Huizhou is not on any modern map. For centuries it was one of the great mercantile and cultural heartlands of China, its merchant clans leaving behind ancestral halls, moon-gate courtyards, and a cuisine defined by fermentation, smoke, and time. Tang Xianzu—China’s Shakespeare—once called it beyond imagining. Led by the Chinese writer Jane Yang, we cook, wander, and eat our way through eight days in China’s ancient south.
“I would give my life’s obsession to be here. Yet even in my dreams, I never imagined such a place.” So said Tang Xianzu—China’s Shakespeare—when he looked upon Huizhou in the 16th century.
Huizhou is not on any modern map. For centuries it was one of China’s great cultural heartlands, a mountainous enclave in southern Anhui province where merchant clans poured their wealth into ancestral halls and whitewashed villages, and a cuisine took shape defined by fermentation, smoke, and time. Led by the Chinese writer Jane Yang and League of Travelers veteran Alejo Sabugo, we cook in 200-year-old kitchens, learn the alchemy of fermented tofu, and sit down to long tables in rice paddies and lantern-strung courtyards. Vegetarian friendly. Moderate activity level.
Private transfers from Huangshan Tunxi International Airport to GuanLu Village
Sunset welcome drink at ShouZhuo Garden, with a Taoist master speaking on thresholds and crossings
Dinner in the rice paddies at Crossed Path Garden Inn: tea-smoked duck, wild greens, and your first encounter with stinky mandarin fish—fermented, braised in clay, revelatory
Day
2
THE ANCESTRAL KITCHEN
April 10 · Saturday
Crossed Path Garden Inn
Morning in NanPing‘s labyrinth of 72 whitewashed alleys
Cook stinky mandarin fish in a 200-year-old kitchen with a woman who learned from her mother-in-law, who learned from hers
Steam rice for wine, seal it in clay, and taste last year’s batch: notes of honey, earth, ancestor
Evening street food wander through Xidi, eating from stalls that haven’t changed in decades
Day
3
THE FAMILY TABLE
April 11 · Sunday
Crossed Path Garden Inn
Morning free for bamboo forest trekking or a lazy sleep-in
Hands-on fermented tofu workshop with the family featured on A Bite of China
Lunch at the family table with ham-and-bamboo-shoot soup—the ham aged for three years in their smokehouse
Cookie-making at a heritage studio in BiShan village, recipe unchanged for a century
Dinner at ZhuLan Bar: grilled skewers, house‑made tofu, and rice wine by the jug. Rustic, loud, perfect.
Day
4
OIL, INK, FEAST
April 12 · Monday
WenYu Hall
Yu Hall No. 9 Zhongying Street, Chengkan Village, Huangshan City, Anhui
+86 199 0559 2886
Visit the last handmade sesame oil factory in the region: one family, one stone mill, one recipe
Lunch in a family courtyard in ChengKan, the “First Village of BaGua”
Inkstone carving with a master—one of the four great treasures of Chinese culture
Tasting menu dinner at WenYu Hall, our home for two nights, with a Huizhou cuisine master chef who moves through salt, smoke, fermentation, and sweet
Day
5
99 ALLEYS AND A HIDDEN KITCHEN
April 13 · Tuesday
WenYu Hall
Yu Hall No. 9 Zhongying Street, Chengkan Village, Huangshan City, Anhui
+86 199 0559 2886
Morning taichi in Xu Village’s central plaza with locals
Breakfast of hand-pulled noodles in broth that has simmered for 50 years
An afternoon lost in ChengKan’s three streets and 99 alleys
Dinner at House0716, a private kitchen with no menu: the chef cooks what she’s proud of—braised fish head, bamboo shoots with aged ham, a sticky rice cake she learned from her grandmother
Day
6
TEA MOUNTAIN
April 14 · Wednesday
AnNuo Hotel
Lazy morning with breafast at the hotel
Tea picking among the mountain terraces
Picnic lunch in the hills
Tasting with a master who can identify a leaf’s slope by aroma alone
Day
7
THE FISH LANTERN FEAST
April 15 · Thursday
AnNuo Hotel
Brunch at a historic local restaurant
Fish lantern workshop in Zhanqi village, led by the same families who’ve carried them in parades for centuries
Evening: the fish lantern parade—drums, dancers, lanterns swimming through the night like luminous carp
Long-table final-night feast in the village under paper lanterns
Day
8
FAREWELL TO ANHUI
April 16 · Friday
AnNuo Hotel
Wake relaxed, inspired
Breakfast and good byes at the hotel
Private transfer to Huangshan Tunxi International Airport or wherever your journey continues
What’s Included
All breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, as well as snacks and beverages between meals
Expertise and services of our experienced trip leaders: at least one guide and one host per trip
Additional guides and experts from the region
All transportation during the trip except when taking a taxi or ride app independently during unscheduled time
Transfers to and from the airport or wherever you are on the day the trip starts and ends
Daily Roads & Kingdoms gifts related to the themes, activities and narratives of each trip
All gratuities for accommodations, meals, guiding or transport
What’s Not Included
International airfare to and from the journey
Transfers on days that fall outside of the trip dates
Personal bar tabs (when not with the group)
Personal laundry or spa services
Personal travel insurance
Meet Our Hosts
Local Guide
Jane Yang
Writer, Traveler, Entrepreneur
A seasoned journalist who has worked for the Chinese publications Caijing Magazine and Tencent Finance, Jane Yang is the founder of the bespoke travel company WayBeyond. Her background in financial journalism, focused especially on eastern and western cultural impacts, gives her unusual depth of insight when it comes to understanding contemporary China. Her passion for deep talk, music, dance, and cultural exploration make her a perfect guide for this trip deep into her home province.
R&K Host
Alejo Sabugo
Fixer, Producer, Explorer
We met Asturias native Alejo Sabugo when he worked on the “Parts Unknown” Asturias episode. A producer and fixer for Bourdain, he quickly became an integral part of the Roads & Kingdoms family and is now a frequent League of Travelers host.
We ate incredibly well and saw places that we never would have found on our own.
Darren K.
Yunnan Forever, 2025
The connections R&K has in the community made this trip feel like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that could not be replicated by any other company.
Amanda C.
CDMX Under the Volcano 2024
We’re so happy that we took a leap of faith and invested in this adventure with Roads & Kingdoms.
Before there were foodies, there was Kansai. There was Osaka and Kyoto, a one-two combination of totemic culinary excellence that has forever shaped the art of eating. Nearly a decade after our book on Japan with Anthony Bourdain took readers inside the secret rhythms of the country’s food culture, Roads & Kingdoms returns to the source.
The only part of Spain never to fall to the Moors, Asturias remains defiant, delicious, distinctive. Our collaborator José Andrés comes from these mountains, and his ideas, passions and people are woven throughout this magical weeklong journey from the coast to the hills and back again.
