Moganshan dispatch, week 39

The railway has its signs and its shops before it has a date

Deqing, the county Moganshan sits in, spent the week fitting out a railway nobody can ride yet. On the morning of 18 September, workers were installing green wayfinding boards on Quyuan Road (曲园路) in Wukang (武康街道), the county town. They point to the entrances of a line the signs call a metro, although it is branded a suburban railway. One worker had put up ten boards before lunch. Chunhui Park station (春晖公园站) is getting 76 sign positions in all, on the main roads, the side streets, the crossings and the housing around it.

Three days later the same paper reported that the shopping centre on top of that station opens first. Six tenants open at Chunxu Commercial Centre (春序商业中心) on 24 September, among them a Hema discount supermarket, a dumpling shop, a Yunnan noodle shop and a 7-Eleven. The operator said the aim was to keep pace with the railway. Neither report gives a date for the railway. Both say only that the opening is close, which the county has been saying since the line began trial running on 2 September.

What this means for a visitor: nothing yet. Until a date is published, Deqing station on the existing high speed line is still the way in. The new station is a different place in Wukang, not a second entrance to the one you use now. Anyone booking for October should assume the railway will not be running.

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 20 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/20/035294933.shtml

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 21 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/21/035295746.shtml

Two new places to stop have opened at Qinlao village

Qinlao village (勤劳村), on the Moganshan town road, has guesthouses and until recently very little else. A rural operating team calling itself the Bee Tribe (蜜蜂部落), average age in its twenties, took on the village’s idle buildings last year. Long Talk (长谭) came out of a derelict horse paddock and now sells coffee and light lunches to cyclists and walkers. Beimoting (杯莫亭) opened this year beside the Jingxiantan (惊险潭) waterfall, a tea room with a wine counter and a stage, and a walkway out to a view. The village expects about RMB 200,000 a year from it. Neither report gives an opening time or a price. The third project is further off. A silk mill that stood empty for ten years is becoming a 3,000 square metre car showroom and restaurant, with the fitting out unfinished.

What this means for a visitor: two places to stop on that road that were not there a year ago, both outside the ticketed scenic area. The silk mill is a building site, so do not go for that one. A second phase, a farm of about 170 mu, has not started.

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 21 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/21/035295754.shtml

Moganshan Yellow Bud is being made as a yellow tea again

Moganshan Yellow Bud (莫干黄芽) is classed as a yellow tea, and most of what is sold under the name has been made as a green one. The difference is a step called menhuang (闷黄), a smothering that runs for tens of hours under tight control of temperature and humidity. It is the reason yellow tea is rare. A workstation from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (中国农业科学院茶叶研究所) opened in Moganshan town in early summer, with a yellow tea school. Growers have extended picking past Guyu (谷雨) in late April, instead of stopping before Qingming. Two tea farms, Shiyi (石颐) and Shuangfeng (双丰), have doubled output and sales over three years. Four yellow teas beyond the single bud are now sold, among them Zhichun (知春) and Qiubai (秋白).

What this means for a visitor: the name on the tin does not tell you how the tea was made. If you are buying tea on the mountain, ask whether it was yellowed. Our own page on Moganshan tea treated the pick as a spring crop that coarsens after about 20 April, and has been corrected today.

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 22 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/22/035296333.shtml

The autumn street people are driving to is a working road

Yangshuwan Road (杨树湾路) runs through Wukang, the same county town. It is lined with golden rain trees (栾树), which carry yellow flowers and red seed capsules on the branch at once. The road was at its best on 18 September, with people driving in from outside the county after seeing it on social media, some bringing photographers and stepladders. The viewing period runs close to a month, which from 18 September points at the first half of October. The subdistrict asked people to mind the traffic while they look up.

What this means for a visitor: ten minutes and no ticket, if you have time to fill near the station rather than on the mountain. Cars use it. Do not stand about in the road for a photograph. On the mountain itself the osmanthus is already out and the chestnut picking runs to about 15 October.

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 20 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/20/035294946.shtml

What Deqing has published about the holiday is a security meeting

So far it is all internal. The county political and legal affairs committee met on 21 September to set the Mid Autumn and National Day security arrangements. The report names no road, no closure, no hour. No visitor programme for Moganshan had appeared by 23 September, anywhere we can reach. The county usually publishes one seven to ten days out, so it may yet land. Two other things people ask about are just as unsettled. The quarry attraction at the Kaiyuan Senbo resort is due to start trial running in October, with no opening day published. The restored 1910 swimming pool at the top of the mountain is open as a café on trial, with no hours and no prices published.

What this means for a visitor: do not build a National Day itinerary around the holiday programme, the quarry or the pool. What is confirmed for the holiday is on our National Day page, and if a programme appears it will be in next week’s dispatch.

Source: 德清新闻网 (Deqing News), 22 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/22/035296337.shtml

Last checked 24 September 2026 by Cyril Drouin. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.