7 Days in Lu'an

The Wanxi martyrs cemetery with its Dabie-mountain history hall — 59 founding generals from Jinzhai county alone — and a first pot of single-leaf Guapian tea.

1. liuan wanxi martyrs cemetery
2. liuan wanxi museum

West of town — the 1.5-km rift gorge, Dushan's buildings tied to the November 1929 first shot of the Liuhuo uprising, and Hengpaitou, the 1958 headworks of the Pishihang scheme, post-1949 China's largest irrigation district.

1. liuan wanxi rift valley
2. liuan dushan revolution sites
3. liuan hengpaitou

About 160 km and 2.5 hours to the Jinzhai side — the 1,729-m second peak of the Dabie range and more than a hundred falls; overnight at the mountain gate.

1. liuan tiantangzhai

The stepped memorial square and county museum, then the Meishan dam finished in the mid-1950s across the Shi river; late-afternoon return toward Lu'an.

1. liuan jinzhai red army square
2. liuan meishan reservoir

An hour west into Huoshan County, the multiple-arch dam completed in 1954 — a 74-m concrete curtain hailed as the first great dam of new China — with a walkable crest and a small exhibition hall.

1. liuan foziling reservoir

A full mountain day — the 1,777-m Baimajian, highest point of the Dabie range, rises above Huoshan's forests; trails are steep and weather turns quickly, so start early and carry layers.

1. liuan baimajian

An hour east to Shucheng's Longhekou reservoir of about 50 sq km; a boat loop among the islands, a lakeside lunch and the afternoon train from Lu'an.

1. liuan wanfo lake