Skin wraps water, water wraps skin: a Yangzhou day from teahouse to bathhouse

Yangzhou keeps an old saying about how to spend a day: in the morning, pi bao shui, skin wraps water; in the afternoon, shui bao pi, water wraps skin. The first half means tea and dumplings, the second a bathhouse, and the walk between them is a single old street.

Morning, at a table

Zaocha (早茶), morning tea, is a seated meal here rather than a snack. At Fuchun Teahouse, in the lane called Deshengqiao, order tang gansi, pressed tofu cut into threads, scalded and dressed with sesame oil, ginger and dried shrimp. Follow it with sanding bao, a bun of diced chicken, pork and bamboo shoot, and the house tea, Kuilongzhu, a blend of three leaves.

Dongguan Street, walked to the canal

Dongguan Street starts a few minutes from the teahouse and runs 1,122 metres east in grey brick to the old ferry landing on the Grand Canal. Partway along, the south gate of Geyuan opens onto a salt merchant's garden from 1818, planted with bamboo and arranged around four rockeries, one for each season. Give it an hour, then keep walking until the street meets the water.

Afternoon, in hot water

The second half of the saying is meant literally. Neighbourhood bathhouses, signed 浴室 (yushi), sell a soak, a back scrub called cuobei and a pedicure, xiujiao. The pedicure blade is one of Yangzhou's three knives, alongside the kitchen cleaver and the barber's razor.

早上皮包水，下午水包皮。

Yangzhou East station is about two hours from Shanghai by high-speed train, so the day can be done as a return trip. The saying is a better argument for staying the night.