City guide · Fujian

Wuyi Mountain travel guide: the Nine-Bend raft, Tianyou Peak, Dahongpao rock tea

Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.

Known forNine-Bend raft, Danxia cliffs, rock tea
Typical spend¥1,000–2,000 / person / 3 days
Ideal length3 days
PaceSteady — one raft, one climb, one tea morning

Plan this trip Wuyi Mountain tours

Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10

The short version

Wuyi Mountain is Fujian's UNESCO double-heritage landscape and the home of rock tea, and 3 days is the right shape: one for the Nine-Bend River bamboo raft, one for Tianyou Peak and the One-Line Sky cleft, one for the Dahongpao tea gorge and a proper tasting. Budget ¥1,000–2,000 per person, and book the ¥100 raft the moment your dates are fixed — it sells out, and it is the single thing people come for.

The two-hour bamboo raft down the Nine-Bend River is not included in the through-ticket; it costs ¥100 plus ¥2 insurance and sells out days ahead in season.
The scenic through-ticket is ¥140 for one day, ¥150 for two, ¥160 for three — shuttle bus not included — and covers Tianyou, One-Line Sky, Water Curtain Cave and the tea gorge.
Dahongpao, the king of teas, grows in the Jiulongke gorge; only a handful of original bushes survive, and the valley around them is terraced tea.
Three thousand years of history is layered onto the rock: boat-shaped coffins wedged into cliff caves by the ancient Yue, Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian academies, and a Han-dynasty city at Chengcun.
June, July and September are the quiet, cheap months, and June to July is when the water runs highest and the rafting is at its best.

City guide

First impressions

Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.

Bamboo rafts on the clear shallows of the Nine-Bend River

Cloud pouring over the ridge below Tianyou Peak

Red sandstone cliffs above the water at dusk

Climbing Tianyou was the hardest stretch of the whole trip, but from the top the peaks hang suspended in a sea of cloud, the nine bends wind away below you and the rafts drift like leaves. Every step was worth it.
A traveller's note, 'A Trip to Wuyi Mountain'

Wuyi's mountains make my own feelings seem small and thin. Its water makes me believe there is still something pure and sweet left in the world.
A traveller's note, 'Travelling Alone: Wuyi Mountain'

Wuyi Mountain is not among China's Five Great Peaks, and it has never needed to be. What it has instead is stranger: red sandstone cut into a hundred improbable shapes, a river that threads them in nine sharp loops, and three thousand years of human history pressed onto the rock — cliff coffins, imperial sacrifices, Daoist retreats, the academies where Zhu Xi taught, and a tea culture the whole world now drinks from.

The geography is the hook. This is classic Danxia landform: about 70 square kilometres of reddish cliffs rising straight out of the water, carved into pillars, screens and blocks, each with a name. The Nine-Bend River runs clear and shallow between them, and drifting down it on a bamboo raft, past Jade Maiden Peak and Great King Peak, is the experience the whole trip is built around. It earns the fuss.

Then there is the tea. Wuyi is the home of yancha, rock tea, and of Dahongpao — the king of teas — whose original bushes still grow in the Jiulongke gorge between two walls of cliff, with a dragon-shaped peak rising among the terraces. Around them the valleys are tea, the town is teahouses, and the calendar turns on the spring picking and the November tea fair, where growers compete at blind tastings they call tea battles.

Give it three days. One for the water, one for the climbs, one for the tea and the quieter sites — and if you have a fourth, spend it in the nature reserve, where the road climbs toward Huanggang Mountain, the highest point in the whole of south-east China.

Wuyi Mountain

Don't leave without

Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.

Drift the nine bends on a bamboo raft, and count them
Climb Tianyou Peak for the view Xu Xiake called the finest
Walk the Jiulongke gorge to the original Dahongpao bushes
Squeeze through the One-Line Sky with a torch in your hand
Sit down for a proper rock-tea tasting and buy what you liked
Look up at the boat-shaped coffins in the cliff caves
Eat smoked goose and a bowl of chilled li li jelly

Highlights

Six reasons to come

Nine bends, on a raft

The soul of the place: two hours on a bamboo raft down nine loops of clear water, past caves and cliffs the boatman will name for you in exchange for a tip. Nine bends, and you will lose count somewhere around the fifth.

A summit wrapped by the river

Tianyou Peak stands alone among the peaks, ringed on three sides by the Nine-Bend River with cloud pouring across it. Xu Xiake judged it the finest view in the region precisely because it does not touch the water and yet commands all nine bends.

The king of teas, in a gorge

Dahongpao grows in the Jiulongke gorge between two walls of cliff, and only a handful of original bushes remain. The valley floor is a stone path between tea terraces and running water, and it smells of tea the whole way.

A thread of sky in the rock

One-Line Sky is a cleft a hundred-odd metres long, opened at the top by a crack less than a foot wide, so that daylight comes down like a blade. Enter through the Fuxi Cave with a torch, and do not be a hero about it — there is a way round.

Coffins in the cliffs

Boat-shaped coffins and the beams they rested on are still wedged into caves on Dazang Peak, Baiyun Rock and Great King Peak — the burial custom of the ancient Yue, three thousand years old, hanging above your head as you float past.

Where Neo-Confucianism was taught

Zhu Xi was schooled here, wrote here, and founded his academy here. The memorial hall at Wuyi Palace traces the whole arc from the boy being taught to the scholar who reshaped Chinese thought — the reason a Ming scholar wrote that Chinese antiquity runs from Confucius in the east to Zhu Xi in the south.

Suggested routes

Three shapes for three days

The two-day classic

2 days days

The minimum: the clefts and the summit on day one, the water and the palace on day two.

