The garden is five minutes away and the food is closer still. 清晖园 Qīnghuī Yuán, the Qinghui Garden, is the best known of the Lingnan gardens and it sits in the middle of 大良 Dàliáng, the old town of 顺德 Shùndé, which is now the southern part of 佛山 Fóshān. Around the garden the streets are dense with what Shunde is famous for: fish restaurants, 双皮奶 shuāngpínǎi dessert shops, noodle shops making Chencun-style sheets, and a market that runs every morning. The small inns in the quarter are mostly converted townhouses and shop buildings, arranged around a planted court or a light well, with rooms that are simple, quiet and a short walk from everything worth eating. Staying here is not about the room. It is about being inside the district that most Chinese cooks regard as the best kitchen in the country.
Daliang has been a market town on the network of rivers that drains the Pearl River delta for centuries, and its cooking grew out of that: freshwater fish, silkworm ponds, abundant vegetables and a trading population that wanted to eat well. The old streets around the garden still show the shape of that town, with narrow lanes, arcaded shopfronts, a few surviving merchant houses and the canal system that once carried everything. The 清晖园 itself was a scholar’s garden of the Ming and Qing, rebuilt and extended over generations, and its layout of ponds, corridors and lattice windows is the reference point for the whole Lingnan garden tradition. Staying within a few minutes of it means you can walk the garden at opening time, before the coaches.
What the Rooms Are Like
The inns are small, usually between six and fifteen rooms, and the buildings are either converted townhouses with a court in the middle or modern low blocks built to look like them. Rooms tend to be compact and reasonably fitted, with the air conditioning and the hot water more modern than the architecture, and the differences between properties come down to three things: whether the room has a window to the street or only to a court, whether the bathroom is properly separated, and how much noise comes in from the lanes, which in a food district means both morning deliveries and late-night diners. A room on an upper floor at the back is the quiet choice; a room facing the street is the lively one and will hear the shop shutters.
Practicalities
Price. A double room runs roughly ¥220 to ¥550 a night, which is cheaper than the equivalent in central 佛山 Fóshān and considerably cheaper than Guangzhou. Weekend rates rise when the gardens and the food streets draw visitors from the provincial capital, and the 春节 Chūnjié and 国庆 Guóqìng holidays are the peak. Long stays are common here, since this is a district people come to specifically to eat.
Address. The inns sit in the lanes around 清晖园 Qīnghuī Yuán in 大良 Dàliáng, 顺德 Shùndé, within walking distance of the garden, the 华盖路 Huágài Lù food street and the morning market.
Rooms. Ask whether the window faces the street or a court, which floor the room is on, and whether the bathroom is en suite with its own shower. Ask about the noise from the lanes at night, since the food streets run late. If the property has a courtyard, ask whether guests can sit in it in the evening, because a planted court is the pleasantest part of these buildings and not every inn opens it.
Getting there. 大良 Dàliáng is in the south of 佛山 Fóshān, roughly forty minutes by metro and taxi from the city centre and around thirty minutes from 广州南站 Guǎngzhōu Nán Zhàn. The 广珠城轨 Guǎngzhū chéngguǐ intercity line stops at 顺德站 Shùndé Zhàn, which is a short taxi ride from the old town. Driving is possible but the lanes around the garden are one-way and parking is tight.
flowcloud would say that an inn in Daliang is the only kind of hotel where the kitchen outside the door is more important than anything inside it, and that guests who book here and eat elsewhere have missed the point of the district.
Where to stay: in a small inn in the lanes around 清晖园 Qīnghuī Yuán in 大良 Dàliáng, on an upper floor at the back if you want quiet and facing the street if you do not. Confirm that the bathroom is en suite, ask which way the window faces, and plan your days around the food rather than the other way round, because this is a district people travel to specifically to eat.