts with a nice set of stairs to get up the mountain.

I was there in the afternoon, which was poorly timed, as it meant hordes of school children thundering down the mountain.

After saying hello a million times, the crowd thinned, and I had the place almost to myself.

The route starts on the mountain and takes you along watch towers and tea houses.

Another Dutch gun!

The wall descends towards the river, giving fantastic views of much of its length.

While it has become a tourist hot spot (foot traffic has grown five-fold between 2020 and 2023), many people still live in the old part of town.

At the end of the wall, there's a temple (of course!), and it's the start of a narrow shopping street that takes you into the center of the city.

There are a lot of snacks, such as these seaweed-filled cookies. (they were amazing!).

It was getting dark, but I thought I'd visit the two towers on the mountain since I'd seen them at the end of the wall all day long.

This park, with the two towers, gives a great view of the starting point (lit up in the center).

It was time for dinner, so I followed the shopping street and ducked into a side alley for some nice beef noodles.