Day 1

One-Line Sky, Tiger Roaring Rock, Tianyou

Start early with the climbs while your legs are fresh. One-Line Sky is the strangest cave in the range — narrow enough that broader visitors genuinely get stuck — and it is worth the queue if you go first thing.
Walk north out of it into Tiger Roaring Rock, where the sound that gives the place its name comes from wind crossing a hole in the cliff. The climb up Haohan Slope is steep but short; take the Banru Yun path and you can walk all eight Tiger Roaring sights and come down past the Tiansheng monastery into One-Line Sky.
After lunch, the main event: Tianyou Peak, wrapped by the river on three sides, with Yunwo, the Tea Cave, Yinping Peak and Xiangsheng Rock inside the same scenic area. Boiled eggs on the summit sell three for one yuan. Agree prices before you sit down at any of the small restaurants up there.

Stops: One-Line SkyTiger Roaring RockTianyou Peak
Day 2

The raft, then Wuyi Palace

Book your raft weeks ahead for this morning. Arrive an hour early, take sun and rain gear, and keep your shoes and camera out of the water — the raft takes about ninety minutes and it will splash.
Tip the boatman around ¥100 and he will narrate the cliffs, point out the hanging coffins and often sing. Jade Maiden Peak and Great King Peak are the two to photograph from the water.
The raft finishes at Wuyi Palace, fronting the river: the museum, Song Street, the Zhu Xi memorial hall and the Liu Yong memorial hall are all here. Evening in the resort town, and if you have the budget, the Zhang Yimou-directed Impression Dahongpao show at the tea park theatre, at 20:00.

Stops: Nine-Bend RiverJade Maiden PeakWuyi Palace

The three-day panorama

3 days days

Adds the tea gorge, the kiln site and the old Han city to the two-day core.

Day 1

Tianyou, the peach-blossom gorge, the raft

Morning on Tianyou Peak and the Yunwo cluster around it, then the Little Peach Garden — the gorge between Cangping Peak and Beilang Rock that locals named after the Peach Blossom Spring, with Squirrel Stream running out of it.
After lunch, the bamboo raft, and disembark at Wuyi Palace for the museum, Song Street and the Zhu Xi hall.

Stops: Tianyou PeakLittle Peach GardenNine-Bend RiverWuyi Palace
Day 2

Lotus Peak, the kiln, then the tea

Morning on Lotus Peak, at 536 m one of the thirty-six named peaks, with a temple tucked under the cliff and a hall dedicated to the Tang monk Koubing. The path doubles back on itself, which makes it longer and harder than the height suggests.
Down to the Yulinting kiln site, one of the eight great kilns of the Southern Song, and throw something at the pottery studio if the mood takes you. Then north into the Jiulongke gorge for the Dahongpao bushes, and on to Water Curtain Cave — the largest cave in the range, holding a thousand people, with three ruined shrine buildings and a wall of cliff inscriptions.

Stops: Lotus PeakYulinting kiln siteJiulongkeWater Curtain Cave
Day 3

Tiger Roaring, the cleft, and the old city

Tiger Roaring Rock from the Banru Yun path, walking all eight sights and descending to One-Line Sky.
Do not go straight back to the resort. Take a car out to the Minyue royal city at Chengcun, the Han-dynasty walled site south of the mountains, and see the other half of what this landscape was.
If you are here in mid-November, the tea fair is running: tea-making demonstrations, Wuqiao acrobatics, and the tea battles, where growers pour blind and argue over the winner.

Stops: Tiger Roaring RockOne-Line SkyMinyue royal city

Adding the reserve, or the tulou

1–2 days days

Two ways to spend a fourth day: climb into the forest, or go south to the round houses.

Option A

Into the nature reserve

Charter a car for the day — around ¥300 to get into the reserve and up toward the summit, or ¥200 for the museum, the ecological drift or the Qinglong waterfall area. Vehicles are seven-seat air-conditioned vans, driver not included.
Only Tongmu village has anywhere to eat inside the reserve, so carry food, or prepare to bargain hard. The summit road climbs toward Huanggang Mountain, 2,158 m and the highest point in south-east China.
Note the season: January to March the reserve closes for protection, and the summit grassland is brown and shut.

Stops: Nature reserveTongmu villageQinglong Great Waterfall
Option B

Nanjing tulou and Yunshuiyao

Train from Wuyishan to Zhangzhou East, then a bus from the western station to Nanjing; or come by road, with direct buses from Yongding to the clusters for about ¥12.
Day one: the Tianluokeng cluster — the four-round-and-one-square arrangement everyone calls four dishes and one soup — plus Yuchang Tower, the leaning one that has survived six centuries, and the Hakka village of Taxia.
Day two: Huaiyuan Tower, the finest of the double-ring round houses, and Yunshuiyao, the cobblestone ancient road under thousand-year-old banyans that gave the film its name.

Stops: TianluokengYuchang TowerYunshuiyao

Sights

What to actually go and see

The raft

The Nine-Bend River

The river that runs off Huanggang and crosses the whole scenic zone, folding nine times in about ten kilometres of clear, shallow water. Every visitor comes for the raft: two hours, bamboo poles, and a boatman who knows which cliff is which. It is the one thing here you must book before you book anything else.

Where: Southern part of the scenic zone, running from Xingcun east
Ticket: Raft ¥100 per person, plus ¥2 insurance
Hours: 07:30–17:00
Departures: Xingcun pier 1: 7:20, 8:30, 9:40, 10:30, 13:20, 14:30; pier 3: 8:00, 9:50, 13:30
Enquiries: 0599-8832075

Tip Arrive at the pier a full hour early. Take sun and rain gear — afternoons here often turn wet — keep your shoes dry and your camera strapped, and collect the photo taken mid-river at the disembarkation point.

The summit

Tianyou Peak

The first scenic summit of Wuyi, standing alone behind Yinping Peak in the middle of the range, with cloud and mist pooling around it and named peaks guarding it on all sides. The Nine-Bend River wraps three of those sides. Xu Xiake's verdict — that it commands all nine bends without ever touching the water, and is therefore the finest of them all — still holds.

