14 Days in Nujiang

Land in the prefecture seat at about 800 metres; the evening promenade, the bridge over the river and the night fish stalls set the rhythm for the fortnight.

1. nujiang liuku riverfront

Walk upstream 12 km to the riverside springs at Denggeng, where Lisu villagers have gathered at Lunar New Year for generations, and read the valley's stories in the prefecture's riverside monuments.

1. nujiang dengeng springs

Three hours on the Beautiful Highway; Laomudeng's church is famous for its four-part Lisu hymns, and Zhiluo next door — prefecture capital until 1974 — freezes the 1970s in place above the bend. Overnight in the village.

1. nujiang laomudeng church
2. nujiang zhiluo

Continue north past the Laohutiao rapids into Fugong county, where the viewpoint lines up the Stone Moon, a marble arch pierced through a ridge at about 3,300 metres; then push on to overnight in Gongshan town.

1. nujiang shiyueliang

From Gongshan the road climbs about 80 kilometres of switchbacks and dives through the 6.68-kilometre tunnel, opened in 2014; snow closes the pass from around December to May, so confirm the road first.

1. nujiang dulongjiang

A full day for the township museum on Dulong life, riverside hamlets, rattan footbridges and waterfalls that drop straight into the river — the isolated home valley of the Dulong people.

1. nujiang dulongjiang

One last morning walk along the river, then back through the tunnel to Gongshan town for an easy afternoon at the county's riverside.

1. nujiang dulongjiang

Forty-five kilometres north, Bingzhongluo spreads at about 1,500 metres beneath 2,000-metre peaks; see the First Bend, the lamasery and the Catholic church, and stay for sunset on the snowline.

1. nujiang first bend
2. nujiang bingzhongluo

The tea-horse trail hugs the cliff into Wuli; Qiunatong's farm terraces are the last before the Tibet boundary and the guardrails of the Nachalo gorge. Second night in Bingzhongluo.

1. nujiang wuli village
2. nujiang qiunatong

A day without driving — the riverside hamlet known as Peach Blossom Island below the First Bend, village lanes among fired-earth houses, and a slow lunch of mountain corn and buckwheat.

1. nujiang bingzhongluo

Ride the whole 287-kilometre Beautiful Highway back to Liuku, pausing at the galleries carved above the river — the drive that gives this valley its modern name.

1. nujiang beautiful highway

An honest neighbour-prefecture day, about 100 km south — the dry-hot valley of Lujiangba grows thousand-mu coffee gardens in the shadow of the Gaoligong range; return to Liuku by dusk.

1. nujiang lujiangba coffee valley

A final riverside day; if you travel in December, the Lisu Kuoshi new-year festival, celebrated around 20 December with mass singing, may fold into your dates.

1. nujiang liuku riverfront
2. nujiang dengeng springs

One last spring-side stroll upstream, then the two-hour expressway run — about 150 kilometres — to Baoshan's Yunrui airport for flights out.

1. nujiang dengeng springs