To learn more about the Hakka you need to head out to settlements north and east of Meizhou, surrounded in summer by some very attractive countryside. The small, dishevelled town of DAPU , two hours thirty minutes and 100km east via the Han River ferry stop at Sanhe , is a good place to start. A fraction of the size of Meizhou, the town shares the same river valley setting and an unexciting centre, but the fringes are very interesting. In the fields just outside, next to a modern sports stadium (another gift from an expatriate investing in his homeland), there's a huge square-sided weiwu , a three-storeyed Hakka house, with walls as solid as any castle's. The residents, amazed to see a foreign face, will come out to chat if you walk over for a look. Elsewhere are some very nicely constructed low-set family compounds, whose walls enclose several temple-like halls, all with decorated roofs, and at least two small but traditionally circular homesteads. The largest, most highly regarded Hakka mansions anywhere in China, however, are three hours away over the Fujian border around Yongding - there are daily buses from Dapu.

The bus station is on the northern edge at the corner of Renmin Lu and Hu Shan Lu, which runs south right through Dapu, terminating below steps ascending to the tidy parkland of Hu Shan (Tiger Hill). There's accommodation at a relatively garish hotel (¥75-100) in a courtyard about halfway down Hu Shan Lu on the eastern side, and plain beds (¥30-75) in the peeling hostel 50m west down Yanhua Lu on the right. If you're heading for the Han River ferry, there are dawn minibuses to Sanhe and Guyie, which might get you there before departure.