Things To Do in Anji and Moganshan

In Anji

The city itself is little more than furniture factories and construction, with most of the real sights a short bus ride outside of the town. Be on your best behavior with the locals, as a surprisingly large number of them seem to have chu tou (bamboo-cutting billhooks) hanging on the back of their belts.

In Moganshan

Moganshan is crisscrossed with a maze of stone pathways and steps, and away from the ravages of its small tourism industry, there is plenty of wonderfully isolated mountain wandering to be had. Stone steps laid with expert precision over a century ago wind through the mountains. Flower gardens laid by generations of foreigners have gone wild, resulting in a mad cacophony of brilliant colors between the bamboo. And of course the imposing villas themselves: One of my own favorites is the impressive entrance to the China International Tea Culture Institute Communication Center, where huge blocks of stone lock together to create walls, stairs, and floors, all set into the mountain itself like a geological mosaic.

The Mao Museum -- This is more a bizarre cultural keepsake than a museum, as the place is largely empty. The only furniture is an iron bedstead, where Mao supposedly spent the night. Not true. He ventured up for a day with an old war comrade, and after lunch, he had an afternoon nap in this house.

Qingliang Ting -- As you climb the steep, windy road, down near the Radisson's Du Yue Sheng Villa, there is a great lookout point from which to view the surrounding sea of bamboo. Views down to the plain and across the hillside are spectacular on clear days.

Sword Forging Pool (Jian Chi) -- Legend (or local tourism PR, at least) has it that Mo Xie and Gan Jiang, a pair of married sword smiths who lived in the 5th century B.C. and after whom the mountain is named, devoted their lives to making two incomparably beautiful swords for the emperor. Supposedly they would sit by this pool fed by three waterfalls and polish the swords they had just forged. The local administration bureau has done a remarkably good job of building walkways, wooden pagodas, and viewing points.

Steep steps lead down from the main Yinshanjie area but more interesting is the small pagoda about 100m (328 ft.) up and away to the left of the falls. What at first looks like simple ornamental pagoda sits atop a cave that appears to be an early interrogation chamber complete with bars in the ceiling. Moganshan has many similar dark secrets to be discovered, secrets that give the place a feel of part Disneyland, part concentration camp.