Special Report: Wenzhou, China

This past week, my attendance at the annual meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers took me to Wenzhou.

It’s an inviting, industrial city in eastern China, along the Ou River between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Near Wenzhou are several mountain parks, which provided the opportunity to see a Chinese autumn emerging.

Yandang Mountain National Park, an hour north of Wenzhou by superhighway, is a World Geological Park and one of China’s top-rated mountain areas. It is like Yosemite, but with temples.

Within the national park are soaring rock monoliths, rock climbers, waterfalls, copper blue mountain streams, wildlife areas, caves, and ancient Buddhist temples and shrines, many of which are framed by fall color in late autumn.

Maple trees are prolific in eastern China and forested areas like Yandang Mountain National Park are full of them. Japanese maples are a common choice of horticulturists in the United States, though there are more varieties of Chinese maples, according to MrMaple.com, a cultivar of Asian maples.

Surrounding ancient Lingyan Temple (over 1,000 years old and listed as one of the 18 oldest temples in China) are stands of golden to orange maple and towering, venerable gingko trees, whose bright yellow leaves were transitioning from green to yellow.

Guidebooks show bright yellow to orange stands of maple filling the forest with color. Though on our visit, even the tea was green.

Only the gingkos were near peak. Guides blamed unseasonably warm weather as keeping the forest from turning, though it’s more likely that, due to the area’s low elevations and latitude, peak does not usually arrive until mid to late November.

Wenzhou Ecological Park near the city, contains Daluo Mountain and a network of stone paths that climb to geologic features, streams, pools and pagodas at points of rest and scenic inspiration.

Daluo Mountain’s trails pass through lush bamboo corridors and past a variety of deciduous plants that were just starting to show color.

• Yandang Mountain National Park (3,635′), Yandangshan,China – Just Starting (0-10%)
• Daluo Mountain (2,300′), Wenzhou Ecological Park – Just Starting (0-10%)

One of the most colorful autumn scenes in Wenzhou was found on Jiangxin Islet in the middle of the Ou River where, at dusk, brides gathered in front of the decaying Victorian-era (1890) British Embassy to pose for wedding pictures.

As golden Gingko leaves fluttered past the posing brides, I saw the following image developing and moved into position to frame a shot that eventually won the Society of American Travel Writers’ Bronze Award in the 2018 Bill Muster Photo Competition Culture Category.