For Taiping enthusiasts, Guiping is simply a stop on the way to JINTIAN , about 25km and an hour to the north. Catch a minibus (which run whenever full; ¥2) from the western side of Guangchang square; on arrival, get off at Jintian's south gate, then head through the stone arch and down the long road leading west. You can hire a motorcycle-taxi, but it's a quiet walk once you've escaped the main road, the track crossing the fertile irrigated plain towards distant blue mountains, passing clusters of mud-brick farmhouses and village ponds. After about 4km you come to a small wooded hill and the site of the former Taiping headquarters . A recent reconstruction of this fort houses a small museum with erratic opening hours (¥3), where a few period documents, rather jolly paintings and some old weapons glorify the revolutionary zeal of Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan and his generals. Just north is a circular grassy bank beneath the trees, marking all that remains of the original fort. As is so often the case in China, it's the effort of travel and the site associations, rather than tangible relics, that justify the journey. The last transport back to Guiping leaves any time between 5pm and 7pm.