Located in the southeast of China, Jiangxi province spans the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hillier areas in the south. For the world traveller, this is a perfect place to visit in China, as most foreigners in China visit other, better known provinces. During our visit, this ‘road less travelled’ offered us less of the crowds that are found in the other popular Chinese destinations.

Here we visited ancient villages, climbed mountains, feasted on wonderful cuisine, partook in tea ceremonies and witnessed the once-a-year blooming of the very colorful rapeseed flower fields.

Located to the northeast of Shangrao City, Mount Sanqingshan was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 6th, 2008. Considered a “treasure of the world”, this would prove to be an amazing place to visit on our first day.

The views from the top of the mountain are breathtaking, but to experience them, the trip up the mountain is long, but not overwhelm­ing.

We had to take a gondola to get part of the way up, a ride that provided lovely panoram­ic views, and that was followed by hours of climbing.

Even though the hiking was on paved steps and paths, and was easy for just about any­one to accomplish, the long walk made our thighs burn with effort and pain. Luckily, we had lunch at a wonderful restaurant. Here we were treated to a spicy douchi (fermented black beans) and tofu (beancurd) stir fry which offered us a delicious and relaxing break from the first trail we did, and gave us energy for the second longer, though less demanding, trail that afternoon.

All around was pure nature, a good thing since China is so populated and land is so over used. An amazing place and great photo ops all round!