Where: North of the sixth bend, behind Yinping Peak
Ticket: Included in the scenic through-ticket
Hours: 07:30–17:00

Tip The hardest hour of the trip, and the one people remember. Go early for the cloud, and eat on the summit — three boiled eggs for a yuan, and agree the price first at any of the small restaurants.

The cleft

One-Line Sky

Also called Lingyan, at the south-western end of the range and the strangest cave in Wuyi. The cliff overhangs three adjoining caves — Lingyan on the left, Wind in the middle, Fuxi on the right — and you enter through Fuxi. Deep inside, the roof opens in a crack less than a foot wide and a hundred-odd metres long, and daylight falls through it like a blade.

Where: South-western end of the range
Ticket: Included in the scenic through-ticket
Hours: 08:00–17:00
Enquiries: 0599-5183166

Tip Bring a torch — the park rents them at ¥10 a head — watch your valuables when it gets crowded, and if you are broad, take the path around. Getting wedged in is not a story you want.

The eight sights

Tiger Roaring Rock

A cliff whose four walls rise sheer and whose name comes from the wind crossing a hole in the rock — the sound of a tiger roaring, they say, left by the immortal who rode one here. The path up doubles back on itself; the reward is the eight Tiger Roaring sights: Bailian Crossing, Jiyun Pass, Poxian Belt, Pumen Pocket, the Dharma Rain Hanging River, Yuer Spring, the Waveless Boat and Binxis Cave.

Where: South of the range, adjoining One-Line Sky
Ticket: Included in the scenic through-ticket
Hours: 07:30–18:00

Tip At the fork, skip the sedan-chair path and take the Banru Yun route — it collects all eight sights and drops you into One-Line Sky at the end, which is the logical order to do them in.

Cave and waterfall

Water Curtain Cave

The largest rock shelter in the range, on the north side of Zhangtang Stream, formed where a softer layer in the horizontal strata was cut away by water — not a limestone cave, so it is broad and open, and it is said to hold a thousand people. Inside are the remains of three shrine buildings and many cliff inscriptions.

Where: North side of Zhangtang Stream
Ticket: Included in the scenic through-ticket
Hours: 07:30–17:00

Tip It is at its best after rain, when the curtain actually runs; in a dry autumn it can be a trickle. Pair it with the Jiulongke tea gorge, which is on the same road.

Tea gorge

Jiulongke and the Dahongpao bushes

The deep valley that runs from Dahongpao up to Tianxin Rock, known locally as Dakengkou. Its cliffs rise and fall like nine dragons, and a rounded little peak among them — the dragon's pearl — gives the place its name and its shape. A stone path runs the length of it between running water and green tea terraces, and the air smells of tea.

Where: North-west of the range, in the Dahongpao scenic area
Ticket: Included in the scenic through-ticket
Hours: 07:30–17:00

Tip This is the one area the shuttle does not serve well; most visitors take a taxi. Walk the gorge slowly and then go back into town and sit down for a real tasting — the gorge is the argument, the cup is the proof.

History

Wuyi Palace, Song Street and the Zhu Xi hall

Wuyi Palace — also known as Huixian Temple, Chongyou Temple and Wannian Palace — sits at the southern foot of Great King Peak, fronting the mouth of the Nine-Bend River, and was one of the six great Daoist temples of the Song. Behind it runs a 300 m reconstruction of a Song-dynasty street: the museum, the Zhu Xi memorial hall, the Liu Yong memorial hall, teahouses and shops, in the style of the Jiangnan of that era.

Where: South foot of Great King Peak, at the raft's end
Ticket: Free
Hours: Palace 07:30–17:30; Song Street open all day
Getting there: City bus from Hengjietou to Wuyi Palace, ¥3–4

Tip This is where the raft puts you ashore, so it costs you nothing extra. Do the museum and the Zhu Xi hall before you go hunting for tea — knowing what you are drinking makes the buying much harder to rig.

Ancient Yue

The hanging coffins

Boat-shaped coffins and the rainbow bridge-planks they rested on are still lodged in cliff caves on Dazang Peak, Baiyun Rock and Great King Peak. Archaeologists read them as the burial custom of the ancient Yue, who lived in these mountains from the Neolithic onward and put their dead into the cliffs rather than the ground.

Where: Dazang Peak, Baiyun Rock and Great King Peak
Ticket: Free
Hours: 07:30–17:00

Tip Best seen from the water — point them out to your boatman and he will tell you the version he grew up with. Binoculars or a long lens help; they are high and small.

Historic village

Xiamei old village

In the east of Wuyishan city, a village laid out with hills behind and water through it — the closed, sheltered geometry the old geomancers wanted. Lanes run at odd angles, the paths are cobbled with river pebbles, and the courtyard houses are plain and well kept. Named a national historic and cultural village in 2005.

Where: 1 Houxiang, Xiamei village, Wuyishan
Ticket: ¥50
Hours: 08:00–17:00

Tip Half a day, and a good wet-weather option. It was the tea trade that built it, which makes it the right place to end a tea-focused trip.

Waterfall and gorge

Qinglong Great Waterfall

Upstream of the Nine-Bend River, in the Tongtian River gorge of the national nature reserve, on a fault line where the forest is close to primeval. The approach passes Step Bridge, the Stone-Milk Oak, Green Lizard Drinking, Spirit Snake Loving Stone, the golden kaisa butterfly, Silver Ripples over Broken Rock, Jade Mist, and finally the fall itself.

Where: West side of the Wuyi Grand Canyon eco-park
Ticket: ¥50 (listed as ¥40 on the through-ticket notice)
Hours: 08:00–18:00
Enquiries: 0599-8832075

Tip This is a charter-car day, not a bus day: about ¥200 for the car if you are not going into the reserve proper, ¥300 if you are. Combine it with Tongmu village, the only place up there with food.

Food

What people here actually eat

Langgu smoked goose

The dish the region is known for. The goose is boiled first, then painted with chilli, salt, MSG and good oil, then set on a rack over a pot of burning rice, bay leaves and tea leaves until the smoke has done its work. Salty, hot, smoky, and very good with rice.

