Things to do in Taizhou
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Taizhou
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months: comfortable, driest and clearest weather, Sanmen crab at its prime, and thinner crowds after early October.
Second window: green mountains, full waterfalls, and Huading azaleas in May.
Late winter into spring: the Sui plum blossoms at Guoqing Temple from February to early March, in the quiet season.
Plum rain month: waterfalls at their most spectacular and everything else at its wettest.
Hot, humid, typhoon prone and domestically crowded, with rafting, Dachen swimming and cool Changyu caves as compensation.
Improves fast after mid September, when the fishing moratorium lifts and the seafood year restarts.
Quiet, cheap and grey: empty walls and temples, thin waterfalls, cold summits, and New Year crowds only at Shitang.
What's on
- First Dawn of the New Year 1 January
Crowds gather at Millennium Dawn Park in Shitang for the mainland's marketed first sunrise of the year.
- Sui Plum Blossom at Guoqing Temple February to early March
The temple's ancient Sui dynasty plum tree in flower, Tiantai's beloved seasonal pilgrimage.
- Linhai Lantern Festival Displays Lantern Festival, 15th day of Lunar New Year, usually February
The walled city and Ziyang Street dress for the new year period and the wall is lit.
- Huading Azalea Season May
Tiantai Mountain's high slopes flower in late spring, the mountain's best month with full waterfalls.
- East China Sea Fishing Season Reopening mid September
The summer moratorium ends, the fleets sail, and Sanmen crab enters its prime weeks.
- Golden Week 1 to 7 October
A warning, not an event to time for: Linhai's ancient city took over 1.43 million visits in one recent Golden Week.
Best things to do in Taizhou
Walled City of Taizhou Fu
A living Ming walled city in Linhai, its wall ridge walk gives the best views over East Lake and the old town.
Guoqing Temple
A Sui dynasty temple founded in 598, ancestral home of Tiantai Buddhism, still free, calm and a working monastery.
Tiantai Mountain Waterfall
A 325 metre multi tier cascade, dramatic after rain, paired best with Guoqing Temple on the same Tiantai day.
Shenxianju
Rhyolite pillars and sea of clouds in Xianju, a 5A scenic area best at opening time before the queues build.
Qiongtai Fairyland Canyon
A deep canyon of eroded peaks, pools and waterfalls in Tiantai, walked at close quarters under a glass sky bridge.
Dachen Island
A fishing island group off Jiaojiang with beaches, seafood and the memorial landscape of the 1955 evacuation.
East Lake
Linhai's classical lake garden inside the wall, free and local, the calm second half of the wall and old town day.
Former Residence of Jigong
The modest home of Tiantai's mad monk Jigong, best as part of a wander through the county town's old streets.
Where to stay in Taizhou
Linhai Old City
first trip, food and the wall
Dawn on the wall, Ziyang Street snacks, Renmin Road seafood and Xinrongji's home turf, all on foot.
Xianju and Shenxianju
the mountain, resorts and families
The resort corridor built for the 5A park, with Taizhou's only true luxury tier and dawn access to Shenxianju.
Tiantai County Town
Guoqing Temple and waterfalls
A small, quiet county town base for dawn at Guoqing Temple, the Great Waterfall, Shiliang and Qiongtai.
Jiaojiang
transport, business and the Dachen ferry
Central Taizhou's best conventional hotels and the Qima Pier ferry, with almost no sightseeing of its own.
Think twice about
- Luqiao District
Airport and wholesale market district with nothing a leisure traveller came for, at the wrong end of every transfer.
- Qima Pier area, Jiaojiang
A working port in an industrial waterfront zone, bleak and facility poor for sleeping. Use it only for the morning ferry.
- Shitang Peninsula, Wenling
One coast road with limited services, fine for one fair weather night but isolated and exposed as a longer base.
- Dachen Island in unsettled weather
Ferries cancel in wind and typhoon conditions, so an overnight stay risks being stranded on the island.
Best restaurants in Taizhou
XINRONGJI
Taizhou's most famous kitchen began in Linhai in 1995, home of braised wild yellow croaker and the group's source cooking.
Rong Xiaoguan
Xinrongji's casual Linhai format, Taizhou home cooking in the group's idiom without the flagship bill.
Ziyang Street
Linhai's heritage snack street, graze seaweed cakes, egg white pastries, maixia noodles and mochi for a few yuan each.
Renmin Road Seafood Street
Linhai's seafood strip near the old city, choose live crab and fish from the tanks and agree the price first.
Sanmen Blue Crab
Sanmen's thin shelled, rich roed blue crab, steamed whole at source in autumn, with mudflat clams alongside.
Weichen Street Food & Signature Ginger Noodles
Taizhou's signature ginger soup noodles in a street food shop, the cheap local bowl for a Jiaojiang base.
Lao Bian Restaurant
A long running Taizhou kitchen for home style braised fish and tofu, a dependable local table in the central city.
