Jiangling village

After a refreshing sleep and rewarding shopping in Jingdezhen, we headed to Jiangling on the second day.

People said the best season for a tour to Wuyuan was March and April, when the rape flowers are in bloom, while the best place to watch the flower in the county is Jiangling. So we expected the visit to Jiangling to be the highlight of the second day.

Jiangling is not really a tourism spot. According to our tour guide it won its popularity some years ago after a photographer took a photo of the village and won a prize of 1 million yuan (US$123,000). Since then, every spring - during the rape flower season - hordes of photographers and tourists have hastened to the village and expended many rolls of film.

To be frank, the roads to the village are bumpy and muddy. I strongly recommend people avoid driving sedan cars there - the most suitable vehicles are trucks and vans. On our visit the road was under construction, so transportation should be smoother by next spring.

On our ride to the village, we frequently met tourists on their way back, waving to us excitedly, even though their clothes were covered with splashes of clay. This strengthened our confidence that a fascinating village was waiting for us.

After one and half hours' ride, we arrived at the destination. Our eyes opened wide with shock to see the myriads of rape flowers blooming in the terraced fields spreading to the peak of a hill.

When I stood on the peak and looked around. Rape flowers stretched endlessly across the fields and hills, so that it seemed as if I was looking out over an endless golden sea. A crowd of farmers' cottages were perfectly located in the middle of the flower sea. All this was enough to make me wonder whether I had stepped into a fairy land.