Summer trip-Hunan Zhang Jia Jie & Fenghuang village

Posted by Yuka as Hot Cities

Summer is typical driving season, so we took advantage of this summer holidy and drove from Mengzi all the way to Beihai & Guilin, passing Wenshan, Baise and NanNing. It’s definitely a pleasent trip which lasted two weeks, despte of some small incidens.

Day1: Mengzi-Wenshan-Yanshan-Guangnan

We took a short cut to Wenshan by passing Lingjiu, as a tradeoff, the road condition is not so good. There is a big temple in Lingjiu, so we stopped over there for about one and a half hours. The temple was built along the mountain, it’s worth having a look. From Yanshan to Guangnan we took G323 instead of highway, because we got information that the highway is not open yet, which was proven to be wrong later on. My GPS cellphone gave me big help when driving through the city of Wenshan and Yanshan. We got to Guangnan at around 8pm. It’s a long drive, so we decided to have a decent meal as a reward. It didn’t take us long before we found a nice local restaurent, there we had delicous stewed duck.

Day2: Guangnan-Bamei-Guangnan

The only reason we stop in Guangnan is for Bamei and SaIt’s said that if one person has been through a long and boring period he will be dull to death, just like a    mummy. Look like alive, but actually dead. So together we four, so-call 师徒四人组 have already planned  for our trip for a really long time even before the kids didn’t start their final exam preparation. But actually we four didn’t quite know each other or maybe just kind of meeting by chance in our daily life, which on the  other hand increases the unpredictable options and non-routine life style we are coming through.

July 23rd. 10:00am

I got up late and tired coz the late chat with sb about my newly emotional swing. I was told the conversation was just between us so I am not so appropriate to talk about it right now. So far I am good. Good enough to handle myself which to do, and which not to do. That is pretty much you guys have to know so far about me and let’s come to our fantastic summer trip. Oh, yummy~~~~~
Not until 11 we four got together at the station and jumped on the Airport Express. Coz the flight was in    the afternoon so we had pretty much time to hang around in the airport. The Beijing Olympic was the             heat topic around then so there were far more security check than before and intensive atmosphere out           there  that we had to have our luggage consigned in case of the beeping from that machine.
The flight was ok although the ticket was much cheaper than normal.

July 23rd 7:00 pm

After the one and a half hour flight we got to the Zhang Jiajie where once I had been to but with                 unhappy  memory. The last trip to this city is still vividly in my mind—the crowded people on the train, the     noise, the smell, the uncomfortable napping, the long night scary. Fortunately we got here by air. I would rather paymore than suffer from the hell. We lived in a YH (youth hostel) called 蜗牛驿站.

Even though it was not a real international YH I used to live in, it was OK because of the low price           25 RMB per day and the kindest hostess who gave us a most valuable unsold secret map which helped us a   lot in the coming long journey.

Later since some of us had done some research that we found the most           popular restaurant for dinner after almost one-hour planless walk.

It was some sorts of canteen which serves dishes with family style, some of which were really hot.

That was why we kept ordering beer and drinking water which it’s said to be able to heal the summer heat. When we finished our first amazing dinner we went straight to our hostel coz we all  felt tired and wanna save our energy for the coming journey.

July 24th 7:00 am

We got up rather early so that we could catch the first bus to Fenghuang Village. Since it was the first bus  of two in a day, so we couldn’t miss it, or we could just put off our schedule like 7 hours. The coming long journey lasted for more than 6 hours that we could just keep sleeping during the whole drive. We got off the  bus at one stop where there was a great water fall. This is our first picture, with our sleepy eyes and great waterfall right behind us.

July 24th 2:00pm

Almost 7hours passed we finally got to the place we were gonna spend 3 night in a row which called    四合院.
This is the sightseeing outside our dorm.

