Jiangxi Travel Guide
Jiangxi is one of China’s staggeringly beautiful provinces, cut by the Yangtze River along with countless other mountain streams. It’s known for rugged beauty, Communist Party heritage and a longstanding tradition of porcelain firing.
Jiangxi’s reputation among Chinese is twofold. First, the city of Jingdezhen has been at the helm of the porcelain industry for thousands of years. The imperial kilns here fired china pieces for use in the Forbidden City, and even today the city produces more porcelain than the rest of China combined. Touring the china factories isn’t high on international tourists’ lists, but it draws locals from across the nation.
The other famous aspect of Jiangxi is its central role in the early Communist uprising. Mao Zedong spent considerable time in Jinggang Shan, known as the ‘Cradle of the Chinese Revolution’, and there was a time when tens of thousands of pilgrims arrived here every day. The other major city for communist pride is Nanchang, the ‘City of Heroes’.
International tourists typically avoid the communist history route, but there’s much more to see and do in Jiangxi. Lushan is a beautiful hill station overflowing with European villas that were built over a century ago. Walking along the lake and touring these villas is a great diversion from the more mainstream aspects of a holiday in China.
Just as spectacular is Wuyuan, a stunning landscape of mountains, rivers, historic bridges and sleepy hamlets. Visitors can drop any of dozens of charming villages. There’s a longstanding tradition of tree-planting in Wuyuan, with more than 80 percent of the region forested.
Across the province, visitors will find beautiful landscapes like these where locals still carry on elements of the traditional Chinese life. Meanwhile, modern Chinese vacationers tour sites of national pride, giving international guests the chance to draw connections between past and future China.
Getting There & Away
There are airports in Nanchang and Jingdezhen, both of which connect to Shanghai in 1 hour and Beijing in 2 hours. These cities are also linked by train to other major cities in the region. Buses are readily available for travel between cities in Jiangxi, and there are a number of firms that offer car hire with a driver.