Travelogue

| Gateway to the Silk Road | Guizhou Landscape |
| Dream away in Yangshuo | Where memories linger |
| Grand Canal at Hangzhou Ending | Curing Cuisines | Tea Tour |
| A Challenging Trip | Expedition to fairyland |
| Snacks at Kunming | Lijiang Impression |
| A Quiet Village Tour | Splash off Your Bad Luck |
| Summer Escape to a Holy Island | Suzhou’s History |
| In the Heart of a Miao Village | No-frills cruise along the Yangtze |

Expedition to fairyland

Lu Hong
I have read travel reviews about Wuyuan in north Jiangxi Province and without exception the writers all described it as "the most beautiful village in China." Trying to escape from the urban hubbub while finding out if the common opinion is true, I set off on a trip to Wuyuan on March 31.

The bus departed from People's Square at 8:30 pm and after a 9-hour ride we arrived in Wuyuan County in the early morning. It started raining after our arrival, but this didn't dampen my excitement because I had always thought that villages south of the Yangtze River were more delightful on rainy days than on clear days.

During the ride to our first stop, Likeng, I was totally intoxicated by the scenes outside the bus windows: waterways wending among ancient cottages with white walls and black tiles; mist drifting on the water, agitated slowly by the wind, making the village as mysterious as a young woman covered by a veil; bright yellow rape flowers blooming vigorously between the cottages ... The scenery gave me a feeling of returning to nature and made me look forward to being a part of it.

So when the bus arrived at the Village of Likeng, I couldn't wait to walk between the rape flower fields. Likeng is an ancient village with a history of hundreds of years. It got the name because it used to be inhabited primarily by people surnamed Li.

Surrounded by mountains, the village was divided in half by a zig-zag creek. Dozens of stone bridges linked the houses on both banks of the creek. The houses were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties and because the village neighbors Anhui Province, all the houses had the characteristics of those in Anhui, with black tiles, white walls and exquisite carvings.

Climbing the stairs up a mountain brought a bird eye's view of the whole village, which reminded me of Lijiang Ancient City in Yunnan Province.

In the afternoon, we took a tour to Rainbow Bridge in Qinghua Town of Wuyuan, reputedly one of the longest corridor bridges in China. The bridge was built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and has a history of over 1,000 years. It got the name because of the way it perches on the water, looking like a rainbow stretched across the river.

Our next stop was Dazhang Mountain Wolong Gorge natural scenic spot. The spot won its reputation for its waterfalls, pools, oddly-shaped rocks and rare plants. Tourists supposedly judged it very favorably, saying it combined the beauty of the waters of Jiuzhai, the waterfall of Yandang Mountain, the rocks of Yellow Mountain and the trees of Xishuangbanna. Maybe this description was a little exaggerated, but in my opinion the gorge is well worth a day's visit.

One of the highest waterfalls here has a drop of 240 meters and thanks to the rain in the morning, the water splashed down from the mountain cliff, thundering and roaring, with tremendous grandeur. From a distance, the waterfall looked like a jade dragon diving from the sky, shining brightly in the sunlight.

The scenic spot is supposedly slated to become the biggest outdoor arena for extreme sports in East China, with more attractions being added, such as rope-dancing, rock climbing and net-crawling.

At night, we had to change our schedule to find accommodation in Jingdezhen, a city two hours' drive away from Wuyuan County, as the county's hotels were already crowded with visitors. The trip to Jingdezhen was an extra bonus on our trip.

For centuries, the city has been known as the "capital of porcelain." Here, ceramics were produced as far back as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). The imperial porcelain made here was so exquisite that it was described as being "as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, as thin as paper, with a sound as clear as a bell."

Porcelain workshops can be found on every street of Jingdezhen. Although we had a tight schedule, many friends of mine on the tour visited stores and purchased one or two sets of bowls and plates made of blue-white porcelain or color-glazed porcelain. The price was very reasonable, at about 100 to 200 yuan (US$12 to 24) for a set.

After a refreshing sleep and rewarding shopping in Jingdezhen, we headed to Jiangling on the second day.

People said the best season for a tour to Wuyuan was March and April, when the rape flowers are in bloom, while the best place to watch the flower in the county is Jiangling. So we expected the visit to Jiangling to be the highlight of the second day.

Jiangling is not really a tourism spot. According to our tour guide it won its popularity some years ago after a photographer took a photo of the village and won a prize of 1 million yuan (US$123,000). Since then, every spring - during the rape flower season - hordes of photographers and tourists have hastened to the village and expended many rolls of film.

To be frank, the roads to the village are bumpy and muddy. I strongly recommend people avoid driving sedan cars there - the most suitable vehicles are trucks and vans. On our visit the road was under construction, so transportation should be smoother by next spring.

On our ride to the village, we frequently met tourists on their way back, waving to us excitedly, even though their clothes were covered with splashes of clay. This strengthened our confidence that a fascinating village was waiting for us.

After one and half hours' ride, we arrived at the destination. Our eyes opened wide with shock to see the myriads of rape flowers blooming in the terraced fields spreading to the peak of a hill.

When I stood on the peak and looked around. Rape flowers stretched endlessly across the fields and hills, so that it seemed as if I was looking out over an endless golden sea. A crowd of farmers' cottages were perfectly located in the middle of the flower sea. All this was enough to make me wonder whether I had stepped into a fairy land。

Another choice to reach Wuyuan is take the shuttle bus to Huangshan City from Shanghai Southern Bus Station, where you can go to visit Yellow Mountain first. The bus trip is only 5 hours to reach Tunxi, also a well-known town in Southern China, where you can go to hike the mountain ( 1800 meters above sea-level) and enjoy the splendid nature: beautiful pines, grotesque rocks, fantastic sunrise and the cloud seas.

For detailed information, you can just drop in an email and you will get a quick reply within 12 hours.
john@chinahuangshan.com congzhang35@hotmail.com

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