Huangling Village (篁岭景区), located in Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, covers an area of 5 square kilometers. Established during the mid-Ming Dynasty, this village boasts over 500 years of history. Known for its terraced fields and picturesque village layout, Huangling is often referred to as “Terraced Cloud Homes” due to its stunning scenery.
The village features a classic mountain settlement design, with traditional houses arranged in a fan-shaped, terraced pattern around a central water source. The scenic area is divided into several sections: the cable car ride for aerial views, the ancient village streets for historical exploration, the terraced fields for seasonal beauty, and the rural customs for a glimpse into local life.
Huangling’s peak tourist seasons are during the autumn “sun-drying” period and the spring rapeseed flower season. In March, the terraced fields burst into color with golden rapeseed flowers, creating a stunning contrast with the distant mountains, nearby waters, whitewashed walls, and dark tiles of the village. The charming village, with its white walls and black tiles juxtaposed against the vibrant flowers, looks like a scene straight out of a painting.
Table of Contents
- Basic Information
- Location and Transportation
- Highlights of Huangling Village
- Vlog about Huangling Village
- Other Attractions in Wuyuan
Basic Information
| Estimated Length of Tour | 2 hours |
| Ticket Price | Admission: 135 RMB Round-Trip Cable Car: 120 RMB Combined Ticket for Admission and Cable Car: 140 RMB Shimen Valley: 55 RMB |
| Opening Hours | 8.30 – 21.30; Last admission: 18.30 |
| Telephone Number | 0086-0793-7396003 0086-0793-7255555 |
Location and Transportation
Huangling Village is located in the Shier Mountain Range, 7 kilometers southeast of Jiangwan Town, Wuyuan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province. It is 39 kilometers from Wuyuan County’s city center and 9 kilometers from the Jiangwan Expressway exit. The village is approximately 80 kilometers from both Jingdezhen Airport and Huangshan Airport. To get there, you can choose one of the following ways:
Shuttle Bus: Buses to Huangling Village can be taken from Wuyuan High-Speed Railway Station. Look for signs on the bus front indicating the destination.
Taxi: Huangling Village is about 40 kilometers from the high-speed railway station, with a travel time of around 50 minutes.
Highlights of Huangling Village
Drying Crops in Huangling
In rural areas, drying crops is a common agricultural practice seen in mountainous regions like Hunan, Anhui, and Jiangxi. Due to Huangling’s uneven terrain, flat land is scarce, so rooftops have become the primary space for drying crops. To adapt to the natural landscape, every household in Huangling has constructed drying racks on their rooftops. The contrast in height between the drying racks and rooftops, combined with the village’s houses spread across nearly a hundred meters of elevation, creates a multi-layered effect in the drying process. This practice, known locally as “Drying Autumn,” has become a popular subject for artists and photographers. Although the term “autumn” implies a seasonal association, drying crops occurs year-round, making Huangling’s drying scenes a notable and picturesque feature often referred to as a “most beautiful Chinese symbol.”
Terraced Flower Sea
Each spring, Wuyuan’s rapeseed flower fields attract hundreds of thousands of visitors, becoming a hallmark of “China’s most beautiful countryside” and earning titles such as “Top Ten Flower Seas in China” and “Beautiful Chinese Countryside.” Huangling’s ink wash-style terraced fields have been rated as one of the “Top Ten Most Beautiful Terraces in the World.” In March, Huangling’s rapeseed flower sea reaches its peak viewing period. Since 2019, to extend the flowering season, Huangling has cultivated a second-phase high-altitude flower sea using late-blooming varieties in the high terraces. Covering approximately a thousand acres, this second-phase flower sea, with its significant altitude and low temperatures, can last until early April.
Tianjie (Heavenly Street)
In traditional Huizhou villages, the layout is meticulously planned with attention to Feng Shui principles. Huangling Village is designed with the layout of “Tianjie Nine Alleys, Three Bridges and Six Wells.” Tianjie, the village’s main street, stretches 388 meters from east to west, with nine alleys branching off to reach various corners of the village. As Huangling’s “commercial street,” Tianjie is lined with shops offering local specialties: on-site wood carving from Wuyuan’s three carvings, bamboo crafts, handcrafted umbrellas, and traditional paintings. Here, visitors can also enjoy local Wuyuan snacks such as steamed cakes, Qingming cakes, pickled vegetable pork buns, tofu pudding, and stinky tofu. Additionally, Tianjie offers “farmhouse banquets” featuring homegrown and self-hunted ingredients.
