Damao Mountain: Jiangxi’s Quiet Alternative

Every itinerary we write for eastern Jiangxi eventually runs into the same question: where do you go when the famous mountains are full? Our answer is usually Damao Mountain — a 143-square-kilometre national scenic area in the small city of Dexing, about forty kilometres west of Mount Sanqing, with 98 per cent forest cover, a main peak at 1,392 metres, and a cool green valley at its foot that locals have called “Little Lushan” for the better part of a century. It carries no UNESCO badge and almost no foreign visitors. That is precisely the appeal.

我們為贛東北編排行程時，總會遇到同一道問題：名山人潮滿溢時，該往哪裏走？我們的答案多半是大茅山——位於德興市的一片國家級風景名勝區，面積143平方公里，距三清山以西約四十公里，森林覆蓋率達98%，主峰海拔1,392米；山腳一道清涼碧綠的山谷，近百年來被當地人稱作「小廬山」。它沒有世界遺產的名銜，也幾乎見不到外國旅客。而這，正是它的好處。

A mountain in the middle of everything

Damao belongs to the Huaiyu range, and it sits almost exactly at the geographic centre of the sights most visitors already have on their list: Mount Sanqing stands opposite it to the east, Wuyuan and Jingdezhen lie to the north, Wangxian Valley and Longhushan to the west and south. Dexing town is 19 km away, Shangrao’s high-speed rail station about 100 km, and Nanchang 262 km. In practice that makes Damao a half- or full-day insert into an eastern-Jiangxi loop rather than a trip of its own — which is how we normally use it.

大茅山屬懷玉山脈，幾乎正好坐落在多數旅客早已列入清單的景點之中央：三清山在其東與之並峙，婺源與景德鎮在北，望仙谷與龍虎山在西與南。德興市區距此19公里，上饒高鐵站約100公里，南昌262公里。因此在實際安排上，大茅山多半是贛東北環線中的半日或一日插段，而非獨立成行——我們通常也是這樣用它。

Wufengdong: the cool green heart

Most first visits are really a visit to Wufengdong, the gorge that runs into the mountain’s southern flank. It sits at around 500 metres in a classic “two slopes, one river” landform, which keeps it 5–7°C cooler than Dexing or Shangrao through the summer — and six or seven degrees cooler again in the evenings. That, plus water clear enough to count the stones in, is why the valley picked up its two nicknames.

多數人的初訪，其實就是走一趟梧風洞——這道切入山體南麓的峽谷。谷底海拔約500米，是典型的「兩坡夾一川」地形，因此整個夏天都比德興、上饒低5至7℃，入夜再低六七度。加上溪水清可數石，這道山谷才有了那兩個別稱。

From the gate it is about five kilometres up the valley to Xianguta, the Fairy Maiden’s Pool, and the walk is the point: a shallow granite-bedded stream, boulder pools, small bridges, bamboo. A sightseeing shuttle runs the length of it, so the usual play is to ride up and walk the best sections back down. On the way you pass Dianjiangtai, the “Muster Terrace” — a single huge boulder sitting mid-stream in the bamboo, said to be where a general once reviewed his troops; the water there barely covers your feet, and in August it is full of people standing in it. Further in are Swan Lake and the 800-metre waterfall, and high on Bijiashan at around 1,000 metres, the cleft called Yixiantian, “a single line of sky.”

自入口沿谷上行約五公里可至仙姑潭，而重點恰在這段路：淺淺的花崗岩河床、巨石深潭、小橋、修竹。谷中設有觀光車，因此常見的玩法是乘車上行、擇精華段步行下山。途中會經過「點將台」——竹林間一塊橫亙溪心的巨石，相傳有將軍曾在此點兵；那段溪水淺得僅沒足背，八月裏總站滿了人。更深處還有天鵝湖與八百米瀑布；筆架山海拔千米左右的高處，則有一道石縫名為「一線天」。

Summer is for the water

June to August is when the mountain is at its most useful. The river runs cold and glass-clear over pale granite, and the resort end of the valley rents paddleboards, kayaks and inflatables by the hour. It is genuinely good family territory — shallow margins, shade, and air the Chinese guidebooks describe as “lung-washing” for its negative-ion count. Bring water shoes; the stones are slick.

