14 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; the rest of the day belongs to 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 day at the Meishan Culture Park east of town, built around the old logging-and-hunting culture of the Anhua highlands — stilt houses, ritual masks and martial-arts demonstrations. Back to Dongping for the night.

1. yiyang meishan culture park

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. Fourth and last Anhua night.

1. yiyang yuntaishan

A slow morning in Dongping's tea shops — buy the brick tea here, where the warehouses are — then the two-hour ride back over the hills to Yiyang for a market dinner and an early night.

1. yiyang city markets

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 — paddy fields, old farm tools and new murals share the lanes.

1. yiyang qingxi village
2. yiyang city markets

Honestly labeled — Taohuayuan belongs to neighboring Changde, about 90 minutes northwest by car. The 5A scenic area grew from Tao Yuanming's fourth-to-fifth-century fable The Peach Blossom Spring; temples, an old Qin-Chu street and Qinxi streams fill a long day. Return to Yiyang by evening.

1. changde taohuayuan

Another honest outside day — Changsha, 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, with evening back in Yiyang.

1. changsha orange isle
2. changsha hunan museum

A last market breakfast, a slow walk on the Zi River banks and, if the schedule allows, one more pass through the old lanes before the train — Changsha is half an hour, and the airport beyond it.

1. yiyang zi river waterfront
2. yiyang city markets