Li li jelly

A traditional cold drink made from the seeds of wild creeping fig, sun-dried and set into a semi-solid jelly, then dressed with honey or sugar syrup. If you climb in summer, eat a bowl afterwards: the heat goes out of you and your head clears.

Rat's-ear herb dumplings

Called Qingming guo, because that is when they are made: fresh rat's-ear herb and rice milk steamed separately, then beaten together and wrapped around a filling of mushroom, pork, bamboo shoots and pickled vegetables, into a large green-grey dumpling. Farmhouse food, and unmistakably spring.

Xuelihong

A traditional vegetarian dish of the region — fragrant, and credited with opening the appetite and helping digestion. It carries a good range of amino acids and vitamins, which is why locals call it the healthy vegetable. Order it as the green on a heavy table.

Street guo

The breakfast everyone here grew up on: rice cakes sold on street corners, cheap and filling, eaten with chilli sauce and a bowl of hot pork-skin soup. You smell them before you see them, all over the old streets in the morning.

The banquets and the liquors

Wuyi is proud of its set-piece banquets: the Manting feast, the most legendary of them; the Eight Trigrams feast, served for eight hundred years; and the snake banquet, elaborate and rich. To drink with them: Wuyi Liuxiang, Wuyi Qinquan, chrysanthemum liquor, five-step snake liquor, and the October white rice wine.

The local specialities

The kitchens here cook what the hills give them — snake, hare, goat and muntjac alongside pork, river fish, eggs, vegetables, beans, mushrooms, red mushrooms and bamboo shoots. The four dishes to look for are chicken velvet with golden-thread bamboo, orchid shredded snake, chrysanthemum grass carp and loach noodles.

Where to eat

Restaurants and food streets

Hotel dining

Wuyishan Yuehua Hotel restaurant

The most formal kitchen in town, in the five-star hotel in the national resort area, facing Great King Peak. The local ingredients are treated seriously: red mushroom soup, red-eye fish, okra, smoked duck, and the local dried bean curd, which is better than it has any right to be.

Where: East of No. 1 Road, Sangu national tourist resort
Phone: 0599-5238999
Order: Red mushroom soup, red-eye fish, okra, dried bean curd

Noodles

Vietnamese noodle shop

A small, distinctive shop on Xilin Road and one of the town's long-standing names. Cheap, generous, springy noodles and a broth that is properly made, with a choice of toppings and meats. Popular with locals and visitors in equal measure, and worth going out of your way for.

Where: Xilin Road, Wuyishan (opposite the Xilin internet cafe)
Order: Vietnamese noodles, rice rolls
Best for: The cheapest good bowl in the resort town

Bamboo setting

Zhulin Jiusi

A bamboo-built place with water running through it, set up to feel like hiding in the hills. The setting is the point — a slow, quiet meal in the middle of a tea landscape rather than a quick one on a main road.

Where: Wuyishan, Nanping, Fujian
Phone: 0599-5253808
Best for: A long, unhurried dinner after a day on the trails

Food street

Wuyishan food street

The resort area's evening strip on West Avenue: rice cakes, spring rolls, several kinds of rice noodle — Zixi noodles, which are like a thicker Guilin rice noodle, bawanghua, Vietnamese noodles — along with Vietnamese-run kitchens, bianrou wontons, Sha County snacks and fried cakes. Some stalls only open in the morning; on Xilin Street there is another cluster every evening.

Where: West Avenue, Wuyishan resort area
Average spend: Cheap — a bowl costs a few yuan
Best for: Eating your way down one street after a climb

Where to stay

Beds in the resort area

Five-star

Wuyishan Yuehua Hotel

In the national resort area, directly opposite Great King Peak and next to the 18-hole mountain golf course. Ten minutes by car from the airport, twenty from the railway station, with the Chongyang Stream alongside. The best-appointed base in town, if the budget allows it.

Where: Wuyishan national tourist resort area, beside the Chongyang Stream
Price: From about ¥818 per night
Phone: 0599-5238999

Four-star, inside the scenery

Wuyi Mountain Villa

A four-star hotel actually inside the scenic area, at the southern foot of Great King Peak near Wuyi Palace. Guests describe it as a resort, or a garden — the building is tucked into the hill, the balcony opens onto greenery, and the entrance to the scenic area is a five-minute walk. The location is the whole argument.

Where: Wuyi Palace, southern foot of Great King Peak, resort area
Price: From about ¥338 per night
Phone: 0599-5255800

Tea guesthouse

Tea Master's Home Inn

A family guesthouse built around tea, facing Great King Peak and Sangu Rock and close to the tea expo park. Tea rooms, a lobby bar and a games room; you drink Wuyi rock tea in the evening and watch the outdoor performance from the doorstep. Ten minutes from the airport, station and bus station.

Where: 13 Guanjing Road, Wuyishan national resort area
Price: From about ¥129 per night
Phone: 0599-5262166

Budget chain

Home Inn, Great King Peak

A chain hotel on Yinping Peak Road, handy and close to the scenery: the No. 6 minibus takes ten minutes to the scenic-area gate. Across the road is Great King Peak and a small tea garden — stand at the window in the evening and you can smell the growers firing the green leaf.

Where: 18 Yinping Peak Road, Wuyishan resort area
Price: From about ¥152 per night
Phone: 0599-5237888

Hostel

Fengfeng Family Inn

In the centre of the resort area, and the cheap end of the market. Years of hosting travellers means they will plan your route, book your tickets and arrange a car for you — useful if you are arriving without a plan.

Where: B-602 Huiyuan Street, Wuyishan resort area
Price: From about ¥40 per bed
Phone: 0599-5238885

Getting around

How to arrive and how to move

By air

Wuyishan Airport currently runs 27 domestic and regional routes — Xiamen, Fuzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian, Nanjing, Tianjin, Changchun, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Xi'an, Wuhan, Ningbo, Jinan, Zhuhai, Haikou, Shantou, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Jinjiang, Zhoushan and Kunming, plus Hong Kong and Macau.