Flower Town
Since 2017, after the rapeseed flowers have bloomed, Huangling’s tourism area has introduced the “Flower Town” theme. The town features vibrant blooms including pansies, roses, and hydrangeas. Huangling’s Flower Town not only offers an abundance of flowers but also unique floral-themed installations like “Joyful Door,” “Happy Reunion,” and “Flower Peppa.” The traditional Huizhou-style buildings in Flower Town follow the natural mountain contours, with ancient streets, alleys, and corners adorned with colorful flowers. The main flowering season runs from April to August, with a variety of herbaceous plants blooming in succession – from peach blossoms, pear blossoms, and cherry blossoms to bougainvillea, vervain, wisteria, and alpine plants.
Shuikou Rainforest
The Shuikou Rainforest, located in the Shuikou area of Huangling Village, offers a blend of leisure experiences, ecological green spaces, and photo opportunities. Surrounded by ancient trees such as yews, fragrant maples, camphor trees, and rough-leafed trees, the forest floor is covered with a rich variety of tropical plants. The integration of stream waters and mist creates an environment with high levels of negative ions, making it a real-life version of “The Emerald Forest.” The forest and mist not only provide a visual feast but also effectively lower the temperature.
New Year Activities
In late December of the lunar calendar, Huangling Village kicks off its traditional New Year celebrations with a range of folk activities. These include mountain deity worship, the “dog dance” performance, autumn sun-drying feasts, glutinous rice cake making, the Long Dragon Feast on Tianjie (Heavenly Street), and Huizhou wedding customs exhibitions. The Wuyuan Nuo Dance, also known as the “Ghost Dance” or “Demon Dance,” is an ancient Chinese dance tradition and considered a “living fossil”. Originally a ritual for blessings and prayers, it has evolved into a popular folk dance. On the second day of the lunar New Year, Huangling Village hosts Nuo ceremonies for blessing, fortune, and prosperity. Around the Lantern Festival, various villages in Wuyuan perform dragon lantern dances. In the local dialect, “lantern” (灯) sounds like “prosperity” (丁), symbolizing the wish for thriving offspring. On the fourteenth day of the lunar New Year, Huangling Village parades with dragon lanterns to pray for blessings.
I deliberately avoided the peak season for the rapeseed flowers and visited Huangling. There were still quite a few people, and the main street of the ancient village was crowded, but by avoiding the main street, I found many quiet areas to enjoy. This is truly a magical village, sprawling along the steep mountainside, with many details that were surprising yet perfectly reasonable.
After finishing at Sanqing Mountain at noon, we drove straight to Huangling. We stayed in Xiao Lin Village (晓鳙村), and the owner came to pick us up. We managed to enter the scenic area before six o’clock (it’s better to arrive a bit earlier, around 5:00 to 5:30 is ideal). The cable car for the rice terraces closes at six, so the crowd is significantly smaller!
I arrived at Wuyuan Station at 8 AM and took a taxi for 50 yuan, which took about 40 minutes to get to Huangling Scenic Area. For the return trip, I shared a taxi for 25 yuan per person, which was quite acceptable. It’s all about speed; if you’re in a hurry, you can share a taxi. There are also direct buses from the high-speed train station to the scenic area that run on schedule, which is very convenient. You… Read more »
The scenery is beautiful, and I can’t believe how stunning it must be when the rapeseed flowers bloom in May and June. I thought that traveling during the off-peak season would mean fewer people, but surprisingly, there were still quite a few visitors in the scenic area.
When mentioning Wuyuan, many might think of the golden rapeseed flowers in April and May, which are indeed beautiful.
However, the autumn scenery and the sun-drying activities in Huangling during winter are also worth seeing. The village is home to many ancient trees that are over a thousand years old, making even the few-hundred-year-old trees appear young.
Taking the opportunity from my business trip, I finally visited the beautiful Wuyuan that I’ve longed to see! The weather was especially nice, and although there were a lot of people, I must say the scenery was breathtaking.
This small mountain village was constantly bustling, and I couldn’t stop walking around and taking photos!