Experience the best of Xuzhou

Xuzhou, also called Pengcheng, sits where Jiangsu meets Shandong, Henan and Anhui provinces, and it has been a crossroads for more than two thousand years. Xiang Yu made it the capital of Western Chu in 206 BC, and it is regarded as the ancestral home of the Han dynasty's imperial family. Shizishan, Lion Mountain, holds the tombs of Han-era princes of Chu, guarded by a terracotta army of small figures.

Yunlong Lake lies on the south-west side of the city beneath Yunlong Mountain, a low ridge with temples and viewpoints. The Yellow Pavilion, first built in 1078 under the poet Su Shi, was rebuilt in 1988, and the Huaihai Campaign Memorial Park recalls the great battle of 1948. Xuzhou is still a rail hub, where the Beijing–Shanghai and Longhai lines cross.

Local cooking blends Huaiyang and Shandong styles, salty and strongly flavoured, and laomo, a thin unleavened flatbread, is a staple. Winters are cold, summers hot, and the dry days of autumn are the pleasantest.