Chenzhou is in Hunan, in Central China.
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Hunan · City Guide
Chenzhou, Where Cold Water Makes a River Smoke.
Overview
Why Go
The dam on Dongjiang Lake releases water drawn from deep in the reservoir at eight to ten degrees. Below the wall it meets warm air and condenses, so the river runs under a sheet of mist many mornings from April to October.
The Mangshan pit viper lives just on this mountain and a small patch beside it. It grows to around two metres, which makes it one of the larger vipers anywhere, and it is listed as critically endangered.
Yongxing County produces a large share of China's silver and has no silver ore. It is all recovered from industrial waste and spent catalyst, an industry the county built from nothing over about forty years.
The artesian springs at Reshui in Rucheng County surface close to boiling and run at high volume, which is why the village is named after hot water. Bathing pools are fed after the water has cooled.
The Nanling range divides Hunan from Guangdong and the old road over it ran through here, which is why Tang and Song officials heading into exile in the south all passed through and left writing about it.
See
A 160-square-kilometre reservoir with wooded islands, boat routes and a limestone cave on one shore. The dam is a thin-shell double-curvature arch 157 metres high. The mist reach is just below it. Two days.
A protected area on the Guangdong border with old broadleaf forest, a boardwalk along the upper ridge and the border marker at the top. The viper is not something visitors will see. Two days including the drive.
Bare red ridges with green water pooled between them, half an hour from the city and barely developed. There are no railings and the rock is slick after rain. Go with grip and stay off the edges.
A wooded hill above the city with a Song stele carrying a Qin Guan lyric, a postscript by Su Shi and calligraphy by Mi Fu. Zhang Xueliang was held here in 1938; the room is kept. Ninety minutes.
A hot-spring village in Rucheng, two and a half hours out, with hotel pools and an open public bath the village still uses. Winter is the season and rooms go initial at the lunar new year.
A limestone cave with an underground river running the length of it and flowstone terraces along the banks, 15 kilometres from the city. Cool inside year round. An hour, and bring a layer.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Chenzhou.
Eat
Rice noodles in a broth built from freshwater fish and a lot of chilli, eaten for breakfast and named for the township it comes from. It is genuinely hot, more so than many Hunan breakfasts, and shops open before six.
Fish from the reservoir, split, smoked and dried, then either eaten as a snack or steamed back with chilli and black bean. The cold deep water is what the sellers credit for the firm texture.
A small local duck breed raised in Linwu County with a protected-origin mark, usually braised whole with ginger and chilli. It is leaner and firmer than the ducks used further north and holds up to long cooking.
A tightly curled green tea grown in Guidong, a high county in Hunan, where the growing season is short and the leaves come in small. Picking runs from April and the gardens sell direct.
Do
The mist sits from roughly five to eight in the morning between April and October and burns off fast. The viewing bank fills with tripods well before dawn, so get there in the dark.
The ridges are walkable but narrow, unfenced and slippery when wet, and people have fallen. Wear proper shoes, skip it after rain, and do not go out on the fins for a photograph.
The ridge boardwalk on Mangshan ends at the Hunan and Guangdong line, with old forest on both sides. Cloud sits on it many mornings, so the views come and go within minutes.
The springs run hot enough that the pools are mixed down before anyone gets in, and the cold months are when they make sense. The public bath in the village costs a fraction of the hotel pools.
When
Warm, green and the start of the mist season on the river. Tea picking in Guidong and the cleanest air of the year. The strongest window.
Hot and wet below, cool up at Guidong and Mangshan, which is where Hunan and Guangdong visitors both go. Book the mountain towns ahead.
Dry, clear and still misty on the river through October. The ideal conditions for the danxia ridges and the quietest protected areas.
Cold and damp with ice on the higher roads. No river mist, but this is hot-spring season and Reshui runs at capacity.
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Chenzhou is in Hunan, in Central China.
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