Routes: 27 domestic and regional destinations
Bus at the gate: City-side ¥2; resort-side ¥3, every 5 minutes
Taxi: About ¥30 from the resort area to the airport

By train

Seven air-conditioned trains a day come direct from Fuzhou, two from Xiamen and one from Quanzhou, with services from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang as well. From the station to the scenic area a van will quote ¥20 and settle at ¥10 — bargain, always.

From Fuzhou: 7 direct trains a day
From Xiamen: 2 direct trains a day
Station to the scenery: Van quotes ¥20, settles at ¥10

By coach

Nanping, Shaowu and Shangrao are the road gateways, with daily services. From Shaowu it is about 1.5 hours and ¥20, an hourly luxury coach running 05:00–17:30; from Shangrao about 4 hours and ¥30, hourly, 05:30–17:30. Shaowu's bus station is directly opposite its railway station; Shangrao's is a rickshaw or van ride away.

Shaowu → Wuyishan: About 1.5 hours, ¥20, hourly, 05:00–17:30
Shangrao → Wuyishan: About 4 hours, ¥30, hourly, 05:30–17:30
Nanping: Daily services as well

By local bus

The city is 15 km from the scenic zone and every sight is reachable by bus, at ¥1–2 a trip. Flag-down tourist shuttle vans also work the road for under ¥5, and the sights are only a few minutes apart by road. Only the Dahongpao area really needs a taxi.

Fares: ¥1–2 to the sights; tourist shuttle vans under ¥5
Distances: A few minutes between trailheads
Watch out: The ¥1 pedicabs exist to take you to shops for commission — walk instead

By taxi

Taxis here start at ¥10 and do not use the meter, so you agree the fare before you get in — airport to the city or the Sangu resort area is around ¥15. Bargaining is not optional: overcharging visitors is a genuine local problem, and paying the asking price is how you get taken.

Flagfall: ¥10, meter not used
Airport or station to the resort: About ¥15
Rule: Agree the fare before you open the door

Chartering a car

For the nature reserve you need a car: about ¥300 for a day that gets you into the reserve and up toward the summit, or ¥200 for the museum, the ecological drift or the Qinglong waterfall area. Vehicles are seven-seat air-conditioned vans, supplied without a driver unless you arrange one.

Into the reserve: About ¥300 a day, seven-seat air-conditioned van
Museum, drift or Qinglong: About ¥200 a day
Ask around: Get several quotes before committing to a guide or a car

Shopping

What to carry home

Wuyi rock tea

Grown in the villages inside the scenic zone — Tianxin, Huiyuan, Guilin, Matou — and known as yancha for the mineral backbone the cliffs give it. The three to look for are Dahongpao, Rougui and Shuixian. Taste before you buy, and walk away from anything offered at a spectacular price: without a trained palate you cannot tell what you are being sold.

Eastern bamboo shoots

From Jinzhu and Shouyang villages in Shangmei township, east of the city. Tender, white, crisp and sweet, without the earthy note most bamboo carries. A clear soup of sliced fresh shoots is the simplest and best thing you can do with them.

Western river fish

From the rivers of Yangzhuang township west of the city, especially the Xiji and Kengkou tributaries. The local method is to cook them with nothing but a few grains of salt — no oil, no seasoning — and they come out sweet and tender on their own.

Northern rice

From Wutun and Langgu townships in the north, where the grain grows large, clean-coloured and fragrant, and swells in the pot. It is the least glamorous thing on this list and the one you will use every day.

Song Street and the four shopping areas

Shopping clusters in four places: Song Street at Wuyi Palace, the Xingcun raft pier, the Sangu resort area and the city itself. Registered shops include Cenwei Shopping Plaza, Baoshutang Pharmacy, the Wuyishan painting and calligraphy society, the Beiyuan tea centre, the tea culture exchange centre and the Yannian lingzhi operation. Bargain on everything, and if you are not buying, do not handle the goods or offer an opinion — that is how a hard sell starts.

Practical

The numbers you will actually need

Two things decide whether this trip works. Book the raft before you book anything else, and never accept a taxi's first price. Everything else — the through-ticket, the buses, the trailheads — is straightforward once those two are handled.

Through-ticket	¥140 for one day, ¥150 for two, ¥160 for three; the shuttle bus is extra
Separate tickets	Nine-Bend raft ¥100 plus ¥2 insurance; Qinglong waterfall ¥40–50; Yulong Valley ¥60; Huaxia folk show ¥100
Raft departures	Xingcun pier 1: 7:20, 8:30, 9:40, 10:30, 13:20, 14:30; pier 3: 8:00, 9:50, 13:30
Best months	June, July and September — quieter and cheaper; June to July has the highest water
Avoid	January to March, when the nature reserve closes; weekends and golden weeks for crowds
Climate	Mid-subtropical, annual average 17.6°C; four distinct seasons, mild and humid
Local buses	¥1–2 to the sights, tourist vans under ¥5; taxis ¥10 flagfall, no meter
Hospitals	Wuyishan Municipal Hospital 0599-5316255; Second Hospital 0599-5306666; Chinese Medicine Hospital 0599-5117935
Tourist services	Visitor centre 0599-5131890; scenic complaints 0599-5252884; disputes 0599-5250600

Tips

Small things that matter here

Six rules for the raft

Book early; in season it sells out days ahead and it is not in the through-ticket. Be at the pier an hour before departure. The drift takes about ninety minutes. Carry sun and rain gear, because afternoons turn wet, and keep shoes and cameras dry. Photographers shoot every raft mid-river — collect yours where you land. A tip of about ¥100 to the boatman buys you commentary and usually a song.

Three rules for One-Line Sky

Watch your valuables — it narrows and it jams. Carry a torch, or rent one at the park for ¥10. And if you are broad, take the path around; the guidebooks are not exaggerating when they warn you.

