Huaihua

Huaihua is a mountainous city in western Hunan and a major railway hub linking central China with the southwest. It sits amid the homelands of the Dong, Miao and Tujia peoples, whose drum towers and covered wind-and-rain bridges dot the surrounding valleys. History runs deep here: the Hongjiang Ancient Commercial City preserves a Ming and Qing merchant quarter, and Zhijiang is remembered as the site where Japan surrendered in China at the end of World War II. Local cuisine is smoky and sour, featuring Zhijiang duck and Dong-style fermented fish. With a humid subtropical climate, an airport and high-speed rail, Huaihua is a gateway to ethnic-minority Hunan.