10 Days in Yingtan

The bamboo raft slides past Danxia cliffs (UNESCO-listed with the mountain in 2010) where Guyue burials were hoisted some 2,600 years ago; the "mosquito-free" Xu village waits at the bend.

1. yingtan xianshuiyan cliffs
2. yingtan wuwen village

The Tianshi Mansion has housed 63 generations of Zhang masters across nearly 1,900 years of Zhengyi Daoism; the old town's lanes and the Zhengyi temple fill the afternoon.

1. yingtan shangqing ancient town
2. yingtan tianshi mansion
3. yingtan zhengyi temple

A second Longhu pass on foot — the high plank road loops the elephant-trunk pillar and looks down on the river bend the rafts traced yesterday.

1. yingtan xiangbi hill

Zou Taofen (1895-1944), the trailblazing editor with family roots in Yujiang district; the restored home and the city museum take an unhurried morning.

1. yingtan taofen former residence
2. yingtan museum

Riverside benches and teahouses, and packing for the overnight run to Sanqingshan.

1. yingtan xinjiang riverside

An honest cross-city day — twenty minutes by rail into Shangrao's Yiyang county, where camel-humped Danxia blocks share the same 2010 UNESCO listing as Longhu.

1. guifeng

An honest overnight into Shangrao's mountains — the cableway lifts you into a forest of granite pillars above the clouds.

1. sanqingshan

The high walkways wind the eastern loops past Taoist shrines and sea-of-cloud viewpoints before the return to Yingtan.

1. sanqingshan

East to Guixi for the academy rebuilt in honour of the 12th-century philosopher Lu Jiuyuan, with old-town teahouses around.

1. yingtan xiangshan academy

A final slow walk along the Xinjiang river, one last museum sweep, then the HSR from Yingtan North.

1. yingtan xinjiang riverside
2. yingtan museum