Pack for a mountain, not a resort

A shell jacket or down layer, a fleece, proper walking shoes and a disposable rain poncho. Add a torch or headlamp, stomach and cold medicine, plasters, a thermos, chocolate and dried beef, and a few dry bags. Mobile signal is good across the scenic zone, for what it is worth.

Bargain, and distrust detours

Restaurants inside the scenic area without marked prices expect you to haggle, and even marked ones can be negotiated. Plan your sights before you arrive: if a guide or a driver suggests somewhere off your list, it is usually expensive and ordinary. Get several quotes before hiring a guide or a car.

Taste before you buy tea

Dahongpao is genuinely expensive and genuinely faked. Without real tasting experience, do not buy anything at a very high asking price. The same goes for the snake powder and snake remedies sold around the sights — buy what you understand, and skip the rest.

Eating, in four lines

Do not eat protected wild animals, however persuasively you are invited. Restaurants that drivers and guides take you to are more expensive — bargain or find your own. Set menus beat ordering à la carte, and even with a set menu you can swap dishes you do not want. Inside the reserve, only Tongmu village has food: carry your own, or haggle hard.

Background

Why Wuyi is the way it is

A mountain with three thousand years of history

People have lived in these cliffs since the Neolithic. The boat-shaped coffins and the bridge-planks still lodged in the rock are the burial custom of the ancient Yue, and they are the oldest thing you will see here. In the Han dynasty the emperor Wudi sent an envoy with dried fish to sacrifice to the Lord of Wuyi. Under the Tang, Xuanzong ranked and inscribed the great mountains of the empire and Wuyi was among them, with its forest placed under protection and cutting forbidden.

At the end of the Tang and the start of the Five Dynasties, Du Guangting listed Wuyi in his record of grotto-heavens as the sixteenth of the thirty-six, the Ascension-to-True-Transformation Grotto-Heaven. In 1095, after a prayer for rain was answered, the Song court invested the Lord of Wuyi as the True Man Who Manifests the Way. What modern scholars call the cultural layer of Wuyi — the Yue burials, the Han city at Chengcun, the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi — is what earned the mountain its cultural listing, on top of the natural one.

A mountain of three teachings

Since the Qin and Han, Wuyi has been a place where Daoists and Buddhists came to live, and the range is still dotted with the sites of temples, monasteries and nunneries. It was also a place where Confucian scholars gathered to teach: Gu Yewang of the Chen dynasty began the tradition of lecturing here, and the Song scholars Yang Shi, Hu Anguo and Zhu Xi all took students in these hills.

In 1687 the Kangxi emperor wrote four characters — learning that reaches the nature endowed by heaven — and sent them to be hung in the Wuyi Retreat that Zhu Xi had built with his own hands, which is why the range is called the resting place of the learning of three dynasties. What survives includes Wuyi Palace, one of the six great Daoist temples of the Song; the Wuyi Retreat; the Yulinting kiln; the imperial tea garden of the Yuan; a rebel stronghold from the end of the Ming; and more than four hundred cliff inscriptions left by visitors over the centuries.

The shape of the land, and the year

Wuyishan sits in the mid-subtropics, walled by mountains on its east, west and north and flatter in the centre and south. The city stands at 210 m. The land falls from north-west to south-east across a remarkable range: the high point is Huanggang Mountain at 2,158 m — the roof of eastern China — and the low point is Xingtian town at 165 m, a drop of 1,993 m within one county's borders, the steepest in the province.

The year divides cleanly. Spring warms, then suddenly cools, with plenty of rain and a green that is worth the trip on its own. Summer is hot at midday and pleasant the rest of the day, with afternoon storms that arrive and leave. Autumn is short and cool and, by common consent, the best-looking season. Winter is not cold so much as damp and grey, with occasional snow — Wuyi is one of the few places in Fujian that sees any — and rain. Whenever you come, the water and the mist are doing most of the work.

Travel with them

Wuyi on screen, in print and in song

Between Immortals and Mortals

Directed by Yang Jie and Wang Chongqiu, 1993

A twelve-part fantasy that tells the origin legend of Dahongpao: an iron-plate demon steals tea from a harvest ceremony and gives it to the Jade Emperor, who drapes the bush in a red robe and becomes addicted; his daughter slips down to Wuyi, falls for the chieftain of the Great King Peak tribe, and everything tangles from there.

Book

Chronicle of Wuyi Mountain

Dong Tiangong

Still the authoritative source on the mountain's scenery, its peaks and rocks, its springs, its geography, its three teachings sharing one range, and its products and customs. Dong wrote it after walking the whole range and collecting the poems and inscriptions left on it.

Book

No Literatus Without Tea

Zhu Yuhua

A book about tea in the form of tasting notes — people, affairs, tea and water all run together, and the tea knowledge arrives sideways while you are being entertained. It quotes the old seven-bowl poem, in which the sixth bowl puts you in touch with the spirits and the seventh you simply cannot drink.

Music

The Feeling in the Dahongpao Story

Liu Xijun

Born among rock and stone, with cliff and stone as father and mother, nursed by nine winding bends — Wuyi Mountain is my home. A song that manages to be both about a tea and about the place that grows it.

Music

Let's Go Climbing

Angel Children's Band

A band of small children with unselfconscious voices and enormous smiles, singing about going up a hill. Play it at the bottom of Tianyou Peak and see whether it helps.

The questions visitors ask us most about Wuyi Mountain, answered plainly.

Frequently asked questions

Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.

How many days do I need in Wuyi Mountain?

Three days is the right shape. One for the Nine-Bend raft, the museum and Wuyi Palace; one for Tianyou Peak, the One-Line Sky and Tiger Roaring Rock; one for the Dahongpao gorge, the tea terraces and a tasting. Two days means cutting the tea morning and the quieter sites; four lets you add the nature reserve and a slow tea-buying afternoon.

