40 Best Scenic Spots Recommended by CNN I: Wuyuan ---- a Place of Stillness

Recently, CNN announced the 40 best Scenic Spots in China on its official website. Some of them may be you are familiar with them, but some may be strange. In the series, we will talk about them one by one.

Chapter One

                       Wuyuan ---- a Place of Stillness

The Special Beauty of Wuyuan Attractions

Wuyuan County, located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, owns a high reputation of the most beautiful village in China. It is famous for its rape flower fields, old folklore custom and classic well-preserved historic architecture. Every year, thousands of people are pouring in Wuyuan to experience its beautiful scenery. Here I will focus on the rape flower and Shanqiu scenic spot in Wuyuan for you if you take a leisure tour in China.

1. Rape Flower in Wuyuan

Blooming Rape Flower and Village

The best time to visit Wuyuan, China is the spring every year especially in late March to early May when you take a China Tour. At that time, pink beach blossom and white pear blossom are scattered in endless golden rape flowers and Wuyuan turns to be a yellow rape flower sea, just like a dreamed fairyland. Houses with white walls and gray tiles of Hui-style are hidden in the flower sea. The landscape makes a person who escapes from the modern cities find a home to return to. 

Unlike of the rape in many other places, Wuyuan rape is filled with another aroma because of its landscape and history: mountains surrounded, sky blue and clear, rivers and streams limpid, ancient villages with local culture and Hui-style houses dotted in the vast sea of rape flowers, Wuyuan is like a Chinese ink painting with rape blossoms and green willows. Wuyuan is an ideal place to enjoy the wonderful spring, and golden rape flower is the mass-tone attune in the spring palette. Especially after an overnight rain, sea of clouds surge into Wuyuan mountains before the sun showing up. Ancient villages on the top of mountains are indistinct in cloud waves. Light fragrance of rape flowers drift into the valley and midair, rape fields winding from the foot of mountains to the top of mountains, layers upon layers. 

Along the way, rape blossoms floating and flowing, yellow petals in the rain is especially attracting people. Standing on the highest point of village, you will be gradually melted by the fantastic rural scenery: yellow meets your eyes on every side, rural flavor brings by the wind, drizzle jumps in your face.....  

2. Shaiqiu Scenic Spot

Autumn Scenery of Wuyuan

If you go to Wuyuan in Autumn when taking a China tour package, you must go to Huangling to see Shaiqiu Scenic Spot. Autumn is a harvest season for farmers. Every family dry their harvests in the autumn sun before winter comes. So all kinds of crops are dried such as hanging in bamboo poles or lying on roofs. The whole village roofs are covered with colorful crops, dry red peppers, glistening yellow corns and pieces of pumpkins, filled with farmhouse flavor.

Transportation in Wuyuan

If you take a China tour from Guangzhou city, there are expresses to Wuyuan in there, but you may feel a little tired because of long time. If by train, you can arrive in Nanchang City then transfer to Shangrao. By air, the airports near Wuyuan are Jingdezhen airport(nearest), Nanchang airport(most flights), Quzhou airport, etc.  

Cuisine in Wuyuan

Pouch red carp is a Wuyuan specialty with delicate delicious fish. You won’t miss it in your China Wuyuan tour. Local chicken, edible wild herbs and cured meat are also worthy of eating in Wuyuan.

Pouch Red Carp

Shopping in Wuyuan

Wuyuan specialty can be summarized as four clours: red(pouch red carp), green(green tea), black(dragon tail inkstone) and white(snow pear). You can have a try of them if you take a China tour package.

Travel Tips

Tourists travel to Wuyuan can buy a travel pass to visit all the major tourist attractions in 5 days, including Likeng Town, Wankou Town, Jiangwan Town, Xiaoqi Town, Wangkou Town, Jiangwan Town, Xiaoqi Town, Sixiyan Village, Rainbow Bridge, Dazhang MountainWolong Valley, the Column of Ancestral Hall, Scenic Area of Lingyan Cave, Wengong Mountain, Stone City, Yuanyang Lake, and Yantian Camphor Tree Garden.

