Meishan is in Sichuan, in Southwest China.
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Sichuan · City Guide
Meishan, the Town That Produced Su Dongpo.
Overview
Why Go
The Tang and Song prose canon has eight names in it. Su Xun and his two sons Su Shi and Su Zhe are three of them, and all three were from this town. The family compound is still the centre of the city.
Su Shi, who wrote under the name Dongpo, is the man the braised pork is named after. The dish itself belongs to Hangzhou, where he was posted. He was born here, and the central district is named Dongpo after him.
A local rhyme about treasure under the Min River turned out to describe something real. Digs in the dry season from 2017 took more than 40,000 objects out of the riverbed at Jiangkou, including a tiger-handled gold seal.
Wawu Mountain rises to about 2,830 metres and ends in a plateau rather than a peak, so the walking on top is level. Rhododendron covers it in spring and the whole thing freezes over in midwinter.
Sichuan pickling is a household craft that Meishan turned into a trade. The city built a dedicated pickle district in Dongpo, runs an annual trade fair for it, and ships jars across the country.
See
The Su family house in the middle of Meishan, converted to a shrine after their passings and rebuilt in the Qing. Halls of manuscripts and rubbings sit in a walled garden of ponds and very old trees. Two hours.
A table-shaped mountain in Hongya County with fir forest on the sides and a level plateau on top reached by shuttle and cable car. Rhododendron in April and May, ice in January. Fog closes in fast; stay on the boardwalk.
Two rivers meet here and a stand of century-old banyans shades the waterfront. People still live in the lanes, so mornings are laundry and market rather than souvenirs. Many visitors stay a night.
A stretch of riverbed at Pengshan where a Ming-dynasty fleet went down in 1646. Excavation runs in the dry months behind a coffer dam. The recovered gold and silver is shown in the local museum, not at the bank.
A cliff temple on the Min above Qingshen with Song carvings cut into the rock face and a pool at the foot of the steps. Su Shi studied here as a boy, which is why the place is on the local circuit at all.
Tang cliff carvings on a hill in Renshou County, including a half-body Maitreya about 16 metres high cut straight into red sandstone. Farmland runs to the foot of it and there is usually nobody else there.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Meishan.
Eat
Belly pork tied with string and braised slowly in soy, sugar and wine until it holds its shape but gives to a spoon. Restaurants here cook it because of who the name belongs to, and serve it with the Sichuan hand.
Vegetables soured in brine in a jar with a water-sealed rim, which keeps air out while gas escapes. Every household keeps one going. The local version leans sour and crisp rather than hot, and it is sold everywhere in town.
Hongya County is one of the main sources of tengjiao, the fresh green Sichuan pepper. Pressed into oil it gives a sharp citrus numbness quite unlike the dried red kind, and it goes on cold chicken and noodles.
Loquats from Wengong in Renshou County, a protected-origin fruit picked in May. The season is short and the orchards sell at the roadside. They bruise easily, which is why they rarely travel far.
Do
Qingshen weavers split bamboo into threads fine enough that a finished panel reads as a printed picture. Workshops in the county will show the splitting, which is the hard part, and sell direct.
The summit is flat, so the loop up there is easy walking through fir and moss once the cable car has done the climb. Take a layer: the top runs cold and wet even when the valley is warm.
The teahouses under the banyans fill with residents before the day tourists arrive. A pot of green tea buys the chair for as long as visitors want it, and the river noise does the rest.
Meishan sits on the line between Chengdu and Leshan, so the Leshan Buddha and Emei Mountain are both short hops south and Chengdu is 20 minutes north. Rooms cost a fraction of either end.
When
Rape blossom on the plain in March, rhododendron on Wawu Mountain through April and May, and loquats in Renshou in May. The ideal stretch of the year.
Hot and humid in the basin, which is when the plateau on Wawu Mountain fills up because it stays cool. Book ahead for the mountain and expect afternoon rain.
Dry, mild and clear, with the river low enough that the Jiangkou dig season starts. The easiest weather for walking and the quietest towns.
Grey and damp below, snow and ice on the mountain, which draws its own crowd at New Year. Pickling and curing season, so the markets are worth the cold.
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Meishan is in Sichuan, in Southwest China.
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