14 Days in Pingxiang

Arrive by high-speed rail, half an hour from Changsha; an easy museum hour, an evening food street, and an early night before the memorial day.

1. pingxiang city museum

The memorial hall lays out the September 1922 strike of some 17,000 miners and railwaymen room by room; take the halls slowly — the photographs and ledgers are the point.

1. pingxiang anyuan memorial

The preserved pithead, offices and union buildings around the mine are read as historical monuments, then the city museum ties the coal and fireworks threads together.

1. pingxiang anyuan mine sites
2. pingxiang city museum

Two cableway stages to Jin Peak at 1,918.3 metres; sunset rolls across the treeless meadows and the guesthouse serves mountain potatoes and chili.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

Dawn on the hundred-thousand-mu grass sea, the skywalk between viewpoints, and a slow ridge walk to the far hostels; second summit night if the legs agree.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

A gentle morning descent, then river paths and village lanes at the mountain's foot — noodles, tofu pudding, and an unhurried afternoon.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

The geological museum explains how granite meadows stayed treeless, the Yuan river paths stretch the legs, and teahouses fill the gaps between.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

The Ordinary Temple, seat of the Yangqi line of Linji Zen since the early Northern Song nine centuries back, and the forest road up to it; return to the city for the night.

1. pingxiang yangqi mountain

The Nielong cave's cool underground river, then the county town of Shangli, whose fireworks workshops have fired the province's lanterns for generations.

1. pingxiang nielong cave

An honest neighbour-city day, an hour north into Hunan — underglaze five-colour porcelain that took world-fair medals a century ago, kilns and painting studios still at work.

1. pingxiang liling ceramics

Another honest neighbour day east into Jiangxi — the Mingyue cableway, waterfall boardwalks, and a soak in Wentang's springs, about 70°C and selenium-rich year-round.

1. pingxiang mingyue mountain

An easy ride home, laundry and long lunches, and a city-museum second pass for whatever you breezed past in week one.

1. pingxiang city museum

Cableway up and down with no luggage, a short meadow loop, and one more hour of cloud-sea from the terraces — the mountain in its easiest mode.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

A market morning for meadow honey, chili sauce and fireworks-shaped candy, then the high-speed train out.

1. pingxiang city museum