7 Days in Wenshan

Rail in via Puzhehei station, running since December 2016, about an hour and a half from Kunming; punt among the lake clusters, then climb Qinglong hill over a landscape locals count at 300-odd peaks, 80-odd caves and 50-odd lakes.

1. wenshan puzhehei lakes
2. wenshan qinglong hill

The Miao hamlet behind the hill where the hit drama set its fox-realm scenes in the 2016 filming, a 20-minute walk from the lookout, and the torch-and-moon caves at the waterline nearby.

1. wenshan caihuaqing village
2. wenshan puzhehei caves

Down the line to Guangnan and in by boat — about 1 kilometre of dark water cave between you and the rice-paddy village that styles itself the Peach Blossom Spring.

1. wenshan bamei village

Southeast of Guangnan, the valley whose glutinous grain went to tribute tables for centuries, with the three-tiered falls of Sanla in the same green basin.

1. wenshan babao rice town
2. wenshan sanla waterfall

In the county seat, the Qing-era yamen of the Nong clan, counted among the largest surviving Zhuang tusi compounds, in a town whose Han-court records raised a Gouding ruler to kingship in the first century BC.

1. wenshan guangnan tusi compound

Back west to Wenshan city, the prefecture capital that grows the bulk of China's notoginseng root — trading halls of dug-and-dried roots, then an evening boardwalk on the Panlong.

1. wenshan sanqi market
2. wenshan panlong river

A market breakfast by the river, then the rail west from Wenshan or the flight out of the prefecture airport, named Puzhehei though it sits in Yanshan county.

1. wenshan panlong river