Jiangxi Travel Guide – An Ultimate Guide to Visit Jiangxi
Located on the southern bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Jiangxi is an underrated, fascinating province in southeastern China, with Nanchang as its capital city. As a transitional zone between coastal areas and inland areas, Jiangxi is endowed with rich natural and cultural attractions. We prepared this ultimate Jiangxi Travel Guide to offer the best Jiangxi has to offer and practical tips and advice for a trip to Jiangxi.
Jiangxi is a place widely associated with the ceramic culture and millennia-old craftsmanship of ceramic art. Also, it is a place where several UNESCO-listed mountains and peaks are found. Wuyuan, one of the most picturesque countryside in China, is also in Jiangxi, attracting worldwide visitors with its vivid rural landscapes and time-honored Hui-style buildings. To the Chinese, Jiangxi has another title “Red Cradle” because it has witnessed the glorious course of the Chinese revolution. There are dozens of reasons to visit Jiangxi, read on to discover more of its hidden charms.
- Chinese Name: 江西 (Jiāngxī)
- Capital: Nanchang City
- Area: 1,669,000 square kilometers
- Population: 45.15 million in 2023
Fast Facts of Jiangxi Province
- Chinese Name: 江西 (Jiāngxī)
- Capital: Nanchang City
- Neighboring Provinces: Zhejiang and Fujian provinces to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei and Anhui to the north.
- Area: 1,669,000 square kilometers
- Population: 45.15 millionin 2023
- UNESCO-listed Sites in Jiangxi: Mount Lushan, Mount Sanqing, Mount Longhu, Gui Peak, Wuyishan in Yanshan County
- Historical and Cultural Sites: Pavilion of Prince Teng, Jingdezhen Porcelain, ancient villages and stunning countryside viewsin Wuyuan, famous institutions like Bailudong Academy.
Top Tourist Cities in Jiangxi
Jiangxi currently comprises 11 prefecture-level cities, including Nanchang, Jiujiang, Shangrao, Fuzhou, Yichun, Ganzhou, Jingdezhen, etc. Among them, Jingdezhen City is its top travel destination, known worldwide for its high-quality ceramic and over a millennium of ceramic-making history. In Jingdezhen, visitors can walk into ancient kiln sites, museums, or local workshops for an immersive ceramic culture study and hands-on experiences.
Wuyuan, hailed as the most beautiful countryside in China, draws worldwide photographers with its well-preserved ancient villages, Hui-style buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and blooming rapeseed flowers in spring.
Additionally, Nanchang, the birthplace of the People’s Liberation Army of China and home to the Pavilion of Prince Teng, and Shangrao, with its magnificent Mount Sanqing, Gui Peak, and Poyang Lake, are also excellent destinations for you to discover more essences of Jiangxi.
Top Jiangxi Tourist Attractions
Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Museum
This museum houses not only ancient kiln buildings and Qing Dynasty residential structures, but also offers a chance to observe traditional hand-crafted ceramic making. Besides ceramic culture and relics, the museum also displays 12 Ming and Qing Dynasty gates, shops, ancestral halls, and residences that are relocated from nearby villages.
Jiangxi Provincial Museum
The museum is a window where you can learn about Jiangxi's history from prehistoric times to the modern era. Its 11 exhibition halls showcase extensive relics from ancient royal tombs, historical ceramics, calligraphy, and modern revolutionary relics, offering a deep understanding of Jiangxi’s ancient art, folk life, and revolutionary history.
Diverse Cultures in Jiangxi
A visit to Jiangxi is more than just natural landscapes and outdoor adventures. Ancient yet vibrant, Jiangxi holds a treasure trove of rich cultures. Some of its most outstanding cultural features include the time-honored ceramic culture and academy culture, distinctive culinary delights, traditional intangible cultural heritage, and its significant red culture.
Academy Culture
Once a center for academy education in ancient China, Jiangxi is home to several ancient academies, including the Bailudong Academy, Ehu Academy, Xiangshan Academy, and Bailuzhou Academy. These academies educated numerous scholars in ancient times and still attract worldwide tourists with their historical significance, beautiful architecture, and serene landscapes.
Ceramic Culture
Exquisite blue-and-white porcelain and famille rose pop to mind when mentioning Jingdezhen. This ancient city is known worldwide as the “Porcelain Capital,” whose ceramic craftsmanship history can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Today, visitors can head to ancient kiln sites and ceramic museums for a hands-on experience of its timeless ceramic art, witnessing firsthand the intricate processes of pottery making and painting.
Recommended Jingdezhen Tour:
3 Days Jingdezhen Tour: Ceramic & Ancient Village
Tea Culture
Blessed by the mild climate and abundant rainfall, Jiangxi is one of the key tea-producing regions in China. It produces a wide range of high-quality teas, including Lushan Yunwu Tea, Wuyuan Green Tea, Gougunao Tea, and Ninghong Kungfu Tea. Benefiting from the exquisite Jingdezhen porcelain, Jiangxi tea culture pays more emphasis on fine tea sets. In Nanchang, you can find teahouses in every corner of the city. Visitors can walk into any of the teahouses to feel the importance of tea culture in locals’ daily lives.
Intangible Cultural Heritage
Jiangxi Province is rich in intangible cultural heritage from various aspects, such as crafts, drama, folk customs, and traditional techniques. Besides the well-known Jingdezhen handcrafted porcelain techniques and porcelain painting art, other representative intangible cultural heritage items you can expect on a Jiangxi trip include the Ruijin fish ball making, Gannan tea-picking opera (赣南采茶戏), and Gan Opera, etc.
