7 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

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 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.

1. huaihua yutou dong village

Huangdu's Dong courtyards and long-table lunch, then the Song-founded Gongcheng Academy in Xianxi town, where the December 1934 meeting was held; back to the city by night.

1. huaihua huangdu dong village
2. huaihua gongcheng academy