Jingzhou in two days: a walled city, Chu silks, and a pagoda below the dike

Early in the morning the moat on Jingzhou's east side is still. Binyang Lou 宾阳楼, the gate tower, shows upside down in the water. A man sets a folding stool at the edge and unpacks a fishing rod. Above him, on the brick, the first walkers of the day go by with their hands clasped behind their backs. Jingzhou 荆州 is a Hubei city most travellers pass through on the train between Wuhan and the Three Gorges. Its wall makes a good case for getting off.

Walking the wall from the east gate

Jingzhou Ancient City Wall 荆州古城墙 (Jīngzhōu Gǔchéngqiáng) runs a little over ten kilometres around the old town. It is really three things in one: an earthen rampart, a brick face built in front of it, and the moat outside. Most of the brick you walk on was laid in the Ming and Qing dynasties, over much older foundations. Watch the paving and the parapet as you go. Now and then a brick carries stamped characters, which once recorded who made it and where.

Start at Yinbin Men 寅宾门, the east gate under Binyang Lou, and walk south. On the way you pass the gate towers that divide the circuit. Nanji Men 南纪门 is in the south, and Gongji Men 拱极门 in the north sits under Chaozong Lou 朝宗楼, where travellers bound for the capital were once seen off. The top of the wall is wide and uneven, and there is almost no shade. Locals walk it at dawn or after dusk for that reason.

Inside the walls, at museum pace

Jingzhou sat at the heart of the ancient state of Chu 楚 (Chǔ), and Jingzhou Museum 荆州博物馆 holds what came out of the region's tombs. Expect red-and-black lacquerware, bronze vessels, and silk from the Chu-era tomb at Mashan 马山. The silk is shown in low light, and its embroidered dragons and phoenixes are worth a slow second circuit. A separate hall holds a Western Han body found at Fenghuangshan 凤凰山. Many visitors skip it, and nothing in the main galleries depends on it.

From the museum the old town is easy to walk on side streets. Kaiyuan Guan 开元观, a Taoist temple complex, sits inside the walls. So does the residence of Zhang Juzheng 张居正, the Ming grand secretary, much of it rebuilt on the old site. Near the south gate a Guan Yu temple, Guandi Miao 关帝庙, recalls the Three Kingdoms general who held Jingzhou and then lost it. The story lives on as an idiom that people still use for a small slip with big consequences.

Dàyì shī Jīngzhōu 大意失荆州 — to lose Jingzhou through carelessness.

What the city eats between gates

The dish Jingzhou is proudest of is yúgāo 鱼糕, a steamed fish cake made from pounded freshwater fish. It is cut into white slabs with a thin yellow layer of egg on top. In this region a banquet table without it is thought incomplete. Smaller restaurants inside the walls serve it sliced in a broth or stir-fried with vegetables, and a single portion is enough for two people.

For breakfast or a snack between gates, look for guōkuī 锅盔, the flatbread associated with nearby Gong'an 公安. The baker slaps the dough against the inside wall of a hot barrel oven and fishes it out with tongs when it blisters. It comes plain or filled with minced pork and spring onion. In the warm months Hubei's taste for crayfish, xiǎolóngxiā 小龙虾, takes over the evening streets, and the tables run onto the pavement. You order by weight and by sauce, so ask how a portion is priced before it reaches the wok.

Shashi and the river that needs a dike

The Yangtze runs a few kilometres south of the walls, past Shashi 沙市, the old port district. Here the river is called Jingjiang 荆江 (Jīngjiāng). It winds so much and floods so readily that its banks have been built up for centuries into the Jingjiang Dike 荆江大堤. Walk the top of the embankment and you look down on barges on one side and rooftops on the other. The river sits higher than you would expect.

万里长江，险在荆江。(Wànlǐ Chángjiāng, xiǎn zài Jīngjiāng — of the Yangtze's ten thousand li, the danger lies at Jingjiang.)

On the dike stands Wanshou Pagoda 万寿宝塔, a Ming-dynasty brick tower. The embankment has been raised around it so many times that its lowest storey now sits below the path, and you step down to reach its base. It is the clearest single picture of the river's history here. Come in the late afternoon. Dog walkers and kite flyers take over the embankment, and the light falls flat across the water.

Getting there, and pacing the two days

Jingzhou Station 荆州站 is on the high-speed line between Wuhan and Yichang. Trains from Hankou 汉口 take a little over an hour, depending on the service, and there are also trains from Yichang East 宜昌东. You can book through China's rail system with your passport. From the station, a taxi or city bus reaches the walls quickly. Getting to Shashi is a longer ride, so give it its own half-day rather than tacking it on.

Spring and autumn suit the route best, because summer heat on the open wall is hard to bear. Wall access is ticketed at several gates. The museum may ask you to reserve in advance, so check its official channel and bring your passport. Confirm opening hours and current prices at the gates or on Jingzhou's official tourism site. The mistake to avoid is treating the wall as one unbroken loop. Some stretches close for repair, so plan your walk between named gates, and keep a taxi in mind for the gap if one is shut.