March 2026 · 4 min read
The First Week of Gold
Wuyuan, late March.
For one week each year, the valleys of Wuyuan turn gold. The villagers know to within three days when it will begin.
Mr Wang has been a farmer in Likeng for forty-seven years. His father was a farmer here. His grandfather was a farmer here. He knows the valley the way an old reader knows a poem.
We arrive on a Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the first valley is half gold. By Friday, every south-facing slope is a sheet of luminous yellow. The white walls of the village reflect the colour like a paper lantern reflects a flame.
Photography is everywhere. Bus tours come, take pictures, leave. Mr Wang serves us tea and watches the visitors with mild interest. 'They take a picture,' he says, 'and they leave. They never see the second week.'
The second week of gold is when the petals begin to fall, and the bees arrive in earnest, and the whole valley smells like honey for ten days. That is the week we tell our guests to come.
