佛山市

Why this place

Foshan is where Wing Chun kung fu comes from — Ip Man and Bruce Lee's lineage runs through this city — and it has been a centre of Cantonese crafts for centuries: ceramics, ironwork, paper-cutting and lion dancing. It also has one of the best folk-art museums in the country.

What to see

• The Ancestral Temple (Zumiao) and the Foshan Museum, with lion-dance and martial-arts displays
• The Ancient Nanfeng Kiln at Shiwan, where ceramics have been fired continuously for 500 years
• Liang Garden and the Lingnan gardens of the old city
• The Wing Chun halls and the Ip Man memorial house

What to eat

• Foshan is a Cantonese food city — dim sum here is excellent and cheaper than Guangzhou's
• Shunde, in Foshan's prefecture, is regarded as China's best eating destination for Cantonese cooking

Best time

October–December and March–April

Practical tips

• Shunde district is worth a full day of eating — it is where Cantonese chefs go to eat