Nanchang

Capital of Jiangxi, on the Gan River. Tengwang Pavilion (one of the Three Great Towers of the South), Jingdezhen porcelain town within reach, and Mt Lu's Buddhist heritage.

Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi province, a city on the Gan River with a layered historical identity: it is simultaneously one of the great literary cities of the Tang dynasty, the symbolic birthplace of the People's Liberation Army, and the nearest city to two of China's outstanding day-trip destinations.

The Tengwang Pavilion (Tengwang Ge) is the anchor. The original pavilion was built in 653 CE by a prince of the Tang imperial family and became famous when the scholar Wang Bo wrote a celebrated prose-poem describing the view over the Gan River from its upper galleries. The poem — with its famous closing lines about how a true hero keeps ambition intact despite misfortune — became one of the most-quoted pieces of Tang literature. The current pavilion is a large-scale reconstruction (the historical structure was burned and rebuilt more than twenty times), but it is architecturally accomplished and the river view that inspired Wang Bo is still there.

Bayi Square, the large ceremonial square in the centre of the city, and the August 1 Uprising Museum commemorate 1 August 1927, when Communist forces under Zhu De and Zhou Enlai launched an uprising in Nanchang that is officially marked as the founding moment of the People's Liberation Army. The PLA's formal birthday — 1 August — is observed nationally; in Nanchang the event has particular local significance.

The city's museums and parks are pleasant without being exceptional. The more rewarding use of time in Nanchang is as a base for its surroundings. Jingdezhen, 90 minutes east by high-speed rail, has been the porcelain capital of China for over a thousand years. The clay and mineral conditions of the Jingdezhen basin supported the development of blue-and-white, famille rose, and other canonical porcelain traditions that defined what the world understood as 'China' in the material sense. Contemporary Jingdezhen has a large colony of ceramic artists and designers alongside the historical kiln heritage, making it one of the more interesting manufacturing-town visits in the country.

Mt Lu (Lushan, UNESCO World Heritage), two hours north by bus or taxi, is a forested mountain retreat with a dense heritage: a base for Buddhist monasteries, summer residence of foreign missionaries and colonial-era figures, and the location of two significant political conferences in PRC history. The landscape is dramatic — mist-shrouded granite peaks, waterfalls, and winding stone paths — and best appreciated over a night on the mountain rather than as a rushed day trip.