14 Days in Shaoyang

Arrive by rail — the Huai-Shao-Heng line, opened December 2018, links Shaoyang to the HSR grid — then walk Shuangqing Park where the Zi and Shao rivers meet.

1. shaoyang shuangqing park

About 140 km south in Xinning, the 108-sq-km park joined UNESCO's China Danxia serial in 2010; the Chili Pepper Peak monolith rises some 180 metres while rafts drift the Fuyi below. Count on two-and-a-half hours each way.

1. shaoyang langshan
2. shaoyang fuyi river

A second Langshan day for the border ridge of Bajiaozhai, which looks across into Guangxi; inside the park on the way, the Tianyi Lane slit runs 238.8 metres with walls 0.33 metres apart at the narrowest.

1. shaoyang bajiaozhai

Teahouses and riverside parks at an easy pace — the southern legs start again tomorrow.

1. shaoyang shuangqing park

A long early-start day — about 150 km southwest in Chengbu's Miao county, the Nanshan grasslands average 1,760 metres across some 153 sq km of hill pasture, and the Red Army crossed the Laoshanjie ridge here in December 1934.

1. shaoyang nanshan pasture

Markets, laundry and an early night — the western stretch to Wuguan leaves in the morning.

1. shaoyang city markets

West about 80 km, Wuguan's stone walls — first raised under the Song and rebuilt in the Ming — ring the old town; the Yunshan forest park trails start on the city's edge.

1. shaoyang wugang city wall
2. shaoyang yunshan forest

In Longhui, about 50 km west, Tantou's workshops still print the woodblock New Year pictures that entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006.

1. shaoyang tantou print village

Up at Huxingshan the Huayao cross-stitch joined the same 2006 heritage list; village lanes open on their own rhythm, and the viewpoint terraces look down the valley.

1. shaoyang huayao villages

At Simenqian in Longhui, the farmhouse where Wei Yuan (1794-1857) spent his boyhood opens on regular daytime hours — he compiled the 1843 Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms.

1. shaoyang wei yuan residence

A labelled neighbour day — Huaihua is a separate prefecture west, about an hour by HSR on the 2018 line, gateway to the Wuling mountains; the Ming-Qing merchant houses of Hongjiang sit an hour further by road.

1. huaihua

The Baishuidong gorge, about 20 km north of the city, stacks waterfall tiers and a cave mouth on an easy half-day.

1. shaoyang baishui dong

A last loop of the confluence parks and market streets, with packing left for the evening.

1. shaoyang shuangqing park
2. shaoyang city markets

One more market breakfast, then the HSR from Shaoyang station — Changsha sits under two hours east on the 2018 line.

1. shaoyang city markets