Shiyan

About Shiyan

Few Chinese cities owe as much to one factory as Shiyan. Until the late 1960s this was a scatter of villages in the hills of northwestern Hubei; then the Second Automobile Works, later Dongfeng Motor, was built here, and a mountain city of truck plants and workers' housing grew up along the narrow valleys. Lorries and car parts still shape its economy.

For travellers the real draw lies to the east. The Wudang Mountains, one of the holiest ranges of Taoism and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, rise within the city's borders, their Ming-dynasty palaces and temples strung along forested ridges up to the gilded Golden Hall on the summit. Wudang is also revered as the home of a soft, flowing school of martial arts linked with tai chi.

Northeast of the city, the Han River widens into the Danjiangkou Reservoir, which sends water all the way to Beijing through the South-North Water Transfer Project. Dinosaur eggs and fossil skulls of early humans have been found in nearby Yunyang. Wudangshan Airport and high-speed trains to Wuhan connect the city with the rest of China.