Wangxian Valley in eastern China has a history dating back to 25–220 CE, but since 1998 it has been heavily damaged by granite mining.

In 2017, the government decided to step in and invested over 300 million dollars to redevelop the area into a tourism destination to resemble ancient cliff-side dwellings. 

We don’t normally like unauthentic places, but Wangxian looked pretty interesting so we decided to check it out. 

We anticipated it taking three buses to reach the scenic area, but luckily with a lot of help from Google Translate, our hosts found us a luxury car to share with another couple all the way to Shangrao, and from there we just needed one more bus. The other couple were from a city a few hours away. 

The man spoke a bit of English and said he used to be an engineer, but was enjoying retirement now. It was pouring with rain when we arrived and he insisted we walk together, so he could shelter me under his umbrella, which was adorable. 

Finding the bus to Wangxian was a bit chaotic – China is great at putting one informative sign up, and then discontinuing them. So we ended up at the bus station but it seemed to be split into two halves. While figuring out which way to go we had some aggressive taxi drivers trying to encourage us to take a ride with them. 

Once we found a worker, I asked him where our bus was and clearly, something didn’t translate correctly, because after he spoke into my phone it said “Eight bombs were thrown on the first floor opposite” Craig and I looked at one another, wondering if we should be concerned, but then he waved us to the right and we were on our way. 

Another taxi man approached, offering a shared taxi ‘SANSER! SANSER!” He kept shouting while trying to translate for us on his phone. He was suggesting it was 30 yuan – around £3.30 per person for a shared ride, and claimed it was the same price as the bus. We didn’t believe him, so we went to the ticket booth and guess what, the price was, 30 yuan. He was telling the truth, and the bus was a 45-minute wait so we dashed off, searching for the same man, and luckily we eventually found him and got a great deal. 

An hour later we were dropped off at the entrance to our hotel – what great service. The setting was lovely as it was built right on the edge of a river with views of forested hills and kingfishers zipping past. Like the last accommodation we stayed at, this one offered a free pick-up and drop-off service to the scenic area, so we set off in the drizzly rain. It was due to be even worse weather the following day so we just had to take our chances. 

We began with a stroll along the river, where waterfalls gushed down cliffs to our right, and buildings clung to the rock face to our left. The river meandered towards a lush, forested area that had been taken over by ivy, making it even greener and resembling a jungle. 

There were plenty of bridges to pop over the other side, and that’s where most of the sights were, including picturesque streets lined with food sellers. We were expecting the food prices to be sky-high in a scenic area, but they were the same, if not cheaper than usual. For 85p I got a delicious bowl of noodles without any meat – What a treat! Craig opted for noodles with pig ears, which he thoroughly enjoyed – seeing how long it took him to chew each piece made me feel sick. 

As I looked up from my noodles I saw above the roof of the eatery was another cliff-face with beautiful dwellings clinging to the highest slopes. “Ooooh, that’s the main 

area!” I had no idea that there were two cliffs with dwellings, and this one had much more traditional-looking buildings on it. 

There was a strange white dome on the top which looked really out of place, but the biggest eyesore was a vast area of yellow tarpaulin and scaffolding due to a devastating fire that took place just a few months ago. 

Luckily, Wangxian is most famous for the evening view, when thousands of lanterns light up the ancient-looking village, so we were hopeful that the eyesore would be less visible at dark. 

Considering the place was all constructed in 2020 – it had a lot of authentic charm to it. There were cobbled lanes, ponds with stepping stones, and smoke machines for atmospheric conditions. The buildings looked lovely, and the aesthetics were spot on – China really knows how to make a place look good. 

The rain became heavier, but we stayed dry under the umbrella that our host lent us, and we were able to continue our walk up the cliff-face via a series of pathways and steps. The route led us to a temple at the top, offering a vantage point of a village area made up of orange houses. Amongst the buildings were two, large, Tulou round houses which are typically from Fujian, an area further south. 

It’s a type of fort-like earthen house that communities live in, typically built between the 12th and 20th centuries by the Hakka people. They can house up to 800 people which is a testament to how large these buildings are. 

I really wanted to visit the Fujian region to see these houses, but it’s too hot in China to go further south at this time of year, so I was grateful to get a taste of what the buildings looked like – even though this one was actually hiding a hotel inside it! 

In fact, the whole village area we began exploring turned out to be hotel rooms hidden amongst the traditional-looking buildings. We started to wonder if we were allowed to walk around there or if it was just for guests because the crowds all diminished and it just seemed to be us strolling around. 

We slowly ambled our way back to the main hubbub of Wangxian which was now bustling with people excited to see the place all lit up. We stopped for some more food – this time choosing cold noodles with our choice of sauce. I picked sesame which was delicious, while Craig opted for sweet and sour, which was…strange. It literally had a spoonful of granulated sugar on top, but once it was all mixed he said it was tasty. The noodles were really thick and wide, and there were cubes of what looked like bread, but a Taiwanese man sat next to us said it was tofu, and I actually quite liked them. 

I looked at my clock, wondering what time the lights would come on “It’s 5:59pm now, I wonder if it happens on the hour?” And at that very moment, they all illuminated around us, lighting up the streets like it was Christmas. 

I understood the hype – it looked magical at night, in fact it was particularly good at twilight as we could still see the surrounding hills and waterfalls at the same time as the lanterns let off a warm glow on the buildings. 

When we looked up at the cliffs, we realised what that damn white dome was at the top – it was a fake moon. I gave Craig a playful slap “Of course it’s a fake moon!” To be fair, it looked pretty realistic at night, seemingly rising behind the ancient dwellings. It’s funny because I’d looked at photos of the area beforehand and seen photos of the moon rising and thought ‘wow, so many people managed to catch this rare phenomenon!’ Silly me.  

There were performances in the evening – like fire throwing which seemed rather reckless considering the area suffered from a fire not so long ago. We also discovered a crowd of people rushing into a building as soon as the doors opened, we thought it was a popular restaurant but it turned out to be a show and everyone was trying to get a seat. 

We stood up at the front, and sometimes the performers were so close to us it felt like we were part of the show. They all had fabulous outfits on, thick makeup, and even a group of women playing traditional string instruments at the back. We had absolutely no idea what the play was about, but it was still very entertaining to watch. 

We spent a couple of hours admiring all the lights and when the rain began to fall heavily again, we decided it was time to leave, calling our host to take us back to our tranquil hotel by the river.