六月至八月，是這座山最好用的時候。溪水在淺色花崗岩上流得清冷透明，谷中度假區一端按小時出租槳板、獨木舟與充氣艇。這裏確實適合一家大小——邊緣水淺、樹蔭充足，空氣中負氧離子豐富，中文攻略常稱之為「洗肺」之地。記得帶溪鞋，石頭很滑。

Up the ridge: the cableway and the cloud sea

The cableway is counted as a zone of its own, and it is the reason a half day can become a full one. It lifts you out of the gorge onto the ridgeline in about eight minutes, and the view back down — layer on layer of forested hills, the valley floor and its villages far below — is the single best thing here on a clear evening. After summer rain the ridges fill with cloud instead, and the summit lodges appear to float. Bijiashan, the “brush-rest mountain,” takes its name from its three even peaks; the local legend has a Robin Hood figure named Wufeng lay down his magic writing brush after finishing a proclamation against the rich, and the brush became the mountain.

索道自成一個景區，也正是它讓半日行程有了延長為一整日的理由。約八分鐘便可將人自谷底送上山脊；晴朗的傍晚回望——層層疊疊的林嶺、遠在腳下的谷地與村落——是此地最好的一幕。夏雨過後，山脊則盈滿雲霧，峰頂的屋舍彷彿懸浮其上。筆架山因三峰齊列形如筆架得名；當地傳說有位仗義的英雄「梧風」，寫罷一紙劫富濟貧的檄文後將神筆一放，便化作了這座山。

Autumn: three technicolour weeks

Autumn is the reason photographers come. The planted avenues of dawn redwood turn a deep rust-orange and drop a carpet of the same colour onto the road, while the maples in the mixed forest go scarlet against it. The window is narrow — usually from about the second week of November into early December, later than most people expect — and it is worth asking us to check before committing a date.

秋天是攝影者前來的理由。成排的水杉轉為深鏽橙，並在路面鋪滿同色的落葉毯；混生林中的楓樹則以火紅與之相映。時窗很窄——通常自十一月第二週前後延至十二月初，比多數人以為的更晚——定日期前，值得先讓我們替你確認。

Winter: rime, snow, and the mountain to yourself

Damao holds snow longer than almost anywhere else in Jiangxi, which has made it a minor local institution for snow-viewing. On the summit ridge the pines and grasses ice over into rime; down in the gorge the stream keeps running black-green between white banks, and the whole valley goes quiet. Roads can close or require chains after heavy falls, so treat a winter visit as weather-dependent and keep a spare day in the plan.

大茅山的積雪期比江西幾乎任何地方都長，久而久之成了本地小有名氣的賞雪處。峰脊上的松與草結出霧凇；谷底溪水仍在雪白兩岸間流得墨綠，整道山谷靜了下來。大雪後道路可能封閉或須加防滑鏈，故冬季前往請視作看天行事，行程中留一日後備。

The Magic Forest, and travelling with children

One of the newer additions is a short themed walk billed as the Magic Forest — a moss-hung stretch of broadleaf woodland strung with blossom and light, laid out for photographs and for children. It takes half an hour, it is unapologetically staged, and families love it. Paired with an afternoon in the water it makes Damao one of the easiest days in Jiangxi to plan with kids in the group.

較新的設施之一是一段以「魔法森林」為名的主題步道——一片垂滿苔蘚的闊葉林，綴以花枝與燈光，專為拍照與孩子而設。走完約半小時，佈景意圖坦率明顯，而一家大小都很受用。配上一個下午的玩水，大茅山便成了江西最容易安排的親子行程之一。

Red memory in the gorge

Wufengdong also carries a harder history, and Chinese visitors often come for it specifically. During the mid-1930s more than three hundred wounded soldiers of the Red Army’s Anti-Japanese Vanguard were sheltering in a natural cave in this valley when they were surrounded and killed; a memorial to them was raised on the site in 1987. Nearby stands the tomb of the martyr Shao Boping, built in 1966 and rebuilt in 1984, its stone inscribed by the provincial governor. For domestic travellers this is a pilgrimage; for foreign visitors it is worth ten minutes of context, because it explains the tone of the whole valley.

梧風洞另有一段沉重的歷史，中國遊客往往專為此而來。1930年代中期，紅軍北上抗日先遣隊三百餘名傷病員曾隱蔽於谷中一處天然石洞，遭圍攻後全部殉難；1987年在原地立碑紀念。附近另有烈士邵伯平之墓，1966年建、1984年重修，碑上題字出自時任省長之手。對內地旅客而言這是一趟朝聖；對外國旅客，值得花十分鐘了解背景——它解釋了整道山谷的氣息由何而來。