7 Days in Wuyishan

Rail in to Wuyishan East on the high-speed line opened in 2015, then the cliff crevice whose tightest squeeze runs under half a metre, and the wind-cave rock that booms after rain.

1. wuyishan yixiantian
2. wuyishan huxiao rock

Six mother tea bushes at Jiulongke, fenced off since picking ended in 2006, then an easy ridge walk to the springs that fall about a hundred metres past the cave mouth.

1. wuyishan dahongpao trail
2. wuyishan shuilian cave

Book the morning slot — boats push off from the Xingcun docks between roughly 06:40 and 16:30 in season, and the 9.5-kilometre float through nine bends takes about 100 minutes, passing the fourth-bend tea garden founded in 1302.

1. wuyishan xingcun raft docks
2. wuyishan yuchayuan

A pre-dawn stairway up to the cliffside temple above the upper bends for first light, then the kiln mounds by the north entrance where black-glazed tea bowls were fired some eight centuries ago.

1. wuyishan baiyun temple
2. wuyishan yulinting kiln

Up the valley where black tea was first smoked over pinewood some four centuries back. The national reserve restricts its core — checkpoints turn back individual cars, so arrange a licensed visit and treat any closure as final.

1. wuyishan tongmuguan

A walled Han-era capital of roughly 48 hectares, razed around 110 BC after the dynasty absorbed the Minyue kingdom — rammed-earth ramparts and a site museum in the fields southwest of Chengcun village.

1. wuyishan minyue king city

Morning in the tea-history galleries at Sangu, a last riverside walk under the peaks, then the high-speed rail from Wuyishan East.

1. wuyishan tea museum
2. wuyishan sangu town