HUAI'AN was already settled five thousand years ago, and has been a walled town for 1600 years, but these days it's famous throughout China as the birthplace of the much-loved Premier Zhou Enlai. The town has preserved his home as a national monument, as well as constructing a huge mausoleum in his honour. Apart from this, Huai'an is a quiet, attractive town of parks and lakes with a large amount of old housing, located in a fertile and agriculturally productive part of Jiangsu. Relatively few tourists make it to Huai'an, and this gives the town most of its charm - walking around and visiting the sights here, you will feel blissfully free of the herds that have taken over most other destinations in Jiangsu.

 

Huai'an is one of those pleasant places where you can get around entirely on foot, and orientation is unproblematic. The main street, Zhenhuai Lu, cuts from east to west across the middle of the city, with the bus station at the far eastern end (there is no train station, although a rail link is due to be completed by 2001). Exactly in the middle of town, on Zhenhuai Lu, is Drum Tower Square , with the town's other important commercial street, Nanmen Dajie, leading south from here. The older part of town lies to the north and northwest of Drum Tower Square, with streets crammed full of little shops, restaurants, fortune-tellers, daixie (those who write letters on behalf of illiterate people), and interesting architecture.

Zhou Enlai's Former Residence (daily 7am-6pm; ¥10) is the main attraction in the centre of town. From the Drum Tower walk a few minutes west, then take an alley to the north - there is a sign to the residence (if you reach Xichang Jie you have come too far). The attractive house of black brick and heavy roof tiles where Zhou was born in 1898 has been lovingly restored to its original splendour, and considering the several courtyards within the walls, and the separate rooms for Zhou's stepmother and wet nurse, the family were obviously well-off. As well as some interesting old wooden furniture, the house contains a small photo exhibition documenting Zhou's life, and also that of his wife, Deng Yingchao, who occupies a similarly high place in the Chinese people's affections.

Continuing north another ten minutes from Zhou Enlai's residence, up the main Xichang Jie, brings you to another former residence, this time of a local intellectual Liu E , who died in 1909, and is known in China for his achievements both as a scientist and novelist. The former occupant may seem obscure to outsiders, but his house (daily 7.45am-5pm; ¥2) is a delightful place. On some afternoons you'll find traditional storytelling performances going on in the courtyards, the spoken word accompanied by a small drum. Here, amid the bamboos and goldfish ponds, you can catch an insight into the very peaceful, cultured world of old China.

The far west of Huai'an is delineated along its entire length by the Grand Canal . There's a good walk here up to the northwest, then around a small lake, Xiao Hu to the north, and back to the main road Beimen Jie, lasting about two hours in all, which will take you through areas almost wholly untouched by modern life; start walking north along the canal from the area just west of the Huai'an Binguan. Along the waterway you'll be able to watch the bustle of canal life with barges manoeuvring for position and people loading and unloading by hand. Shortly, Xiao Hu will appear to your right, and a stone gateway by the lake is the sign that you've reached Hanhou Fishing Platform , an attractive walking area by the lakeside amid trees and long grass. Back on the road, and farther north from here, a right turn just where the canal begins bending round to the west takes you into an interesting old area of stone-tiled houses. If you walk approximately northeast through here along country lanes - you'll need to ask the locals for help - you'll reach the Former Residence of Wu Cheng'en (daily 7.30am-4.30pm; ¥6), the sixteenth-century author of the famous classic Journey to the West. It's another charming old house of black brick, with colonnaded walkways and clumps of bamboo in the courtyards. From here, head east along more country lanes, through allotments and vegetable patches, before coming out on the main north-south road, Beimen Jie, where you can catch a rickshaw back into town for ¥3.

The Zhou Enlai Memorial (daily 7.30am-6.30pm; ¥15) stands to the northeast of the centre of town. There are two possible entrances, one twenty minutes due north of the bus station along Huaiyang Gong Lu, and the other just east off Beimen Jie, about 1km north of the Drum Tower. The park, and the memorial itself, built on a small lake, seems to have been modelled on a certain presidential memorial in Washington DC - the seated statue of Zhou is remarkably similar to that of Abraham Lincoln. The craftsmanship and quality of stone, however, are sadly inferior. There is a small museum downstairs with Chinese-only explanations detailing the life of this remarkable man.