The booking wall verified
These sell out or block foreigners if you arrive unprepared — the dates, the official link, and whether your passport works.
Guangji Bridge (Xiangzi Bridge) / 广济桥·湘子桥
✓ 2026-06-13- Release
- Gate or online same-day in normal periods; book ahead through the mini-program for holidays
- Price
- ¥20
- Foreigners
- Passport works
Real-name ticket: there's no big foreigner workaround, you just enter your passport details. In normal periods you can buy on the day at the gate or in the official 广济桥 WeChat/Alipay mini-program; on Chinese holidays it can go reservation-only, so book a slot in advance or have your hotel do it. A passport works as the ID. Note it's a one-way crossing — you walk across, you don't loop back over the bridge.
officialBookingUrl is null: there's no standalone official ticketing website we could verify — the official channel is the Chinese-only 广济桥 WeChat/Alipay mini-program, with OTAs also selling to foreigners. Price is the one thing to double-check: we've seen the full crossing quoted at roughly ¥20 in 2026 listings but also as high as ¥60 elsewhere, and over-60s reportedly cross free one way — confirm the current fare before you pay. The headline feature is real: the central span is made of linked wooden boat-pontoons that are floated out to 'open' the bridge and reconnected to 'close' it, on a set daily schedule, so the bridge you can walk fully across in the morning may be split in the middle later. A Southern Song structure (1171), one of China's four famous ancient bridges, rebuilt in recent decades.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Kaiyuan Temple / 开元寺
✓ 2026-06-13- Price
- Free (still needs booking)
- Foreigners
- Passport works
- Resellers
- None official
Free, just walk in — no ticket and no booking in normal periods. A working Buddhist temple, so dress and behave as you would in one. Hours are split over the lunch break (roughly 07:00–12:00 then 13:00–17:00), so don't turn up at noon expecting to get in.
officialBookingUrl null and pricedFree — there's no ticket to book, it's a walk-in. A Tang-founded Buddhist temple (its present buildings layer Tang, Song, Yuan and Qing work) and one of the most important in eastern Guangdong, with a serious Buddhist study institute attached, so it's a living monastery rather than a museum piece. It sits a couple of blocks off Paifang Street, so it pairs naturally with a wander through the old city. Closed-over-lunch hours catch people out; go morning or mid-afternoon.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Paifang Street & the old city / 牌坊街·古城
✓ 2026-06-13- Price
- Free (still needs booking)
- Foreigners
- Passport works
- Resellers
- None official
Free and open — there's no admission to the old city itself and no ticket to wander Paifang Street. Just walk in; it's a pedestrian street, easiest on foot. No passport check to enter the lanes (you'll only need it for the few individually-ticketed sights and your hotel).
officialBookingUrl null and pricedFree: it's a public street, not a gated attraction. Paifang Street is the spine of the old city — a long pedestrian run lined with reconstructed stone memorial archways (paifang), arcade shophouses, and, more to the point, most of Chaozhou's famous snacks. The wider old town is genuinely walkable and largely intact, hence its reputation as the best-preserved old city in Guangdong. The archways themselves are modern rebuilds of historic ones, so come for the lived-in streetscape and the food rather than untouched antiquity. Branch into it for Kaiyuan Temple, the old city wall, and the lane-and-courtyard mansions.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Landing & registration
The first-24-hours facts: hotels, police registration, and whether your card works.
- Hotels take foreigners
- Mixed — check first
- Foreign card via Alipay/WeChat
- Works
- Police registration
- Chaozhou sees very few Western visitors — locals are friendly and curious, but English is thin outside the higher-end hotels. Foreigner registration is reliable at the central and mid-range chains and patchier at the small guesthouses inside the old city walls. Confirm the property takes foreign passports when you book the budget end, and have a fallback in mind: Shantou is under an hour away and Xiamen is a 1.5-hour high-speed hop. Mobile pay (a foreign Visa/Mastercard linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay) covers tickets, taxis and most restaurants; carry some cash for the small food stalls.
Eat like a local
What to order, where locals actually queue, and the food-street traps to skip.