Tuzao Tou
Tiantai's earthen stove snack kitchens serving flatbread wraps, wheat cakes and dumplings for a few tens of yuan.
Outdoor things to do in Taizhou
Ruyi Bridge
A wavy, partly glass decked bridge high over the Shenxianju gorge, the active heart of the summit bridge traverse.
Shiliang Waterfall
A granite cascade pouring under a natural stone beam below Fangguang Temple, Tiantai's connoisseur waterfall walk.
Changyu Dongtian
A thousand years of quarrying left vast caverns in Wenling, a steep and cool climb and descend through grotto halls.
Huading Peak
Tiantai's 1138 metre summit, azaleas in May, cloud seas after rain and rime in winter, with no glass and no bridges.
Fangshan Scenic Area
A flat topped volcanic mountain in Wenling, a locals' half day climb to a cliff ringed summit plateau.
Millennium Dawn Park
Shitang's dawn monument over the fishing port, the start of the coast walk south to painted Xiaoruo Village.
Dachen Island
Rent an electric bike at the pier and loop the island coast road, beaches, villages and memorial sites in half a day.
Xianrengu Drifting
Xianju's summer only gorge rafting run, a fun commercial add on to a Shenxianju trip rather than a reason for one.
Best hotels in Taizhou
Garrya Xianju
Banyan Tree's Garrya in a valley outside Xianju town, Taizhou's most design serious resort stay near Shenxianju.
PULLMAN TAIZHOU SHENXIANJU
The Accor resort by the Shenxianju scenic area, big and family capable with the easiest dawn access to the park.
Hilton Taizhou
Jiaojiang's best conventional five star, with a praised breakfast, for travellers who need the city and the ferry.
New Century Grand Hotel Linhai, Taizhou
Linhai's flagship hotel a short walk from Ziyang Street, the sensible mid tier base for the wall and snack town.
Taizhou Linhai Taizhou Fucheng Renmin Road Atour Origin Hotel
A highly rated Atour design hotel on Renmin Road in Linhai, with warm service and a late night congee service.
DoubleTree by Hilton Taizhou Shenxianju
The mid tier Hilton option close to Shenxianju, strong on position and breakfast, with some mixed recent reviews.
Days Hotel by Wyndham Xianju Downtown
A downtown Xianju value hotel whose guest scores outrun its price, handy for local restaurants and the park.
Jinjiang Inn Linhai Chonghemen
A clean, predictable budget chain hotel by Chonghe Gate in Linhai, with the old city walkable from the door.
Is Taizhou expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | CN¥220 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | CN¥450 a person |
| Splurge | CN¥1,100 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Shenxianju: a few days ahead
- Dachen Island: a few days ahead
- Ruyi Bridge: a few days ahead
- Dachen Island: a few days ahead
- Xianrengu Drifting: a few days ahead
- Garrya Xianju: weeks ahead
- PULLMAN TAIZHOU SHENXIANJU: weeks ahead
- XINRONGJI: weeks ahead
- Book Shenxianju online ahead on weekends and holidays, and enter at opening time.
- Book the Dachen ferry one to two days ahead through the port's official WeChat channel, with passport details.
- Book Xinrongji's Linhai flagship ahead, and confirm any wild fish price when ordering.
- Xianju resort and Linhai old city hotels sell out on Chinese public holidays, National Day week above all.
Is Taizhou safe?
- Typhoons in July to September cancel ferries and close scenic areas on this coast. Watch the forecast in summer.
- Gorge and waterfall paths at Shiliang, Qiongtai and the Great Waterfall are wet and slippery after rain. Wear grip footwear.
- Swim only at guarded beaches such as Wushatou on Dachen Island, and only in season.
- Emergency numbers are 110 for police and 120 for ambulance. Your hotel front desk is the practical first call.
Taizhou travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Booking a hotel in Taizhou city and expecting the sights to be walkable. The prefecture is a touring problem, not a city break.
- Xiaoruo Village as a destination rather than a stop. It is a sunny day photo backdrop on the Shitang coast walk.
- Waterfall superlatives in a dry spell. Check recent rain before building a Tiantai day around water.
- Unpriced seafood at ports and on Dachen Island. Agree the per jin price and cooking fee before anything is cooked.
- Linhai and Shenxianju on National Day or May Day themselves, when both are domestic tourism magnets.
Getting around Taizhou: public transport and more
- Every base has its own high speed rail station, Linhai, Tiantaishan, Xianju, Wenling and Taizhou, and they are not interchangeable.
- Train to the town you sleep in, then use taxis or DiDi for scenic areas, which sit outside the towns.
- Hire a car and driver through your hotel for Tiantai and Xianju days if you do not hold a Chinese driving licence.
- Central Taizhou to Linhai takes about 40 minutes, Linhai to Tiantai about an hour and Linhai to Xianju about ninety minutes.
Who Taizhou suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Taizhou your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
Get Swearby on the App Store