宁德市

Why this place

Ningde is a long coastal prefecture in northern Fujian, facing the East China Sea, and it produces a lot of China's white tea — Fuding and Taimu Mountain are the heartland of silver-needle white tea. It is also where the wild yellow croaker fishery was; the fish is farmed here now.

What to see

• Taimu Mountain — granite pillars and sea mist, an important tea area
• Fuding and the white tea gardens, with picking in March and April
• Xiapu's coastal mudflats, photographed for their light and their bamboo poles at dawn
• Sandu'ao and the fishing ports of the coast

What to eat

• Fuding white tea (baihao yinzhen)
• Yellow croaker and coastal seafood; the local fish-ball and fish-noodle tradition

Best time

March–April for tea; April–June and October–November otherwise