Qushuiting Street (Winding Water Pavilion Street)

A living specimen of the Spring City's fabric — 'spring water at every house, weeping willows at every door' — and a core lane of the Ming prefectural city. Locals swim year-round in Wangfu Pool (Zhuoying Spring); Liu Spring and Qifeng Spring string along the bluestone lanes like beads, and Baihuazhou (Hundred Flowers Islet) leads straight to Daming Lake. The street's name reportedly comes from the ancient literati gathering of 'winding streams and floating wine cups' (qushui liushang), and it was a meeting place for Qing-dynasty literati. It is the prototype for the Jinan street scenes in 'The Travels of Lao Can,' a scroll of everyday life where spring channels and households coexist — the favorite strolling route for East Asian visitors.

Getting there: Bus, Daming Lake South Gate stop, then walk