What is the best time to visit Wuyi Mountain?

June, July and September are the months locals recommend — fewer people, lower prices, and in June and July the water is high, which makes the rafting genuinely exciting. Avoid weekends and the gold-week holidays if you want quiet. January to March is the exception: the nature reserve closes for winter fire prevention, and the summit grasslands at Huanggang are brown and shut.

How do I book the Nine-Bend River bamboo raft?

Book as early as you can, because in season the rafts sell out days ahead and the ticket is not part of the through-ticket. It costs ¥100 per person plus ¥2 insurance, and departures leave from the Xingcun piers on a fixed timetable — 7:20, 8:30, 9:40, 10:30, 13:20 and 14:30 from pier 1, and 8:00, 9:50 and 13:30 from pier 3. Arrive at the pier at least an hour early.

What does the Wuyi Mountain ticket cover?

The scenic zone uses a through-ticket: ¥140 for one day, ¥150 for two, ¥160 for three, not including the shuttle bus. It covers four areas — Yunwo and Wuyi Palace, One-Line Sky and Tiger Roaring Rock, Water Curtain Cave and the Dahongpao gorge, and Lotus Peak with the Yulinting kiln site. Pay separately for the raft (¥100), Qinglong Great Waterfall (¥40–50), Yulong Valley (¥60) and the Huaxia folk show (¥100).

How do I get to Wuyi Mountain from Xiamen or Fuzhou?

Seven air-conditioned trains a day run direct from Fuzhou, two from Xiamen and one from Quanzhou, with services also from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang. From the station to the scenic area, a van will ask ¥20 and settle at ¥10. If your train does not reach Wuyi, come via Shaowu in Fujian (about 1.5 hours, ¥20) or Shangrao in Jiangxi (about 4 hours, ¥30), both with hourly coaches.

Does it snow in Wuyi Mountain in winter?

Sometimes, briefly. Wuyi is in northern Fujian and is one of the few places in the province that sees snow, but snowfall is occasional and never settles for long — winter here is mostly cold rain. Check the national forecast before you come, and note that January to March is also when the nature reserve closes and the landscape looks its least alive.

Do I need to book accommodation in advance?

Yes during holidays, when rooms in the resort area get tight and prices rise. At other times, as long as you are not arriving on a Friday or Saturday and you are not fussy, you will find a bed — the national resort area is full of small hotels. Weekends and golden weeks are the two exceptions, and they are worth booking around.

Can I visit Wuyi Mountain without a guide?

Yes — the zone is signposted, the shuttle links the trailheads and the raft comes with its own boatmen. The real hazards are commercial: taxis here do not use the meter and overcharge badly, the ¥1 pedicabs exist to pull you into shops for commission, and drivers or guides who suggest extra sights are usually steering you toward expensive, mediocre ones. Agree every fare first, and taste tea before you buy it.

Plan this trip

Prefer it arranged for you?

The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.

Wuyi Mountain Fujian · 0 tours Wuyi Mountain is Fujian's UNESCO World Heritage landscape and the birthplace of rock tea (yancha), and 3 days is the right shape: one for the Nine-Ben

See Wuyi Mountain tours & prices Wuyi Mountain tours

City guides

More city guides

Dalian City guide · 15 tours The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.

Shenyang City guide · 12 tours Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.

Changbai Mountain City guide · 12 tours A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.

Kunming City guide · 12 tours China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.

Dali City guide · 12 tours A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.

Shuhe City guide · 12 tours The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.

Lijiang City guide · 12 tours A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.

Xiamen City guide · 12 tours A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.

Gulangyu City guide · 12 tours A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.

Fuzhou City guide · 12 tours A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.

Lugu Lake City guide · 12 tours A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.

Xishuangbanna City guide · 12 tours China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.

Shangri-La City guide · 12 tours A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.

Nanchang City guide · 12 tours Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.

Hefei City guide · 12 tours Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.

Hongcun City guide · 12 tours A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.

Wuhan City guide · 12 tours Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.

Changsha City guide · 12 tours Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.

Fenghuang Ancient Town City guide · 12 tours The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.

Lushan City guide · 12 tours A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.

Wuyuan City guide · 12 tours China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.

Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan) City guide · 12 tours The South Great Peak: a pilgrimage mountain of 72 summits where the temples run all the way to the top, and the sunrise over the cloud sea is the whole point.

Huangshan City guide · 12 tours Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.

Wudang Mountain City guide · 12 tours The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.

Luoyang City guide · 12 tours Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.

Yuntai Mountain City guide · 12 tours A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.

Rizhao City guide · 12 tours A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.

Yantai City guide · 12 tours A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.

Lianyungang City guide · 12 tours A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.

Sanqing Mountain City guide · 12 tours A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.

Tianjin City guide · 12 tours Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.

Datong City guide · 12 tours A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.

Taiyuan City guide · 12 tours Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.

Pingyao City guide · 12 tours China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.

Wutai Mountain City guide · 12 tours China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.

Hulunbuir City guide · 12 tours China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.

The Forbidden City City guide · 12 tours Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.

Sanya City guide · 12 tours China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.

Haikou City guide · 12 tours Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.

Beihai City guide · 12 tours 24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.

Nanning City guide · 12 tours Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.

Guangxi City guide · 12 tours One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.

Huizhou City guide · 12 tours A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.

Beidaihe City guide · 12 tours Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.

Shanhaiguan City guide · 12 tours The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.

Baiyangdian City guide · 12 tours The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.

Qinhuangdao City guide · 12 tours 126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.

Yesanpo City guide · 12 tours Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.

Zhuhai City guide · 12 tours The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.

Jiuzhaigou City guide · 12 tours 108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.

Mount Siguniang City guide · 12 tours Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.

Hailuogou City guide · 12 tours A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.

Daocheng Yading City guide · 12 tours Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.

Shunan Bamboo Sea City guide · 12 tours Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.

Dujiangyan City guide · 12 tours Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.

Qingcheng Mountain City guide · 12 tours The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.

