7 Days in Jingmen

The Guodian slips unearthed in 1993 — about 800 strips, some 2,300 years old — headline the city museum, and the 1754 Longquan Academy waits under Xiangshan hill.

1. jingmen museum
2. jingmen longquan park

The UNESCO tomb complex of 2000 spreads over 183 hectares, built across more than 40 years, with twin burial mounds joined by a raised terrace. Mochou Village's lanes fill up after dusk.

1. jingmen xianling mausoleum
2. jingmen mochou village

About 2.5 kilometres of cave passage at Kedian, a mouth near 100 metres tall, terraced rimstone pools, and Shuimeiping's fields in the sinkhole at the far end.

1. jingmen huangxian cave

The dam started in 1958; the water now covers roughly 100 square kilometres with more than 2 billion cubic metres of storage. Island boats run from the piers west of Jingmen.

1. jingmen zhanghe reservoir

East to Jingshan, where the AD 17 uprising on Lülin Mountain gave the language its phrase for outlaw heroes — walk the stockade and raft Yuanyang Stream in season.

1. jingmen lvlin mountain

An honestly labelled neighbouring-city day — the dam at Sandouping near Yichang stretches about 2,309 metres along its axis to a crest of 185 metres, finished across the river in 2006. Return to Jingmen at night.

1. jingmen sandouping dam

Another neighbouring-city day, south to Jingzhou — walk the 11-kilometre city wall with its six gates, see the Western Han gentleman unearthed in 1975 at the museum, then take evening transport home.

1. jingmen jingzhou wall
2. jingmen jingzhou museum