Zhenjiang in a day: the old ferry street, a lidded noodle pot, Beigu Hill

Zhenjiang sits where the Grand Canal once met the Yangtze, an hour from Shanghai by high-speed train. Most travellers know it only as a name on a platform sign. Give it one unhurried day and it comes down to three things: a breakfast with a lid in the pot, a ferry street the river left behind, and a hill above the water.

Noodles before nine

Guo gai mian (锅盖面, guōgài miàn) is the city's breakfast: noodles boiled in a wide cauldron with a small wooden lid floating on the water. Order a side of yao rou (肴肉, yáoròu), pressed pork set in its own aspic, eaten cold with shredded ginger and a saucer of the local black vinegar.

Xijin Ferry Street, uphill

Xijin Ferry (西津渡, Xījīn Dù) was a Yangtze crossing for more than a thousand years. The bank has since moved north, so the old street now climbs a slope with no water at the end. Near the top you walk beneath the Zhaoguan Stone Pagoda (昭关石塔, Zhāoguān Shítǎ), a small Yuan-dynasty pagoda set on an arch over the lane.

A little further on, an excavated section of pavement shows road surfaces from successive dynasties, laid one above the other. Arrive before ten, when the lane is quieter, and give the side alleys more time than the main stretch.

Beigu Hill in the late afternoon

Beigu Shan (北固山, Běigù Shān) rises straight from the riverbank, a short taxi ride east. Ganlu Temple near the summit belongs to a Three Kingdoms story in which Liu Bei crossed the river to marry into the Sun family. The Song poet Xin Qiji wrote about this view.

何处望神州？满眼风光北固楼。

The line asks where to look for the old heartland, and answers that the whole view lies before Beigu Tower. Below, the Yangtze runs wide and brown, with barges moving in both directions. On the way back, buy a bottle of Zhenjiang xiangcu (镇江香醋, xiāngcù) at a supermarket near the station, where it costs less than at the gift shops.