Qingdao City guide · 12 tours Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.

Mount Tai City guide · 12 tours 1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.

Jinan City guide · 12 tours A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.

Weihai City guide · 12 tours 1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.

Qufu City guide · 12 tours One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.

Penglai City guide · 12 tours China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.

Changdao City guide · 12 tours 32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.

Nanjing City guide · 12 tours Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.

Suzhou City guide · 12 tours Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.

Zhouzhuang City guide · 12 tours Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.

Tongli City guide · 12 tours Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.

Wuxi City guide · 12 tours Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.

Yangzhou City guide · 12 tours A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.

Zhenjiang City guide · 12 tours Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.

Changzhou City guide · 12 tours A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.

Wuzhen City guide · 12 tours A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.

Xitang City guide · 12 tours Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.

Hangzhou City guide · 12 tours A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.

Xixi Wetland City guide · 12 tours Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.

Ningbo City guide · 12 tours A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.

Mount Putuo City guide · 12 tours A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.

Qiandao Lake City guide · 12 tours A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.

Shaoxing City guide · 12 tours Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.

Zhoushan City guide · 12 tours 1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.

Hengdian City guide · 12 tours A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.

Yandang Mountain City guide · 12 tours A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.

Zhejiang City guide · 12 tours One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.

Hong Kong Outlying Islands City guide · 12 tours Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.

Hong Kong Shopping City guide · 12 tours A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.

Macao City guide · 12 tours Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.

Urumqi City guide · 12 tours The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.

Hong Kong SAR, China City guide · 11 tours A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.

Taiwan, China City guide · 11 tours Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.

Qinghai Lake City guide · 12 tours A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.

Mount Emei City guide · 11 tours A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.

Beijing City guide · 11 tours Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.

Taipei City guide · 11 tours A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.

North Xinjiang City guide · 11 tours Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.

Lanzhou City guide · 11 tours A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.

Mount Hua City guide · 11 tours Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.

Dunhuang City guide · 11 tours A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.

Gannan City guide · 11 tours 433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.

Sichuan–Tibet Highway City guide · 11 tours 2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.

Kangding City guide · 11 tours The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.

Lhasa City guide · 12 tours A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.

Nyingchi City guide · 11 tours Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.

Namtso City guide · 11 tours A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.

Chongqing City guide · 12 tours A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.

Qiandongnan City guide · 11 tours A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.

Libo City guide · 11 tours Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.

Guiyang City guide · 11 tours China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.

Zhenyuan City guide · 11 tours A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.

Huangguoshu City guide · 11 tours Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.

Harbin City guide · 11 tours Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.

Yunnan City guide · 11 tours Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.

Shanghai City guide · 11 tours A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.

Zhangjiajie City guide · 11 tours Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.

Guangzhou City guide · 11 tours A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.

Guilin City guide · 11 tours Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.

Shenzhen City guide · 11 tours A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.

Chengdu City guide · 11 tours A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.

Xinjiang City guide · 11 tours Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.

Xi'an City guide · 14 tours Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.

Qinghai City guide · 11 tours China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.

Tibet City guide · 11 tours A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.

Explore next

Wuyi Mountain trips and tickets

More city guides

Combine Wuyi Mountain with

Sort out before you fly

Understand the place

Tell us your dates.
We'll do the rest.

Free itinerary design, a revised plan within one working day, and nothing charged until you approve the final version.

The two-hour bamboo raft down the Nine-Bend River is not included in the through-ticket; it costs ¥100 plus ¥2 insurance and sells out days ahead in season.
The scenic through-ticket is ¥140 for one day, ¥150 for two, ¥160 for three — shuttle bus not included — and covers Tianyou, One-Line Sky, Water Curtain Cave and the tea gorge.
Dahongpao, the king of teas, grows in the Jiulongke gorge; only a handful of original bushes survive, and the valley around them is terraced tea.

Wuyi Mountain travel guide: the Nine-Bend raft, Tianyou Peak, Dahongpao rock tea

Nine bends, on a raft

A summit wrapped by the river

The king of teas, in a gorge

A thread of sky in the rock

Coffins in the cliffs

Where Neo-Confucianism was taught

One-Line Sky, Tiger Roaring Rock, Tianyou

The raft, then Wuyi Palace

Tianyou, the peach-blossom gorge, the raft

Lotus Peak, the kiln, then the tea

Tiger Roaring, the cleft, and the old city

Into the nature reserve

Nanjing tulou and Yunshuiyao

The Nine-Bend River

Tianyou Peak

One-Line Sky

Tiger Roaring Rock

Water Curtain Cave

Jiulongke and the Dahongpao bushes

Wuyi Palace, Song Street and the Zhu Xi hall

The hanging coffins

Xiamei old village

Qinglong Great Waterfall

Langgu smoked goose

Li li jelly

Rat's-ear herb dumplings

Xuelihong

Street guo

The banquets and the liquors

The local specialities

Wuyishan Yuehua Hotel restaurant

Vietnamese noodle shop

Zhulin Jiusi

Wuyishan food street

Wuyishan Yuehua Hotel

Wuyi Mountain Villa

Tea Master's Home Inn

Home Inn, Great King Peak

Fengfeng Family Inn

Wuyi rock tea

Eastern bamboo shoots

Western river fish

Northern rice

Song Street and the four shopping areas

Six rules for the raft

Three rules for One-Line Sky

Pack for a mountain, not a resort

Bargain, and distrust detours

Taste before you buy tea

Eating, in four lines

A mountain with three thousand years of history

A mountain of three teachings

The shape of the land, and the year

Between Immortals and Mortals

Chronicle of Wuyi Mountain

No Literatus Without Tea

The Feeling in the Dahongpao Story

Let's Go Climbing

Frequently asked questions

Explore next

Wuyi Mountain trips and tickets

More city guides

Combine Wuyi Mountain with

Sort out before you fly

Understand the place

Tell us your dates.We'll do the rest.

Tell us your dates.
We'll do the rest.