Chaozhou treats beef seriously. The local hotpot (潮汕牛肉火锅) is built around a clear beef broth and paper-thin cuts sliced to order by part of the animal, each with its own name and its own seconds-long dip time — let a local or the staff guide the order. And the hand-pounded beef balls (牛肉丸) are the real, springy, bouncy version the frozen supermarket ones are a pale copy of. Have both.
Teochew braised meats (卤鹅 — goose simmered in a spiced master stock, sliced cold) are a signature, as is the local oyster omelette (蚝烙, o-luah), crisper and more egg-forward than the Taiwanese version. Then graze: kway teow noodles (粿条), fish balls, taro paste (芋泥), pork-trotter jelly, and the sweet 糖葱薄饼 — spun maltose-sugar threads wrapped in a thin pancake. Order small from busy stalls along Paifang Street and try a lot rather than committing to one big plate.
Chaozhou is the home of gongfu cha (工夫茶) — strong oolong brewed in a tiny pot and poured through a row of thimble cups in a precise, repeated sequence. It's offered everywhere, often for free as hospitality in shops and tea houses, and refusing a cup can feel abrupt. Sit down for a round; watching it done properly is half the point, and it's the local social glue.
The honest layer
The part a tourism board will never print.
Don't let a tour package sell you 'admission to the old town.' Wandering Chaozhou's old city and Paifang Street costs nothing, Kaiyuan Temple is free, and the lanes are the experience. The only things that actually charge are individual sites: the Guangji Bridge crossing, the old mansions, a couple of small museums and ancestral halls. Budget for those, not for the city.
Guangji Bridge's whole point is that its middle isn't fixed — a row of wooden boat-pontoons gets floated out to 'open' the bridge and reconnected to 'close' it, on a set daily schedule. That means timing matters: at some hours you can walk the full span, at others the centre is detached and you can't cross all the way. It's also a one-way crossing on the ticket. Check the day's opening/closing times locally so you're not standing at a gap, and remember the famous lit-up night view is from the bank, not from the bridge.
Ticket prices here are unusually inconsistent in the listings — we've seen the full Guangji Bridge crossing quoted around ¥20 and also much higher, with free crossings for over-60s. Some of that is old data, some is peak/holiday pricing. Treat any single number you read (including ours) as a ballpark and check the official mini-program or the gate board on the day.
Plenty of people arrive for the bridge and the old city and leave talking about the eating. Chaozhou is the heart of Teochew (Chaoshan) cuisine — one of China's genuinely great regional kitchens — and the food on and around Paifang Street is the headline act, not a side note. If you only have a day, weight it toward grazing the snack streets and a proper beef-hotpot dinner.
Straight answers
Do I have to pay to get into Chaozhou's old city?
No. The old city and its main pedestrian run, Paifang Street, are free and open — there's no admission and no ticket to wander them, and Kaiyuan Temple is free to enter too. You only pay for specific individual sights: the Guangji Bridge crossing, some old mansions, and a couple of small museums and ancestral halls. The walking, the archways and the street food cost nothing.
How does the Guangji Bridge actually work, and do I need to book?
It's a real-name ticketed crossing whose centre section is made of linked wooden boat-pontoons that are floated out to 'open' the bridge and reconnected to 'close' it on a set daily schedule — so at some hours you can walk the full span and at others you can't. It's a one-way crossing. In normal periods you can buy at the gate or in the official 广济桥 WeChat/Alipay mini-program with your passport; on Chinese holidays it can go reservation-only, so book ahead then. Check the day's opening/closing times so you don't arrive at a gap.
How much is the Guangji Bridge ticket?
Treat any figure as a ballpark — listings are inconsistent. We've seen the full crossing quoted at roughly ¥20 in 2026 and noticeably higher elsewhere, with over-60s reportedly crossing free one way. Some of that is outdated, some is peak/holiday pricing. Confirm the current fare on the official mini-program or the gate board before you pay; we don't invent a number you can rely on.
What should I actually eat in Chaozhou?
This is one of China's great food cities, so make eating the plan. Have Teochew beef hotpot and the hand-pounded beef balls, braised goose (卤鹅), the local oyster omelette (蚝烙), kway teow noodles, and graze the snack stalls along Paifang Street — taro paste and the spun-sugar 糖葱薄饼 among them. And sit for a round of gongfu tea, which is offered everywhere as hospitality. Order small and try a lot.