兴宁 Xīngníng is a county-level city on the 宁江 Níng Jiāng, and the hotels that matter are the ones with rooms facing the water. This is not a scenic town in the way that the 围龙屋 villages are; it is a working Hakka city of low buildings and busy streets, and what makes it worth a night is that it has been a centre of Hakka education and emigration for centuries and still behaves like one. The riverside hotels are ordinary modern buildings of eight to fifteen storeys, and the argument for them is the view: from the fourth floor up and on the river side, you look over the 宁江 and the low green hills beyond it, and the noise of the town falls away. The city centre, the old 学宫 xuégōng and the morning food streets are all within a short walk.
The river is the reason the town exists. 宁江 runs south through the county and joins the 梅江 Méi Jiāng below 梅州市, and the flat land along it is the only generous farmland in this part of the Hakka hills. 兴宁 grew as a market town on that land, and then as a source of scholars and of emigrants: it has a long record of producing 举人 jǔrén, provincial examination graduates, out of proportion to its size, and from the nineteenth century onward it sent large numbers of people to Southeast Asia, whose remittances built many of the town’s schools. Walking the riverbank in the evening, past the low parapet and the people fishing and exercising, is the most direct way to see what kind of place it is.
The food is the other argument. 兴宁 is a Hakka town, so the breakfast is 腌面 yān miàn and 三及第汤 sān jí dì tāng rather than anything Cantonese, and the local 客家娘酒 Kèjiā niángjiǔ, the sweet rice wine, is stronger and sweeter here than in the delta. The town also has a long tradition of 布骆包子 and of small bakeries, and the 兴宁 学宫, the Confucian temple and academy, survives close to the centre as a reminder of what the town was for. Sleeping here rather than passing through is what allows the evening walk and the early breakfast, and those two things are the visit.
What the Rooms Are Like
These are business hotels, so the rooms are standard and the differences are all in the position. Ask for a river-facing room on the fourth floor or above: the lower floors get the road noise from the embankment, and above the tenth floor the river starts to look like a map rather than a place. Rooms on the river side also take the morning sun directly, which is pleasant in winter and warm by nine in summer, so check the air conditioning. The newer buildings have better bathrooms and thinner walls; the older ones have larger rooms and fittings that have been replaced piecemeal. Ask whether the window opens, because the river breeze in the evening is the best thing the location offers and some rooms have sealed units.
Practicalities
Price. A double on the river side runs roughly ¥150 to ¥380 a night, with the top of that range buying a renovated room in the newest hotel and the bottom a large, dated room in an older one. 兴宁 is not a tourist town, so the rates are stable and the weekend premium is small.
Address. The riverside hotels sit along the embankment roads on the 宁江 Níng Jiāng in the centre of 兴宁市 Xīngníng Shì, a few minutes on foot from the main food streets and about fifteen minutes from the 学宫 xuégōng. Ask for the road name in Chinese; the town has several bridges and it is easy to be dropped on the wrong bank.
Rooms. Ask for the river side above the fourth floor and confirm the direction, since a side room in the same category can face a wall. Ask whether breakfast is included, because it is sometimes a local breakfast of noodles and soup rather than a buffet, which is worth having. If you are arriving late, ask the hotel to hold a river-facing room rather than accepting whatever is left, as the whole point is the view.
Getting there. 兴宁 has its own station on the 梅汕 Méi-Shàn high-speed line, with 兴宁南站 Xīngníng Nán Zhàn about forty minutes from 梅州西站 Méizhōu Xī Zhàn and around three hours from 广州 Guǎngzhōu. The station is a short taxi ride from the riverside hotel strip. Buses also run between 兴宁 and 梅州市 several times an hour during the day.
flowcloud would say that 兴宁 is the kind of Hakka town that is easy to skip and hard to replace, because the scholars and the emigrants have all gone and what is left is a river, a temple and a very good breakfast.
Where to stay: on the 宁江 Níng Jiāng embankment in the centre of 兴宁市 Xīngníng Shì, in a river-facing room on the fourth floor or above. Confirm the room faces the water rather than the road, ask whether the window opens, and walk the bank in the evening and the food streets at seven in the morning.