Jinggangshan
UNESCO Global Geopark; National 5A Tourist Attraction; Cradle Of The Chinese Revolution · Ji'an, Jiangxi
A range of forested peaks on the Jiangxi-Hunan border that is, at once, a UNESCO Global Geopark of real beauty and the single most politically charged landscape in China. Mao Zedong and Zhu De brought the remnants of two defeated risings here in 1927 and built the first rural base of the Chinese Communist Party, holding out in the mountains for two years and developing the guerrilla doctrine that eventually took the country. The result is that every ridge has a memorial, the town of Ciping is built around a revolution museum and a martyrs' cemetery, and the mountain receives enormous numbers of visitors on political study tours in red-starred caps. What surprises people is how good the landscape underneath it is: subtropical broadleaf forest with rare species, a plateau of bamboo, deep valleys of waterfalls at Longtan reached by cable car, sea-of-cloud viewpoints at Huangyangjie, and azaleas covering the slopes in late spring. The scenic-area ticket is valid five days and covers everything; the museum and cemetery are free.
Ciping, Jinggangshan City, Ji'an, Ji'an, Jiangxi, China
Daily; peak season 16 February to 15 November about 8:00-17:00, and low season 16 November to 15 February about 8:00-16:30. The ticket is valid five days. Typhoon closures occur in summer - check the official site.