7 Days in Dehong

The gilded stupa of 2007, 73 metres over the valley; the tree-wrapped pagoda and the night market round out day one.

1. dehong menghuan golden pagoda
2. dehong shubao pagoda

The Jiegao zone, in its special regime since 2000, covers 1.92 square kilometres facing Myanmar; the jade stalls show the town's trade in raw stone and carving.

1. dehong jiegao border gate
2. dehong ruili jade markets

Boundary marker No. 71 in the split village, then the Mangling banyan on the old highway — one trunk spreading into a grove.

1. dehong yizhai lianguo
2. dehong dushu chenglin

The falls of some 60 metres, then Wanding's old bridge on the 1937-38 Burma Road and the memorial to the roughly 3,200 Nanyang volunteer drivers of 1939.

1. dehong moli rainforest
2. dehong wanding bridge

West to Longchuan county — the Achang forges of Husa have worked blades for centuries since Ming-era smiths; watch the quenching and the Achang hand-held rice noodles.

1. dehong husa knife village

North to Yingjiang for the riverine wetland park — herons and wintering waterfowl from November, riverside boardwalks all year.

1. dehong dayingjiang wetland

An early start in the birding valleys near Hongbeng — the county lists more than 500 species, several of them hornbills — then the road back to Mangshi for the flight.

1. dehong hornbill valley