Yangzhou Things to Do

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The 3rd lunar month has traditionally been the favourite time to visit Yangzhou, with all kinds of vividly colourful flowers blooming in Slender West Lake, He Garden and the such. In various seasons, there're different kinds of flowers to admire here.

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The Grand Canal dates from the Sui dynasty, when it was instrumental in bringing the rich produce of the Yangtze River delta area to the capital. Nowadays, with land transport being much more efficient and economical, the Grand Canal is only used for leisure and tourism.
A one-way ticket is 40 RMB, round-trip is 50 RMB. There's also a combined admission package available. Costing 180 RMB and valid over 2 consecutive days, the package includes Slender West Lake (90 RMB), Ge Garden (40 RMB), Daming Temple (45 RMB), He Garden (40 RMB) and the one-way Grand Canal cruise (40 RMB). If you're not planning to go to at least 3 of these sights (including Slender West Lake), then buying separate admission tickets would be more worthwhile. Personally if I wasn't buying the combined ticket then I wouldn't bother forking out the extra money for the cruise.

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Apologies for the bad pun on the name, this tip is about He Garden. :P Built during the late Qing dynasty, it was held in high regard for its beauty of its architecture, the best of private gardens in that era. "He" is the surname of the household who lived here; it was also named "Ji Xiao Villa" after one of poet Tao Yuanming's works.
The most imposing building in here is built in a somewhat Western style, named Yuxiu Building. The architecture reminded me somewhat of the shikumen houses in Shanghai, a blend of Western and Chinese flavours. Some of the rooms house a museum telling the story of the family who used to live here.
The garden is also famous for it's 1.5 km-long covered walkway (Fudao Walkway) and the only opera stage to be surrounded by water. The opera stage is named Shuixinting, which means "pavilion in the middle of the water".
In spring, flowers bloom aplenty throughout the garden, making it a colourful, refreshing place. Just don't come during the weekend, especially not the Qingming Festival holiday, as the garden is mobbed during that time. We actually stayed quite a long time past the closing time -- there is a restaurant in the garden which's open for dinner (not sure about lunch or tea) so I suppose they thought we were diners. It was much nicer being able to relax in the relative tranquility after all the crowds and tour groups were gone.
Admission is 40 RMB, no student price. There's also a combined admission package available. Costing 180 RMB and valid over 2 consecutive days, the package includes Slender West Lake (90 RMB), Ge Garden (40 RMB), Daming Temple (45 RMB), He Garden (40 RMB) and the one-way Grand Canal cruise (40 RMB). If you're not planning to go to at least 3 of these sights (including Slender West Lake), then buying separate admission tickets would be more worthwhile.

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Or more specifically, a garden that is famed as one of the 4 best classical Chinese gardens in history, with the other 3 being the Summer Palace of Beijing, the Summer Resort of Chengde, and the Humble Administrator's Garden of Suzhou. The garden was named "Ge" as it's full of bamboo (pandas' favourite food, albeit not these kinds) -- the character for "ge" is the left half of the character for "bamboo".
Built in the later part of the Qing dynasty, the garden prides itself on its intricate rockeries that are said to illustrate the 4 seasons -- you could enjoy playing hide-and-seek in them.
Admission is 30 RMB in Jan/Feb/Jul/Aug, and 40 RMB for the rest of the year, no student price. There's also a combined admission package available. Costing 180 RMB and valid over 2 consecutive days, the package includes Slender West Lake (90 RMB), Ge Garden (40 RMB), Daming Temple (45 RMB), He Garden (40 RMB) and the one-way Grand Canal cruise (40 RMB). If you're not planning to go to at least 3 of these sights (including Slender West Lake), then buying separate admission tickets would be more worthwhile.

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This newish building houses both Yangzhou Museum and the China Block Printing Museum under the same roof.
We started with the China Woodblock Printing Museum. The displays were well-presented and interesting -- there's even a hands-on section on the lowest floor where you can see demonstrations.
The Yangzhou Museum paled in comparison as the collection on display was rather small. The gem of the museum is a Yuan-dynasty glazed vase/bottle which has a blue background and a white dragon. No photos are allowed here (there are security watching!) but it's featured on the museum's website.
Admission is free, but the museum is closed on Mondays, and sometimes around New Year holidays. During the Chinese public holidays the museum will open even on Mondays. Opening hours are 0900--1700 but the last admission is at 1600. I would advise about 2-3 hours if you want to look in detail.

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This dragon boat was unearthed on March 3rd 1960 in a branch of the Yangzi River in Shiqiao, Hanjiang County. It is made out of a single tree and is 13.65m long, 0.75m wide and 0.56m deep and dates back to the Tang dynasty (618-907).

Open: 9am-5pm. Admission: Free.

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This excellent, new museum opened in October 2005 but is rather stupidly located about 3-4km west of the city. Anyway, it’s well worth a visit. The museum is split into five sections: Hall of Monographic Exhibition, China Bloack Printing, Hall of National Treasure, Hall of Painting & Calligraphy and Hall of Yangzhou History.

Open: 9am-5pm. Admission: Free.

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This is essentially a Ming Dynasty graveyard that includes the tomb of Puhading who died in 1275. According to information at the tomb, he was a 16th generation descendant of Muhammad, The Prophet. The tomb is on the eastern bank of the (Old) Grand Canal in the eastern sector of the city and is adjacent to a mosque which houses a collection of valuable materials documenting China's relations with Muslim countries.