About 10km south of Lingshui, XINCUN is a small market town with a large Hakka population - you'll see plenty of black-clad Hakka women with broad hats and gold and jade jewellery. Ferries ply from here across to Nanwan Monkey Island (Nanwan Hou Dao), which is actually a peninsula, but there's no landward access. The research station based here studies local groups of macaques, small, bronze-haired monkeys with pale eyelids and red backsides, and there's a visitors' centre where you can feed them. Check that the island is open before heading out here, however, as access is periodically denied due to "monkey illnesses".

 

Minibuses from Lingshui leave you on Xincun's main street, and having pushed your way between market stalls and down to the water, you'll be grabbed by sampan owners to negotiate the cost of the ten-minute ride over to Nanwan; ¥5 per person is a decent price for the return trip, though locals pay far less. The inlet here is crammed with Hakka houseboats, all linked by boardwalks, with posts and nets marking their pearl farms , a major source of income for the town. On landing on the island, tractors can take you up to the visitors' centre for a small fee, or it's a thirty-minute walk along a well-maintained road - a good option, as you'll almost certainly get your best views of completely wild monkeys along the way. Those that hang out at the visitors' centre itself (¥15) are technically wild too, but seeing them here can be an awful experience, mainly because Chinese tourists like to intimidate them with big sticks and thrash any monkey they can catch, and the animals have become understandably hostile as a result. Buy peanuts at the gate if you want to feed them, but you'll be mobbed if you show any food and it's much better just to walk through the grounds and climb the hillside for views of family troupes crashing around in the treetops.