九江市

Why this place

Jiujiang sits where the Yangtze meets Poyang Lake, and Mount Lu rises straight above it — a mountain that has drawn the country's painters, poets and, in the twentieth century, its political meetings. It is a UNESCO cultural landscape for exactly that reason.

What to see

• Mount Lu's villas, temples and gorges — the 'mountain of poets', and its sea of cloud
• The Lushan Meeting site, where key Communist Party meetings were held in 1959 and 1970
• Sandiequan waterfall, one of the great falls of China, and the Wulao peaks
• The Yangtze riverfront in Jiujiang and the Poyang Lake mouth

What to eat

• Jiangxi cooking with three-cup dishes and river fish
• Lushan cloud-and-mist tea (yunwu tea)

Best time

April–June and September–October; Lushan is a mountain resort and cool in summer