Where to Stay in Meizhou, Guangdong

What is Meizhou known for?

China Hakka Museum in Meijiang District sets out that inheritance, and the counties around keep the built proof of it, since Tai'an Lou, Hua'e Tulou and Guangludi in Dabu stand as fortified clan houses rather than museum pieces. Meizhou also carries the title Hometown of Culture. The Fuzi Jinshi Paifang and Changle Confucian School belong to that second reputation, and Xingning fills out the rest of the prefecture.

What are the main landmarks in Meizhou?

The list runs to clan halls and preserved houses. Tai'an Lou, Hua'e Tulou and Guangludi in Dabu are the fortified Hakka buildings, while Fengcai Hall and the Fuzi Jinshi Paifang stand for the scholarly side of the same tradition. Memorials carry the names.

The Huang Zunxian Memorial, the Former Residence of Qiu Fengjia and the Former Residence of Xie Jinyuan are all dwellings kept as they were, and the Birthplace of Ye Jianying and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall at Sanhe join them. Shixiongshan Site is older ground.

What is the history of Meizhou?

Shixiongshan Site is the oldest name on the roster. What followed is Hakka. Meizhou's standing as the Hometown of the Overseas Hakka Chinese rests on generations of migration out of these counties, and China Hakka Museum in Meijiang District exists to hold the record of that movement.

Changle Confucian School and the Fuzi Jinshi Paifang belong to the examination culture behind the prefecture's other title, Hometown of Culture. Administration settled into its present shape around two urban districts. Meijiang District and Meixian District form the built-up half, while Xingning came in as a city in its own right alongside five counties.

Houses do the remembering here. The Huang Zunxian Memorial, the Former Residence of Qiu Fengjia and the Former Residence of Xie Jinyuan are preserved dwellings rather than monuments, and the Birthplace of Ye Jianying works the same way over in Meixian District. Sanhe holds the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

Dabu keeps Fengcai Hall and Guangludi, and the fortified clan houses of that countryside, among them Tai'an Lou and Hua'e Tulou, survive across the county because families built them to outlast a generation rather than to be looked at. Guangdong has few concentrations like it. The Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium belongs to a much later civic layer of the same city.

Where is Meizhou?

Meizhou covers a wide stretch of Guangdong. Two urban districts, Meijiang District and Meixian District, sit at the centre of a prefecture that also takes in Xingning and five counties, so the built-up part is a small fraction of the whole. Dabu lies well out from it.

The subtropical band crosses the prefecture, and Sanhe, Guangludi and the villages holding Hua'e Tulou are country ground rather than suburb.

What is the climate of Meizhou?

Summer holds Meizhou for months on end. The subtropical band that crosses Guangdong keeps Meizhou warm and wet through the middle of the year, when shade at Tai'an Lou or an hour inside China Hakka Museum is worth planning for. Winters stay mild by comparison.

Rain matters more than cold, and the counties around Dabu and Xingning feel a wet spell more than the paved streets of Meijiang District do.

How do you get to Meizhou?

Meijiang District is the arrival point. The prefecture's built-up area sits there and in Meixian District, and everything else, from Xingning to Dabu and Sanhe, takes a road journey out from that centre. Meizhou's counties lie a real distance apart.

Reaching Guangludi or the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall from China Hakka Museum means crossing county ground, and the same holds for Hua'e Tulou and the villages that keep the older clan houses of Meizhou.