5 Days Among Clouds and Clay: Yellow Mountain Peaks & Jingdezhen Art

Summary

Day 1 Huangshan Arrival
Day 2 Mt.Huangshan: Huangshan (Tunxi)
Day 3 Huangshan: Hongcun Village, Mukeng Bamboo Forest, Tunxi Old Street
Day 4 Huangshan-Jingdezhen: Jingdezhen (Ceramics History Museum, Jingdezhen Old Street)
Day 5 Jingdezhen-Huangshan: Jingdezhen (Hutian Ancient Kiln Site, Porcelain Plaza), Back to Huangshan

Day 1 Huangshan Arrival

Meeting You in Huangshan

When you reach Huangshan, your guide greets you at the station or at your hotel, whichever fits your arrival, holding a “Your Way Holiday” signboard. Tell us your train number and your timing in advance, and the meeting point is set to match your requirement.

To Your Hotel and Free Time

Your driver helps with the bags and takes you to your hotel in Tunxi, the old town of Huangshan. The car is private, so you can sit back and rest. The rest of the day is your own. For a meal, your guide recommends local restaurants off the tourist streets, and you pay for what you order. Your hotel grade is set to your choice from three, four, or five stars, and you can reach your guide any time if you need something.

Day 2 Mt.Huangshan

A Full Day on the Mountain

Today your guide takes you onto Huangshan itself, the famous scenic area. The plan runs: drive to the mountain, take the cable car up at Yungu station, then walk Beginning-to-believe Peak, Brush Pen Peak, the Xihai Grand Canyon, and Cloud-dispelling Pavilion, before the cable car back down and the drive to your hotel.

Beginning-to-believe Peak

After breakfast you drive about an hour to Mt. Huangshan and ride the cable car up from Yungu station. The first summit is Beginning-to-believe Peak, at 1,683 meters. A Ming dynasty writer, Huang Xiyuan, came up from Yungu Temple and, once he saw the place, named it Beginning-to-believe, as if the scene were too fine to trust without seeing it. It ranks among the best peaks on the mountain for the strange pines.

Brush Pen Peak

A short walk of about a kilometer brings you to Brush Pen Peak, at 1,650 meters. One shoulder of rock stands up straight and its top splits, so the shape reads like an old brush set in its holder, which gives the peak its name. It is one of the most poetic of the Huangshan formations.

Xihai Grand Canyon

After lunch, walk the Xihai Grand Canyon. High on the ridge, the clouds pour past the peaks and under your feet like a flowing stream, so the gorge is also read as White Cloud Canyon, and the trail runs about 15 kilometers. This is the best stretch for photographs, at your own pace within the time you have. If the weather holds, you finish at Cloud-dispelling Pavilion in time for the sunset.

Down and Back

When the walk ends, you take the cable car down by the same way and drive back to your hotel. For a meal on the way, your guide recommends where to eat, and you pay for what you order.

Day 3 Huangshan

Hongcun Village

After breakfast you drive to Yixian county and Hongcun. The village was founded in the Song dynasty (960-1276) and is one of the first twelve famous historical and cultural villages in China; UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage list on November 30, 2000. People call it the village in the painting, and art lovers still come to sketch its lanes. Its layout follows old geomancy and the natural ground at once, and more than 140 Huizhou houses from the Ming and Qing survive inside. Part of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was shot here.

Lunch in the Village

The Hongcun walk takes two to three hours. Around midday your guide sits you at a local restaurant and helps you order the dishes, and you pay for what you eat.

Mukeng Bamboo Forest

In the afternoon, visit the nearby Mukeng Bamboo Forest, a green and quiet place that is easy to relax in. On a fine day you can catch drifting mist here that looks like the sea of clouds on Huangshan. It, too, is a filming site of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it gives you room for photographs among the bamboo.

Tunxi Old Street

Back in Tunxi, walk the Old Street, the ancient commercial lane at the heart of Huangshan town. It is a well-preserved pedestrian street and one of the most intact in China, built in the styles of the southern Song and Ming years. The street runs 1,272 meters and holds more than 300 Hui-style houses raised across different periods, so it is a good first way to read the region.

