14 Days in Xinyu

Settle in, then the park honoring Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), whose family roots are Xinyu's — his 1959 'Land So Rich in Beauty' hangs in the Great Hall of the People. Evening on the Yuan riverfront.

1. xinyu baoshi park
2. xinyu yuan riverfront

16 km southwest, about 50 sq km of water and nearly 100 islands — the setting Gan Bao wrote down in his 4th-century collection as six or seven feathered maidens over Xinyu. Full island-hopping day.

1. xinyu xiannv lake

A farmhouse morning 20 km northwest, then the forested hill on the city's north edge for skyline views before dinner.

1. xinyu changfang resort
2. xinyu yangtian forest park

About 35 km north in Fenyi county, karst caves fitted out around the same cowherd-and-fairy legend the lake claims — lit passages, a local guide, back by dinner.

1. xinyu dongdu caves

In Fenyi, the Yan clan home village of Ming grand secretary Yan Song (1480-1567) — ancestral halls and Ming-Qing courtyards; a short way on, Shuanglin town still hand-weaves ramie grass cloth.

1. xinyu jieqiao village
2. xinyu shuanglin grass cloth

About 35 km south in Nan'an township, a forest park topping out at 424 m — stone steps through bamboo to a lookout over the plain.

1. xinyu baizhang peak

30 km east, a memorial hall documents the Red Army conference held in this Yuan River market town in October 1930; a river-farm lunch, back by evening.

1. xinyu luofang conference memorial
2. xinyu yuan riverfront

A second lake day for the bays the day-boats skip — hire a small boat, pack a lakeside lunch, and wait out the evening mist that gives the fairy legend its atmosphere.

1. xinyu xiannv lake

An honest side day into neighboring Yichun — 20 minutes by HSR, then about 15 km to Wentang town, whose selenium-rich spring water runs near 68°C year-round; boardwalks climb the Mingyue peaks above.

1. yichun mingyue mountain

Another honest crossing, to Yichun's Zhangshu — the Wucheng site, the first Shang-era settlement identified south of the Yangtze (found 1973), Gezao Mountain of Daoism's Lingbao school, and a nationally known herbal market. Locals say medicine is not complete until it passes through Zhangshu.

1. zhangshu wucheng site
2. zhangshu gezao mountain

A wetland boardwalk morning on the north side, the old pavilion downtown, then a slow afternoon.

1. xinyu kongmu wetland
2. xinyu kuixing pavilion

The green ridge on the Fenyi-Yushui border for a half-day hike on stone paths with village tea stops — the locals' weekend hill.

1. xinyu mengshan

A park morning, a riverside afternoon, a market dinner — a deliberate nothing day before the train.

1. xinyu baoshi park
2. xinyu city markets

One last walk along the Yuan, then the HSR from Xinyu North on the Shanghai-Kunming line.

1. xinyu yuan riverfront