庐山

Why this place

Mount Lu has been a retreat for Chinese poets and painters since the fourth century, and it was a hill station for foreign residents and later a site of Communist Party meetings. Its landscape — a mesa above the Yangtze plain, wrapped in cloud — is the subject of poems every Chinese child learns.

What to see

• The Sandiequan waterfall, one of the great falls of China
• The Wulao peaks and the Hanpo Pass, for the cloud sea over Poyang Lake
• The villas and the Lushan Meeting site, from the twentieth century
• The Bailu Academy, one of China's four great Confucian academies

What to eat

• Jiangxi mountain cooking and Lushan 'yunwu' mist tea
• The local 'sanbei' three-cup chicken and river fish

How to plan

Two days on the mountain, based in Lushan town.

Best time

April–June and September–October; Lushan is a summer refuge and cool when the plain is hot