Wuyuan and Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province (4 days)
Visit rural Wuyuan to hike trails through fields of flowers and explore ancient villages and ancestral halls; stop by Jingdezhen to experience a porcelain workshop and visit the 798-inspired Taoxichuan Art District.
Booking info
March 18–21, 2021
Important—To board flights, check in to hotels, and enter ticketed areas during the trip you’ll need to show a green result on your Health Kit/健康宝 app.
Currently it is possible to travel in this area and return to Beijing without undergoing quarantine. Changes to regulations and restrictions – including those which might prevent some of the large gatherings associated with the performances – could occur at any time , and we’ll keep you up to date about that.
| Day One main activities | Meet up at the train station and take the high-speed train to Wuyuan, check in at the hotel in Yancun, explore Yancun Village. |
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| Day Two main activities | Walking tours of Sixi Village and the Yu Ancestral Hall, a long hike between Fangcun Village and Jujing Village, visit Baizhu Ancestral Hall, overnight in Qinghua Village. |
| Day Three main activities | Hike in the Jiangling area, explore Wangkou Village, short hike around Lingjiao Village, overnight in Qinghua Village. |
| Day Four main activities | Visit a local market and take a look at the Rainbow Bridge, drive to Jingdezhen, visit Jingdezhen’s Porcelain Museum and try painting your own porcelain, visit Taoxichuan Art District, flight back to Beijing. |
Getting yourself to Wuyuan
Please buy your own train tickets We’re planning to take the high-speed train to Wuyuan to save the long drive from the nearest airport. Current real-name verification requirements for train tickets make it extremely difficult to buy train tickets on your behalf. There’s more information about this further down the page. (Click here to jump down)
Highlights
Fields of flowers
In early spring, the fields and hillside terraces of Wuyuan County turn totally yellow with blooming rapeseed flowers, adding to the already serene and pastoral beauty of the area. We’ve timed this trip to coincide with the time of flowering, and will be hiking in and around the beautiful flowers for much of our visit. As well as looking pretty, rapeseed is also used to produce vegetable oil, biodiesel, and animal feed.
Ancient villages and architecture
There are many small villages in the Wuyuan area, and many of these house temples and other well-preserved ancient architecture. Villagers still preserve a laidback way of life. On the second day of the trip we will visit several villages, notably Yancun and Yantian.
Yancun is a village that features many examples of interesting ancient architecture. Many of the larger houses were built by successful businessmen of days long gone by—some with more than three floors. A river flows past the village, and it is surrounded by fields and forested hills.
Yantian is another ancient village, surrounded by fields and terraces of rapeseed flowers – a great place for photography.
Many ancient cedar wood covered bridges can be found in Wuyuan, and on the second day of our trip we’ll visit the Qinghua Rainbow Bridge, the most famous of them all. Built in the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), the 140m long bridge is made entirely of wood.
Jingdezhen, China’s ‘Porcelain Capital’
The city of Jingdezhen has over 2,000 years of recorded history. It is known as the ‘Porcelain Capital,’ having produced quality pottery for 1,700 years, with one particularly beautiful Yuan Dynasty-era (AD 1278-1368) piece going for the equivalent of ¥230,000,000 at a London auction house in 2005.
We’ll have the opportunity to visit a porcelain factory on the last day of the trip—but don’t worry, no one is going to ask you to buy a two-hundred-million renminbi piece of porcelain! (No one is going to ask you to buy anything. This isn’t planned as a shopping stop, more of a quick look at the industry.)
Getting to Wuyuan by train
There’s a high-speed train station right there in Wuyuan, which saves us taking a long bus ride from the nearest airport. Getting the train is also cheaper than the flight plus bus ride option, which helps us give you a lower price.
The cost of your train ticket is not included in the quoted trip price, and we ask that you buy your own.
Currently it’s extremely difficult for us to purchase train tickets on your behalf because of requirements for real-name registration that include an SMS code being sent to your phone number.
We’re happy to pass on our notes on ticket purchase along with some screenshots.
We’ll make an update here when we’ve confirmed the train we’ll take.
