Late afternoon, and the light comes into the room at a low angle across the water, putting long shadows from the causeway trees onto the far wall. The room is small and uncluttered: white walls, a dark timber floor, a bed under a window that opens onto a balcony barely wide enough for two chairs, and, beyond the parapet, the lake. A covered walkway runs along the near shore, and every few minutes somebody crosses it on a bicycle. This is the old centre of 惠州市 Huìzhōu Shì, the district called 惠城区 Huìchéng Qū, and it is a place where you can spend a day walking between a lake, a river, a Ming-dynasty city gate and a street of coffee shops without ever getting into a car.
The city is built at the meeting of the 东江 Dōngjiāng, the East River, and the smaller 西枝江 Xīzhījiāng, and its shape is still legible: the lake and the old town sit inside a bend, connected by 惠州西湖 Huìzhōu Xīhú at one end and the 水东街 Shuǐdōng Jiē riverside quarter at the other. Between them are the 合江楼 Héjiāng Lóu, a reconstructed tower at the confluence, the 朝京门 Cháojīng Mén gate on the old wall line, and the lanes of 金带街 Jīndài Jiē and 祝屋巷 Zhùwū Xiàng, which have filled with small hotels, teahouses and cafés over the last decade. This is where the boutique rooms are. They are conversions rather than new builds: old shop houses and 1980s apartment blocks, eight to twenty rooms, run by owners who will tell you where to eat.
Practicalities
Price. A double room in one of these small hotels runs about ¥280 to ¥550, with lake-view and river-view rooms at the top of that range. The city has larger international-brand hotels at ¥600 to ¥1,200 if you want a pool and a lobby, but they are not on the lake and you will spend your time in taxis. Value is best midweek, and Huizhou is quiet enough that even weekends rarely sell out.
Address. Look for properties in 惠城区 Huìchéng Qū within a few hundred metres of 环城西路 Huánchéng Xī Lù, the road that runs around the west side of the lake, or around 水东街 Shuǐdōng Jiē and 祝屋巷 Zhùwū Xiàng on the river side. Anything described as being in 江北 Jiāngběi, the new district north of the river, is 20 minutes away by taxi and a different experience entirely.
Rooms. Small hotels here are typically compact, well designed and short on storage; a 25-square-metre double with a balcony is a good one. Ask for a room on a high floor and facing the water, and confirm that it faces the lake rather than an internal light well, which is a common arrangement in converted buildings. Not all have lifts, which matters if you have heavy bags and a fourth-floor room. Breakfast, where it exists, is usually a voucher for a neighbouring noodle shop, and that is not a problem.
Getting there. 惠州 Huìzhōu is on the high-speed rail network, with 惠州北 Huìzhōu Běi and 惠州南 Huìzhōu Nán stations connecting to 深圳 Shēnzhèn in well under an hour and to 广州 Guǎngzhōu in about 1.5 hours. From either station the old town is 20 to 40 minutes by taxi. Driving from Shenzhen takes around 1.5 hours. Once you are in the old town, the lake, the river, the streets and the food are all walkable, which is the main argument for staying here rather than in a business hotel.
flowcloud would say that Huizhou’s old quarter is the rare Chinese city centre where the lake, the river and the historic streets are within one walkable kilometre of each other, and that staying anywhere else in the city means missing the only part that is irreplaceable.
Where to stay: in the converted lanes near 水东街 Shuǐdōng Jiē if you want the restaurants and the river, or on the 环城西路 Huánchéng Xī Lù side of the lake if you want to walk out of the door into the park in the morning. Ask for a water-facing room on a high floor, check whether there is a lift, and ask the owner which 汤粉 tāngfěn shop they use for breakfast — the answer is usually better than anything on a hotel menu.