14 Days in Huangshi

Arrive along the lake; the museum's mining halls set up the fortnight, and HSR from Huangshi North reaches Wuhan in under an hour.

1. huangshi cihu lake
2. huangshi city museum

A full morning — the stepped pit drops 444 m and has been worked since 1890; late April brings locust blossom on the reclaimed slopes.

1. huangshi national mine park

Bronze-Age shafts under the museum go back 3,000 years; afterwards the Daye old streets and the hill loops of Qinglongshan above the rooftops.

1. huangshi tonglvshan copper mine
2. huangshi qinglongshan park

Pair the stream gorge of Daquangou in Lingxiang with the aromatic flower fields of Chutian Xianggu in Mingshan — May is rose season; rural buses are thin, so drive or charter.

1. huangshi daquangou
2. huangshi chutian xianggu

Leishan's stone ridges and temple, then the Longfengshan hills of Liu Renba, where the Red Third Army Corps formed in 1930 and the memorial hall sits below.

1. huangshi leishan
2. huangshi longfengshan

About 1.5 hours to Wangying; the 1,002-island reservoir offers a boat cruise and a glass sky deck, ticketed separately, with lake-fish lunch by the pier.

1. huangshi xiandao lake

A slow day on the lotus-lake boardwalks, with Yangxin's tea-picking opera tradition to listen for; the bus from Wangying takes about an hour.

1. huangshi lianhua lake park

Half an hour from downtown on the road back north; the expo gardens and mineral-crystal halls are liveliest during the autumn mineral fair.

1. huangshi garden expo park
2. huangshi mineral expo park

The Huaxin works of 1907, its 1940s American kilns preserved in the site museum, plus the Hanyeping iron-and-steel origins — part of Hanyeping stays inside the working plant.

1. huangshi huaxin cement site
2. huangshi hanyeping site

An early climb for the Yangtze gorge and passing barge convoys, then the cave and viewing platform on the Huangjingshan ridge, about two hours return.

1. huangshi xisaishan
2. huangshi feiyun cave

The "first mountain of the Three Chus" — forest paths, the Honghua temple halls and a vegetarian canteen lunch at an unhurried pace.

1. huangshi dongfang mountain

An honest neighbour-day — about an hour's drive to the Ezhou-side pier for the ferry to Liangzi Island; autumn is crab season on the lake, and if ferries pause, the lake-road lookouts still fill the day.

1. huangshi liangzi lake

Start from the Tuanchengshan side of the lake, walk or cycle the greenway, and finish with tea and Huangshi's sesame gangbing biscuits.

1. huangshi tuanchengshan park
2. huangshi cihu lake

A morning market round for Hubei snacks, then the train from Huangshi North — the fortnight closes where the city eats.

1. huangshi city markets