14 Days in Wuyuan

HSR puts Wuyuan about 30 minutes from Huangshan North, 2 hours from Hangzhou, around 3 hours from Shanghai. Settle in, then walk Likeng, 12 km out, late afternoon when the tour coaches are gone.

1. wuyuan likeng

Work the eastern road — the free Moon Bay bend first, Wangkou's Yu Family Ancestral Hall 25 km out, then the 5A town of Jiangwan at 30 km with the Xiaojiang Ancestral Hall. The 210-yuan through ticket covers 12 sites, valid 5 days.

1. wuyuan yueliangwan
2. wuyuan wangkou
3. wuyuan jiangwan

Jiangling, 55 km northeast and about 1.5 hours by car, is the county's flower signature — mid-March to early April. Xiaoqi, 20 minutes back down the road, keeps a thousand-year camphor tree and quiet lanes.

1. wuyuan jiangling
2. wuyuan xiaoqi

Huangling, 13 km out, sells a ticket-and-cableway combo at about 135 yuan. Hilltop lanes, terraced fields below, shaiqiu displays all year but best September to November.

1. wuyuan huangling

Museum morning — Ming-Qing furniture and Huizhou ink sticks — then tea shops pouring Mingmei green. Rest up; the northern loop starts tomorrow.

1. wuyuan county museum
2. wuyuan tea streets

Rainbow Bridge in Qinghua town, 20 km west, is a nearly 900-year-old covered bridge from the Southern Song — four piers, eleven rooms on stilts. Spend the rest of the day on Qinghua's own old street; sleep in town.

1. wuyuan caihongqiao

Wolong Valley, about 15 km north of Qinghua, gives 2-3 hours of boardwalks along pools and rapids; Lingyan Cave, roughly 50 km northwest of the county town, holds karst halls and old cliff inscriptions. Base near Shicheng tonight.

1. wuyuan wolonggu
2. wuyuan lingyandong

Shicheng, about 50 km northwest, delivers the November mist over persimmon trees and red maples — photographers in place by 6:30. Outside late autumn it is a quiet stone village. Drive back about 1.5 hours.

1. wuyuan shicheng

A gentle day at the paired merchant villages 13 km from town — carved brick gates, canal-side lanes, and tea served in old courtyards. The through ticket covers both.

1. wuyuan sixiyancun

Southwest to Yuanyang Lake at Fuchun, about 40 km — thousands of wild mandarin ducks winter here from November to March. Wen Gong Hill, 30 km out, marks Zhu Xi's ancestral graveyard under old cypresses.

1. wuyuan yuanyanghu
2. wuyuan wengongshan

An honest neighbor day — Sanqingshan, the UNESCO granite mountain, is in neighboring Yushan County, about 90 km and 2 hours away. Entry plus the Jinsha cableway runs about 245 yuan; pillar trails take 4-5 hours.

1. sanqingshan

The porcelain capital, about 80 km west or 30 minutes by HSR. The Ancient Kiln folk park entry is about 95 yuan; the Taoxichang ceramic market runs on weekends and nights. Return to Wuyuan for a last village evening.

1. jingdezhen

Changxi, a hill village about 50 km out in Fuchun direction, is the locals' alternative to Shicheng for red maples, best mid-November onward. In other seasons it is a walk through camphor groves and rapeseed hillsides.

1. wuyuan changxi

A market breakfast of steamed rice cakes and chrysanthemum tea — Wuyuan's chrysanthemum makes the usual souvenir — then the HSR from Wuyuan station, or the 1.5-hour drive to Jingdezhen airport.

1. wuyuan tea streets