5 Days in Nanping

A raft down the nine bends, about 9.5 km and an hour and a half below the red cliffs, landing at Wuyigong's recreated Song-era street.

1. nanping jiuqu stream raft
2. nanping wuyigong song street

Tianyou Peak, 408.8 m, for the bend-by-bend view; the One-Line Sky crevice after lunch; the six mother tea bushes at Jiulongke, their picking ended in 2006.

1. nanping tianyou peak
2. nanping dahongpao cliff

Xiamei, where 17th-century caravans began the run to the Russian border, some 13,000 km out, with the Zou family hall on the stream; a tea-culture park rounds out the afternoon.

1. nanping xiamei village
2. nanping xiangjiang tea park

About 50 km southeast, Wufu kept Zhu Xi from age fourteen for close to fifty years of study and teaching — the Xingxian old street and the Purple-Yang study still stand among Ming-Qing houses.

1. nanping wufu town

Zhu Xi moved to Kaoting in 1192 and taught here in his final years; nearby, the dark-glazed jian bowls fired in Song kilns — several survive in Japan as national treasures. Depart from the Jianyang rail station.

1. nanping kaoting academy
2. nanping jianzhan culture street