14 Days in Liupanshui

Settle into the basin at around 1,800 m — midsummer averages near 19.7 degrees, the Cool City since 2005 — then the 1.1-km rainbow boardwalk over the wetland.

1. liupanshui minghu wetland

The museum of the 1960s push that fused Liuzhi, Panxian and Shuicheng into one city, the Shuicheng old-town lanes and Fengchi garden; dinner is the local griddle hotpot.

1. liupanshui sanxian museum
2. liupanshui fengchi garden

About 30 km west — Guizhou's earliest ski field from December to February at around 2,300 m, and Haiping's Yi town below, torch festival on the sixth lunar month's twenty-fourth day.

1. liupanshui yushe forest park
2. liupanshui haiping yi town

Two hours south into Panzhou — turbines, horses and azalea slopes along a ridge topping out at the 2,857-m Niupengliangzi; sleep in the park guesthouses for the dawn.

1. liupanshui wumeng grassland

The second morning for the cloud sea, then the descent into Panzhou county town with time for a riverside dinner.

1. liupanshui wumeng grassland

More than a thousand ginkgos, many over 300 years, gold from mid-October; eat in a courtyard where the leaves fall into the soup bowls, and browse the ginkgo-kernel snacks.

1. liupanshui tuole ginkgo village

Southeast of the county, trails under old bamboo culms and the Paleolithic Panxian Dadong cave site, where excavations reached layers up to about 300,000 years old; overnight back toward the town.

1. liupanshui dadong bamboo sea

Return to Liuzhi, where China's first eco-museum opened in 1998 among the timber villages of the Longhorn Miao — houses, costumes and granaries are the exhibit.

1. liupanshui suoxia ecology museum

About an hour west of the Liuzhi seat, a drowned reach of the Beipan river between cliffs — boat decks, hanging walkways and Yelang-kingdom legends in the place names.

1. liupanshui zangke jiang

An honest neighbor-city day — the massif belongs to Bijie's Hezhang county; the Small Jiucaiping summit reads 2,900.6 m, highest in Guizhou, with chive-flower slopes in late summer.

1. bijie jiucaiping

Another honest neighbor-city day — Huangguoshu belongs to Anshun, about two hours east by expressway; the main fall drops 77.8 m over a 101-m lip, the Water-Curtain Cave walk runs behind it, and mid-day crowds are real.

1. anshun huangguoshu waterfall

The ropeway runs just under 10 km over the ridge — certified as the world's longest mountain cableway — with a ski field at the top from December; evenings below come with city lights and cool air.

1. liupanshui meihua mountain

A rest day — park loops, the wetland again at golden hour, mutton rice noodles and griddle hotpot refills, plus packing of montane honey and chestnut gifts.

1. liupanshui fengchi garden

A last museum hour if timing allows, a market breakfast, then the train from a station wired into the HSR map since July 2020.

1. liupanshui sanxian museum