10 Days in Yiyang

About 70 km from Changsha, the city keeps three stone-paved port lanes from the Ming and Qing — Yulingpo, Denglong and the Wei-family lane. Walk them at leisure, then follow the Zi River promenade after dark.

1. yiyang ming qing ancient lanes
2. yiyang zi river waterfront

Huilongshan rises just south of the river, its Xixia temple said to date to the Eastern Jin. The city museum nearby traces the Zi River basin from prehistory through the tea trade.

1. yiyang huilongshan
2. yiyang city museum

Yiyang's sports legacy runs through badminton — Gong Zhichao, who came up through Hunan's program here, took the women's singles gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The stadium park honors that; spend the rest of the day grazing the city markets.

1. yiyang olympic park
2. yiyang city markets

An hour west, groves roll over the Taojiang hills — roughly a million mu of bamboo countywide, around 670 km2 — and the 1930s song about the Peach Blossom River still plays in the town below.

1. yiyang taohuajiang bamboo sea
2. yiyang city markets

Two hours northwest to Dongping, where the China Dark Tea Museum opened in 2015 beside the old wharf streets; exhibits cover the 1595 government-tea edict and the 36.25 kg thousand-tael logs. First Anhua night.

1. yiyang dark tea museum
2. yiyang city markets

The old tea route south of town runs past Dongshi old street to the Qing-dynasty Yongxi covered bridge, a timber span rebuilt many times by village subscription. Overnight in Anhua again.

1. yiyang anhua tea horse road
2. yiyang yongxi bridge

A full day west of Dongping at Yuntaishan, where tea terraces climb toward a summit just under 1,000 m and estate tasting rooms pour the local dark teas. Back down for a third Anhua night.

1. yiyang yuntaishan

East to Yuanjiang, where the South Dongting reserve spans some 1,680 km2 of lake, marsh and islets and hosts tens of thousands of wintering waterfowl; Yanzhi Lake makes a quiet afternoon loop. Return to Yiyang for the night.

1. yiyang south dongting wetland
2. yiyang yanzhi lake

Qingxi Village preserves the former residence of novelist Zhou Libo (1908-1979), whose 1958 novel Great Changes in a Mountain Village is set here — the paddy-fields-and-cartoon-wall-art version of the village draws its own crowd.

1. yiyang qingxi village
2. yiyang city markets

Honestly labeled — Changsha, not Yiyang, and the provincial capital has its own page on this site. Half an hour east by HSR on the line completed in December 2022: Orange Isle in the Xiang River, then the Hunan Museum's Mawangdui finds, before onward trains from Changsha.

1. changsha orange isle
2. changsha hunan museum