A place with a punch

Local villagers practice White Crane boxing. [Photo by Yang Feiyue/China Daily]

An annual large-scale festival featuring the fighting style runs on the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, this year falling on July 27.

Over 100,000 visitors arrive in the village every year.

Dayu's pristine environment also endows it with allure that goes beyond, yet seems befitting of, kung fu.

The village hugs the waistline of Dapeng Mountain, the abdomen of which it has sculpted into terraces. Ravines plunge between the peaks.

Ancient trees, including centuries-old camphor and banyans, unfold from the soil.

Tea flowers and hyperactively aromatic osmanthus girdle pathways and local homes.

Authorities led villagers to clear out mountainside and riverside dumps several years ago. They then planted calliopsis, helianthus and daylilies.

Rapeseed blankets terraces in blazes of bright yellow.

Blossoms bloom in Dayu all seasons.