Evening and Return

If you want dinner nearby, your guide recommends a place along the street and you pay for what you order. After that you are driven back to your hotel.

Day 4 Huangshan-Jingdezhen

To the Porcelain Capital

After breakfast you check out and drive about two hours to Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi just south of the Anhui border. The town is called the Porcelain Capital, and it has made pottery for 1,700 years. Today it works as an international ceramics center, and places such as The Pottery Workshop gather an artist residency, an education center, studios, galleries, and a cafe.

A Town of Craftsmen

Around the workshops sit hundreds of small independent makers. Clay producers, throwers, sculptors, mold makers, blue-and-white decorators, glaze shops, shared kilns, brush makers, blacksmiths, and box makers all work in the community, and your guide takes you among them to see the trades that make Jingdezhen run.

Ceramics History Museum

On arrival, first visit the Ceramics History Museum. It keeps a collection of more than 5,000 pieces, from wares of past dynasties to records of how the craft grew, along with paintings and calligraphy, many of them fine examples.

Ming and Qing Gardens

The old architecture comes in two parts, a Ming Garden and a Qing Garden. In the Ming Garden, the Wangbo Residence is a house in the Hui style. In the Qing Garden, the two key buildings are the Yuhuantang, a memorial hall from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and the Dafu Residence, a house once used by scholars.

A Simple Lunch

Around midday you have a simple lunch at a local restaurant, and you pay for what you order.

Jingdezhen Old Street

In the afternoon, head to the Jingdezhen Old Street on the west bank of the Chang River, in the middle of town. It is a well-known street with a long history that carries the old culture of the place. The street has three parts, Ming Street, Qing Street, and the Old Pier, each showing the busy trading past and the town role as a river transport hub.

Overnight in Jingdezhen

You stay the night at your Jingdezhen hotel, with the grade set to your choice of three, four, or five stars.

Day 5 Jingdezhen-Huangshan

Hutian Ancient Kiln Site

After breakfast, visit the Hutian Ancient Kiln Site. Spread over 400,000 square meters, it is one of the great old kilns of Jingdezhen and shows how porcelain craft changed across 1,700 years, along with the full steps by which porcelain was once made in China.

Porcelain Plaza

Later you go to the Porcelain Plaza, where you can look over fine porcelain, talk with the makers, and do some shopping for pieces to take home.

Back to Huangshan

In the afternoon your guide drives you back to Huangshan and sees you off at your hotel or at the train station, whichever you ask for, and here the tour ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the trip start and end?

In Huangshan. Your guide meets you at your hotel or at the train station, set to your requirement, on day one, and on the last day drives you back to Huangshan to see you off at your hotel or the station. Arriving in Huangshan at the start is your own arrangement.

Is this trip about porcelain as well as mountains?

Yes. The first days cover Mount Huangshan and the old Hui villages such as Hongcun and the Mukeng Bamboo Forest, and the later days shift to Jingdezhen, the Porcelain Capital, with its ceramics museum, Ming and Qing garden houses, the Old Street, and the Hutian Ancient Kiln Site.

Can I try making pottery?

Often, yes. Jingdezhen is a working town of makers, and several studios around The Pottery Workshop let visitors try a piece at the wheel and buy what they fire. Your guide can point you to a place that runs hands-on sessions, and any studio fee is paid at the door.

Are meals included?

The food on this trip is at your own cost. Your guide takes you to local restaurants rather than tourist halls and helps you order, and you pay for what you eat. Morning breakfast follows whatever your booked hotel includes.

Where do I sleep on the Jingdezhen days?

On day four you spend the night in Jingdezhen, and you can set your hotel to three, four, or five stars. On the other nights the plan uses hotels in the Tunxi area of Huangshan, again at the grade you choose.

How long is the drive between Huangshan and Jingdezhen?

It is about two hours each way by private car. The road is easy, and the time sits inside the day plan, so your guide builds the Jingdezhen sights around the drive rather than rushing them.

Price Per Person in US Dollars