Red Culture
Jiangxi had witnessed numerous significant events led by the Communist Party of China, making it a key birthplace of the Chinese revolution. Jinggangshan is where Mao Zedong established the first rural revolutionary base. Ruijin in Ganzhou once served as the provisional central government seat of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Nanchang is the site of the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927… Jiangxi is home to many revolutionary sites, and hosts many revolutionary museums and monuments showcasing the spirit of revolution and red culture.
Culinary Culture
Jiangxi cuisine, aka Gan cuisine, boasts a long history and a variety of dishes. Since Jiangxi borders Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang, and Anhui, its cuisine is inevitably influenced by the cuisines of these provinces which are all among the 8 great cuisines of China. It has incorporated the strengths of all surrounding culinary styles and formed its own regional styles. In cities around Poyang Lake, such as Jiujiang and Shangrao, most dishes emphasize the original taste of ingredients. In Southern Jiangxi, dishes usually feature heavy salt and spiciness. While in Nanchang, dishes are more known for their spicy flavors.
Top Things to Do in Jiangxi
Try Ceramic Making
In Jingdezhen, more than walking into ancient kilns and museums to appreciate the precious ceramic relics, you can also engage in hands-on ceramic crafting. Either in the ceramic workshops or in the Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Museum, you can follow a local skilled artisan to make your own ceramic works. You can expect to experience the whole process, from kneading clay, and shaping bowls on a potter’s wheel, to applying glaze. Painting traditional blue-and-white designs is also possible.
Tea Picking
A spring visit to Wuyuan is more than blooming rapeseed flowers. Around the ancient Hui-style villages in Wuyuan are vast and picturesque tea gardens. Spring is just the perfect season for tea picking. Some tea gardens offer tea-picking experiences for visitors. Then, you can gather tender tea buds alongside local farmers and learn about their tea-making process after harvesting.
Hiking and Outdoor Adventures
The many UNESCO-listed mountains and geoparks, such as Sanqing Mountain, Wugong Mountain, and Lushan Mountain are all paradises for hiking and outdoor adventures. Hiking along the winding trails, you’ll be greeted by stunning waterfalls, deep valleys, majestic peaks, and numerous ancient temples and shrines.
Recommended Jiangxi Hiking Tours:
Exploring Ancient Villages
For people who want a deep connection to the natural world or want to escape from bustling life, the ancient villages in Jiangxi are your perfect retreat. Though a bit off the beaten path, these villages are mostly nestled among lush mountainous areas, offering a glimpse of not only natural beauties but also time-honored architecture and a traditional way of life. To some extent, they feel more like living museums of primitive countryside life. Huangling Ancient Village, Likeng Village, and Si Xi Yan Village are the top representative villages in Jiangxi.
Jiangxi Weather & Best Time to Visit Jiangxi
Jiangxi enjoys a subtropical warm and humid monsoon climate, characterized by warm winters and hot summers. The annual average temperature usually hovers around 17.4～18.9℃. July is the month seeing the hottest days in Jiangxi when the averages range from 26.9°C to 28.0°C. And January is the coldest month, with an average temperature of about 5-6°C. The annual precipitation of Jiangxi ranges from 1341 mm to 1943 mm, making it among the provinces with the highest rainfall in China. Most of its precipitation is concentrated between April to June.
Though each season in Jiangxi offers charming views and activities, March to May and September to early November are widely considered the best times to visit Jiangxi when the weather is amicable and natural views are at their most splendid.
Spring sees more rainy days, but also brings lush, vibrant landscapes in Lushan Mountain and Sanqing Mountain. The most-known natural attraction of Jiangxi, the blooming rapeseed flowers in Wuyuan, are also on display in spring.
Autumn months with cool and crisp weather are the best time for outdoor activities. This time is also when the Lushan and Sanqing Mountains are decorated with red foliage. In Wuyuan, autumn is dominated by golden yellow terraced fields, and the scene traditional “sun-drying” custom.
Recommended Jiangxi Autumn Tour:
Jiangxi Transportation: How to Get to and Travel around
How to Get to Jiangxi?
Jiangxi boasts a well-developed transportation network connecting the east and west, and the north and south.
By air:
Nanchang Changbei International Airport serves as the most important aviation hub in Jiangxi. The airport is about 28 kilometers from Nanchang city center, offering direct flights to major domestic cities such as Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, and Kunming, and several international cities, like South Korea’s Jeju Island and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Additionally, visitors can also arrive in Jiangxi through Jingdezhen Airport or Shangrao Airport. Both of these two airports offer flights to major domestic cities.
By train:
Arriving in Jiangxi by high-speed trains or bullet trains is also convenient. Nanchang West Railway Station is the major station serving high-speed trains, connecting major cities along the Beijing-Kowloon High-Speed Railway and Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Railway.
How to Travel Around Jiangxi?
Almost every city and county in Jiangxi has long-distance bus stations. When traveling to small towns and rural areas in the province, long-distance buses are common options.
Major Jiangxi cities, like Shangrao, Nanchang, Jiujiang, Jingdezhen, and others can all be reached by high-speed trains or bullet trains.
In the capital Nanchang, 4 metro lines provide fast and convenient access to major areas.
A city bus is a common option in other major cities, with the bus systems covering major residential, commercial, and tourist areas.
