7 Days in Pingxiang

Half an hour from Changsha by high-speed rail; the city museum's bronzes and fireworks heritage set the scene, and the evening food streets run on chili and smoked pork.

1. pingxiang city museum

The memorial hall records the September 1922 strike of some 17,000 miners and railwaymen; the preserved mine buildings around it — the old pithead and offices — are visited as historical sites, factual and respectful.

1. pingxiang anyuan memorial
2. pingxiang anyuan mine sites

The two-stage cableway rises toward Jin Peak at 1,918.3 metres over a hundred thousand mu of treeless meadow; sunset and a summit guesthouse follow.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

Dawn on the hundred-thousand-mu grass sea, the cliff skywalk between viewpoints, and a slow ridge walk down to the Luxi side — hot noodles and an early night in the valley.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

A no-altitude day at the mountain's foot — Yuan river paths, village lanes and the geological museum's meadow-formation exhibits, a leg-stretch before the temples.

1. pingxiang wugong mountain

The Ordinary Temple's Zen halls, founded in the early Northern Song nine centuries back, then the Nielong cave's underground river on the way back through Shangli county.

1. pingxiang yangqi mountain
2. pingxiang nielong cave

A last market pass for meadow honey and chili sauce, a museum hour if you missed anything, then the high-speed train out.

1. pingxiang city museum