Terraced fields extend high up the slopes surrounding Cuandixia, but these days thickets of blue-gray scrub brush have reclaimed most of the former farmland. The industry in this 500-year-old Ming Dynasty hamlet is tourism now.

Approached by rail, the landscape of Shidu reveals itself bit by bit in brief spaces between tunnels. The train emerges from the depths into a sudden blast of light, and the traveler — like a swimmer gasping for air — presses his face against the glass to glimpse a peak, a gorge, a terraced slope before plunging back into the hillside.