Some traveling routes are reference for your China tour:

East line: Wuyuan Museum→Moon bey, a small island in lake→ Likeng, a beautiful village→ Wangkou, the ancient port of temple→Xiaoqi, a preliminary ancient culture village→Jiangwan, Great man’s hometown→ Huangling, a dreamland terraced fields→ Jiangling, a heaven on earth.

West line: county town----scenic spots of Wengong Mountain-----ancient city----Jinshan Tea Garden-----Yuanyang Lake-----Changxi, a land of idyllic beauty. 

Overview of Wuyuan

North line: county town----Congxi Rafting----Sixiyan village----Rianbow Bridge----Likeng-----Lingyan Cave-----Dazhang Mountain Wolong Valley-----Stone City----Qingfeng Cave-----Yantian Camphor Tree Garden----ancient pass road.

Note:
Please pay attention to the notes when you take a China tour.

1. Remember to take one more clothes(a coat or a sweater) because the range of temperate in Wuyuan is fluctuate between 10 to 25 degree in spring and autumn; better to take your rain gear and first-aid medicine at hand when you hike Wuyuan countryside in summer just in case. 
2. Prepare your own sleep bag if you have interest to lodge in local peasant family.
3. The best time to photo the beautiful scenery of Wuyuan is late March and late November.
4. The local people are very friendly. They don’t reject to be taken in photos but please carry out if you promise to send the photos to them.
5. Keep in mind this little knack if you want to have a fun in Wuyuan: go to east to enjoy the mountains, go to north to appreciate the water, lodge out of the county town, riding early rather than later. 

Scenery of RMB Banknotes VI: Great Hall of the People, Beijing

The largest bill of RMB is 100 Yuan. It's red and different from other bills. Can you guess what the scenery on its back? I can tell you it's a architecture in Beijing. Haha, don't you guess it? In the article, we will talk about it.

Chapter Six

RMB 100 Note: Great Hall of the People, Beijing

Attraction: Great Hall of the People, Beijing
Opening Hours: Dec.-March. 9:00-14:00
                         Apr.-June. 8:15-15:00
                         July.-Aug. 7:30-16:00
                         Sept.-Nov. 8:30-15:00.

The visiting hours greatly depend on the meetings scheduled in the hall. If some important national or international meetings are going on in the hall, visitors are usually asked to wait until the meeting ends.
Best Time to Visit: the four seasons all appropriate

RMB 100 Note

The back pattern of 100 yuan notes is the Great Hall of the People, which is located in the west side of Tiananmen Square, and faces with the National Museum. There are stone pillars on the left side of the notes. The scene is viewed from the National Museum.  

The outside of Great Hall of the People

To the west of Tian’anmen Square lies the Great Hall of the People, one of the truly grand modern structures of Beijing. Its green and yellow glazed-tile roof, magnificent portico and colonnades, and rows of pines and cypresses create a look both solemn and immense.

The Great Hall is the place where national conferences and large international events are held and where Chinese leaders meet foreign leaders. A national emblem of People's Republic of China hangs over the main gate. Twelve 25-meters-high marble pillars set on 5-meters-high marble foundation, making the hall extremely solemn and magnificent.
Constructed in ten months in 1959, this impressive structure is 336 meters long from north to south, 206 meters wide from east to west, and 46.5 meters high at the highest point.

The Inside of Great Hall of the People

It can be divided into three main sections: a 10,000-seat auditorium in the middle, a banquet hall on the north side where 5,000 people can dine at one time (as was done on the occasion of Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972) and the offices of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the south side.

Great Hall of the People

The facilities inside the hall are very sophisticated. Many are fascinated by a series of reception halls named for each of China's province, decorated in local style, simple and restful, pleasingly austere and in perfect taste.

The Great Hall of the People is now open to both domestic and foreign visitors. 

Note: 
No bags are allowed inside the building, but a bag depository is located outside the East Gate of the Great Hall. The East Gate is the only place for visitors' entrance. Guides are available in the hall, but the tour is only in Chinese.