14 Days in Huaihua

Land at the rail hub the Wushui made, read the five-rivers story in the city museum, and eat rice noodles where the night market starts.

1. huaihua city museum

A gentle city day on the forested slopes north of downtown — stair loops, pavilion views and an early night before the western runs.

1. huaihua zhongpo hill

Thirty-five km west, the 1947 archway records the August 1945 surrender talks; the 250-meter Longjin wind-rain bridge, first raised in the 1590s, still carries market traffic.

1. huaihua zhijiang surrender memorial
2. huaihua longjin bridge

The museum beside the 1930s airfield documents the US air units stationed here through the war years; a slow riverside afternoon and Zhijiang duck for dinner.

1. huaihua flying tigers museum

At the Wu-Shui confluence about 50 km from downtown, Qianyang's county town claims 2,200-plus years of walls; the Furong Tower honors Wang Changling, the Tang poet posted here as Longbiao magistrate.

1. huaihua qianyang old city
2. huaihua furong tower

Seventy km southeast at the Yuan-Wu confluence, the old port keeps 380-plus Qing and Republican buildings — banks, oil houses and escort-agency courtyards strung along flagstone lanes.

1. huaihua hongjiang merchant town

An hour and a half south in Huitong county, Gaoyi's Ming-Qing courtyards line the Wushui river — carve out the whole day for lanes, wells and the village kitchen.

1. huaihua gaoyi village

An honest mountain-road day, about 3 hours south to Tongdao county; Yutou's drum towers and wind-rain bridges, first raised in the Ming Hongwu era, hold national heritage-listing status. County-town night.

1. huaihua yutou dong village

Huangdu's long-table lunch, then the stacked Danxia pinnacles of Wanfoshan north-east of the county town — walk the ridge path while the light stays soft.

1. huaihua huangdu dong village
2. huaihua wanfo mountain

On the road back, stop at Xianxi's Song-founded Gongcheng Academy — site of the December 1934 meeting — and Jingping's riverside lineage courtyards at Zhongfang; city by evening.

1. huaihua gongcheng academy
2. huaihua jingping village

Laundry, stair loops on Zhongpo and a long noodle afternoon before the two long days north and east.

1. huaihua zhongpo hill

An honest long day — about two hours each way north to Yuanling for the Longxing teaching temple, founded in the Tang year 628, and Eryou Hill, where legend says books were hidden in Qin times.

1. huaihua longxing temple
2. huaihua eryou hill

An honest neighbor day — about three hours each way east-southeast to Langshan in Xinning county, whose Danxia peaks joined the 2010 China Danxia World Natural Heritage listing; worth the road in clear weather.

1. shaoyang langshan danxia

A market breakfast, a last walk of the old station quarter and the train out.

1. huaihua city markets