It is a little bit high coz we didn’t live in that kind of hostel called 吊脚楼 which cost us a lot more money with uncomfortable bedroom design. After unpacking we walked    out of the hostel excitingly and could not wait to begin our real trip. Meanwhile I just heard that some one     would come to join us. It turned out that the geography guy and his lovely girl friend. It was just worth waiting for such a long time coz both of them gave us even more amazing story later on. We just walked around the   village and ended up in a cheap empty restaurant which we felt incredible regretful of being there—uneatable, tasteless, which made us throw up. It was supposed to be a good one just by the river but god knows it turns out to be the worst. If you want to get nausea, just come here, (吊脚楼)

July 25th 7:30am

We were gonna head to Laodong Miaozhai and Wulong mountain today so all of us got up awake and got everything ready, JVC, four Dcs and a bunch of umbrellas. Walking was pretty much the only thing we did     that day in spite of seeing some weird cliff and the old woman in the Laodong Miaozhai which was said to     have kept most originated and antique stuff.

The woman was almost at her nineties but it was not easy to tell  coz her face was too smooth at her age. After that we took a boat back to our place and you guess what     was waiting for us? Bingo, the most fantastic and unbelievable dinner with extra pepper and BBQ flavor.

We kept eating until we couldn’t feel our lip and although we kept perspiring and panting, nothing would be better than that coz we were fling. But later on we got the consequences that I lay on the bed the next day doing nothing but waiting for the toilet.

July 26th

Stayed in bed and had a rest. Keep thinking the old people saying, “when you once step in this place, a      fabulous story is waiting for you to disclose.” It means if you are single you are definitely gonna hook up with  some one you have expecting for a really long time. But to me, it is just not gonna happen.

some special snack

July 27th 7:00am
We got up early to catch the bus back to Zhangjiajie. After the damn boring 6-hour drive we finally           arrived at Baofeng Shangzhuang, a sort of local hotel, at around 2pm. We threw our package away and         immediately went out hunting for food. 烧腊轩 was our first option and it was pretty good there with a         handsome hostess and his charming girl friend who looks like Stephy in HK. Coincidentally we happened to meet a couple from Shenzhen who were going home from a 3-day sightseeing around. It was good to meet    some guys who understands our talking and speaks our language. It was so familiar and releasing. After a      short break we headed to the first spot Huanglong Dong. Although it was far more exciting and frightening      than we thought would be by taking a crazy motorcycle with a unbearable high speed 70km/hour, we got there a bit earlier than we had expected.

The cave was not so attractive that I thought would be. Just being large, and it is really huge. There was nothing to mention about this normal deep huge cave. And later   on I walked myself with a partner back to our place for like 2hours—covered more than 7kilometres, which made it less boring that day.

July 28th 8:00am

We repacked our luggage in the early morning in order to get ready to be an eremite coz we were gonna    live up in the mountain for the next two days. The hostel up there was called 肖老师 which I think it’s ok.   Not so much noise and people around. Just being alone with some friends who like traveling on their own      and some farming family kind of style offers made me feel at release. After we took all the stuff we need for    climbing, we took off and the first spot is on the top left corner in our secret map mentioned before.

July 28th 6:00pm

I slipped out to have a personal private rest outside the 后花园. I like being alone with the great natural    mother. Feeling the stars upon me, the cliff around me, the sky slightly turning dark, fireflies shining, vague hills, I felt so indulgent that I could sense myself melting into the surrounding.

July 29th 7:30am

The longest and most tiring day had come. It was so tough to cover the distance like nobody did before.   Being exhausted and collapsing we finally made it. But two of us had stayed still in the hostel because of their own situation.

July 30th

We flied back to Gz before we hang around in the down town KFC for like 6hours and chatting with each other and two senior high school girls.

All of us feel tired and had no sense of beauty any more. The cliff, is   just the cliff, rather than normal rock only. That is all. After our postponed flight we met the temporary airport break out which gave our 8-days journey a happy unexpected wonderful ending.
nla Waterfall.