Hey everyone, welcome to World Heritage Journey.
For today's video we're at Lushan National Park in Jiangxi province, southern China.
Lushan National Park is quite an interesting World Heritage site, as it's the only Chinese
site that relates directly to modern China.
It covers about 300 square kilometres in the north of Jiangxi province, and it mostly consists
of tall sandstone peaks, topped with mist.
The landscape has long been an inspiration to famous Chinese poets, including the great
Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai, who wrote moving poems about Five Old Men Peak.
Nearby you'll also find beautiful Chinese pavilions, a man-made lake, and a lovely flower
path that inspired another poet, Bai Juyi.
But it's the modern history of this area that I found so fascinating.
During the 19th century colonial period, wealthy European merchants and politicians from the
cities built large manor houses up in the hills where the temperature was much cooler.
Even in the early autumn when we visited, the pleasant breeze was a welcome relief from
the hot cities down below.
The most famous villa here is Meilu Villa, built in 1903 in a distinctly European style.
It was eventually owned by Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist party, and it was
here at this very villa where the Nationalists and Communists lead by Mao agreed on uniting,
to fight the Japanese in 1937.
Nearby you'll also find a large building where important conferences were held after the
war.
The most important of these, in 1959, was where the Great Leap Forward policy
was discussed and agreed, and the buildings are largely unchanged from that era.
Overall, we found it a fascinating site.
In general, Chinese houses are built for function over form, so it was really interesting to
see an area somewhere that this definitely
wasn't the case!