Jianshui City
Previously called 'Lin-an', this area used to be a very important trading city, and offers many old buildings to explore. First off there's the old city gate in the middle of town, then there's some old family mansions (one inside of town, one out), an ancient bridge west of town, a Confucian temple and attached school, fragments of the old city wall, etc. At one point, the northern road to Tonghai offers some spectacularly eroded hillsides. Halfway to Gejiu there's a famous cave complex, where swallows are collected once a year by barehanded locals. One attraction in Jianshui that I visited and would appreciate reports on is the 'Zhilin temple'.

Confucian Temple
A massive old temple, quite unlike anything else in Yunnan. There's a very large pond, which takes up most of the space, and an 'inner sanctum' built up area where you can wander through a carefully tended garden and see some old objects displayed. As the second largest Confucian temple in China, it's definitely worth the 20元 entry fee.

Zhu Family Garden
Right in the middle of Jianshui, is late Qing dynasty estate was owned by the Zhu family. The Zhus were merchants that moved to Jianshui from eastern China. They owned mines and stores, traded goods and reading between the lines were successful criminals. The family strengthened their position by passing imperial examinations, however this did them no good come the cultural revolution! Though the history inside the building is largely in Chinese, there are some English displays. The interiors are fascinating and traditional, though apparently a lot of the complex has been restored and is not original. My friend Chen Xue, a miniature calligrapher/painter of quite some repute, was working here when I visited. He produces fascinating artifacts, and they're on sale inside the building.

Double-Dragon Bridge
To the west of town an amazingly large Qing dynasty bridge stands proudly in the middle of the fields. I suppose the river moved, as there wasn't much call for a bridge of this one's size when I passed by in 2002. Such ancient bridges are rare anywhere in China, and this is the largest in Yunnan. It has seventeen sections, three pagodas, and is 180 metres long!

Zhang Family Estate
8km west of town, past the double-span bridge, the Zhang family's estate is a fascinating collection of traditional Chinese architecture dwellings and temples. Contemporaries of the Zhu, they were so wealthy that stores filtered to the capital, Kunming, of the Zhang family paying craftsmen the same weight in silver as they carved in wood for the Zhang estate's interiors. The wooden carvings in this area need to be seen to be believed. They're immensely think, multiple-layered and feature a tangle of creatures, figures and plants. There's great stone carvings too. Don't be a fool like me and get caught without your camera. After a tour, you can stay for a meal and some rice-wine in the courtyard of one of the traditional architecture houses.