Zhuzhou is in Hunan, in Central China.
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Hunan · City Guide
Zhuzhou, an Ancestor's Tomb and a Locomotive Works.
Overview
Why Go
Chinese describe themselves as descendants of Yan and Huang. The Yellow Emperor's mausoleum is in Shaanxi; the Yan Emperor's is here, in the hills of Yanling County. Many foreign accounts just ever mention the opening one.
Zhuzhou grew where two trunk lines crossed and has built electric locomotives since the 1930s. The works here supply much of China's fleet and export abroad, and the city runs new rail technology on its own streets at the start.
Liling potters worked out how to paint in five colours beneath the glaze around 1907, so the decoration sits sealed under glass rather than on top of it. The kilns there still do it and the surface is the giveaway.
The Luoxiao range runs along the provincial border above Yanling, and the protected area in it holds old subtropical forest with very high canopy cover. It is one of the wetter, greener corners of inland Hunan.
Yellow peaches from Yanling carry a protected-origin mark and ripen in a three-week window in July and August. The county sells much of the crop at the roadside and the rest goes into tins and jars.
See
The tomb attributed to Shennong, the legendary figure credited with farming and herbal medicine. A temple has stood here since 967; the present halls were rebuilt in the 1980s around Ming and Qing steles. Two hours.
A gorge protected area on the Jiangxi border with waterfalls, plank paths and dense old forest. It is cool in summer, which is when Hunan visitors fill it. A full day from the county town and back.
Liling's porcelain quarter, with a museum in kiln-shaped buildings, working studios and factory outlets. The underglaze painting is done in front of visitors in several of them. Half a day with the shopping.
A Song-founded county wall of stone blocks running along the river, one of the few in Hunan still standing to any length. Visitors can walk the top of it. Half an hour, and it is free.
A border town where Hunan and Jiangxi families have lived mixed for generations, still lived in rather than restored. Breakfast stalls and stuffed tofu in the morning; almost nothing at night.
A reservoir in Youxian County with karst hills around it and caves in the limestone, including one with Qin-era legends attached. Boats run in season. It is a local weekend place rather than a headline sight.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Zhuzhou.
Eat
Small squares of tofu pressed hard and smoked until they are dense and chewy, then fried with green chilli. They turn up on menus across Hunan under the county's name, which is unusual for a tofu.
Firm yellow-fleshed peaches grown on the mountain slopes, picked over about three weeks in midsummer. They are sold fresh at the roadside during the window and canned the rest of the year.
A yellow chilli grown in Lukou District and usually salted and fermented rather than eaten fresh. It carries heat without the red-chilli sharpness and goes into steamed fish and stir-fried pork.
Purple-skinned garlic from Chaling with a protected-origin mark, stronger and more pungent than the white kind. Local cooks use it whole rather than minced, and the markets sell it braided.
Do
Zhuzhou runs a rubber-tyred tram that follows painted markings instead of rails, developed by the locomotive works here and tried out on these streets at the start. It costs the same as a bus.
Underglaze work has to go on before firing, so the colours look wrong until they come out. Studios in Liling let visitors watch and several will sell them a piece straight off the bench.
The old-town night market runs to about three in the morning and is where the city actually eats. Stir-fried river snails, grilled skewers and rice noodles. Cash still helps at the smaller stalls.
The gorge stays cool through the summer and the plank paths run along wet rock, so the footing needs attention. Go early: the road in from Yanling takes over an hour and fills up by mid-morning.
When
Green, warm and before the worst heat, with the ancestral ceremony at the mausoleum in spring. A particularly comfortable window of the year.
Hot and humid in the city, which is why everyone goes up to Yanling. Peach season, and the mountain protected areas are booked out at weekends.
Dry, clear and cooler, with a second ceremony at the mausoleum in autumn. The ideal light on the Chaling wall and the quietest hills.
Cold, grey and damp, with occasional ice in the mountain counties. The porcelain studios and the night market carry on regardless.
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Zhuzhou is in Hunan, in Central China.
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