At dusk when the sun is setting against the golden sky and tourists are leaving, several foreigners are sitting outside their hostel in Likeng village in Wuyuan County, drinking beer and reading. Behind them are little bridges, flowing brook and small Hui-style cottages with white walls and gray tiles. The village is embraced by mountains and terraced fields and enjoys splendid scenery.
Wuyuan is located in Shangrao city in southeast China’s Jiangxi Province. In recent years, Shangrao has attracted an increasing number of tourists from abroad due to its abundant scenic spots. It also creates a unique scene when people from different cultures who speak different languages travel through the beautiful landscapes in Shangrao.
Shangrao, whose name means “land of richness” in Chinese, is home to multitudes of typical classic Chinese-style mountains, lakes and villages. Tourists can climb Mount Sanqingshan and Tortoise Peak – UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites and enjoy the superb view, or stroll in “the most picturesque village of China” Wuyuan. They can also overlook China’s biggest freshwater lake Poyang Lake as well as go to Shennongyuan, one of the birthplaces of paddy horticulture in the world.
Shangrao also enjoys a long history and offers rich Chinese traditional cultures for tourists to explore, such as Taoism, Confucianism, tea culture, ancient academy and imperial exam culture and paper-making history.
In recent years, the government of Shangrao has prioritized the tourism development and improved facilities and services so that tourists from both home and aboard can enjoy a relaxing, comfortable, recreational trip.
Ideally located at the convergent area of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui provinces, the city is easily accessible by highway and railway. More than fifty trains arrive daily from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou at Shangrao Railway Station. Plus, by the end of 2014, two new high-speed rail lines which run from Beijing to Fuzhou and from Hangzhou to Changsha will be open and run across the city. By then, it will only take one to five hours from Shangrao to cities like Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Changsha, Hefei and Beijing.