Fenghuang, Hunan, China
November 22, 2013
After the dizzy heights of the forest park and stunning scenery I took an easy day yesterday. I had the chance to go up Tianamen Mountain just outside Zhangjiajie. This is the mountain with the opening in the middle known as heavens gate. For those in the know there is a well-known video from a while back where Jeb Corliss flies through the hole in his wing suit. It was really tempting to head along with Doc and Shua but it would have cost £40 to do it as I would need to get the cable car up and back down as it’s about a days trekking either way and I simply didn’t have that time left in Zhangjiajie or could afford to pump another £40 into one days activity after spending £25 on the mountain pass the two previous days. So I kept myself productive and did washing, some more research into my last full week in China and caught up with a few friends and got my blog back up to date.
I got my train ticket to Fenghuang sorted and also got in touch with Gary and Bhavik, the two lads from the states that I met in Xi’an and I am meeting back up with them on Monday in Yangshuo for a few days before heading on to Hong Kong. It’s been pretty cool to start building up a network of other people who are traveling around that you get on with and keeping in touch as its good to meet up again and sort out the same hostels to hang out in if your going to be in the same place at the same time. I now also have a good few new friends where I have places to stay for free if I visit their home countries so it makes future travel or this trip last much longer.
So after a productive day time I popped out for tea with Doc and Shua when they got back from the mountain and went to a local place called the Hot Pot which was well recommended. It was really good and this time it was my turn to repay the food favour and pick up the bill to thank them both for helping me out the past couple of days. They made planning Fenghuang so much easier and proved invaluable on a few occasions because they are Chinese and obviously can communicate on my behalf.
After a fairly early night I was up at the crack of dawn of dawn today to make sure we all got to the train station for our train to Jishou before catching a bus from there to Fenghuang. it only took about 4 hours in total which wasn’t bad at all considering a lot of my sleeper trains take around 12 hours or so at a time to get to places round this massive country I’m in. Fenghuang is an Ancient city in the Hunan province named after an Asian Mythical bird that reigns over all birds. It’s basically the Chinese equivalent of the Phoenix. The City itself is really well-preserved and the buildings still stand from 300 years ago. Again it is another UNESCO world heriatge site and it’s easy to see why. The place is very pretty and very well-preserved. It reminds me a lot of Hoi An that I saw in Vietnam last year. Yes it’s well-preserved and immaculate, but just like Hoi An it’s also touristy as result of this. But it’s still very much well worth a visit as you will see very few other towns and villages as well-preserved across all of China.
Once there we grabbed a bit of food first, dropped our bags off and then headed straight out to wander around the beautiful old Architecture that sits around the river within the old fortified city walls. Ramshackle houses on stilts butted up right against the river and meandering little alley ways are what you will find here, its easy to imagine non of these have changed in the 300 years that have passed.
As night fell and in true Chinese fashion the place was lit up tremendously well. I don’t know what it is about the Chinese but they know how to use light very well and to great effect. The whole riverside is awash with lights and no building, bridge or tower is left unlit in glorious colour. It was great to just amble along taking the atmosphere in and parking up every now and then in a little riverside cafe to just chill and enjoy the ambiance.
I’ve also noticed in China that there are a lot of small ‘Note’ bars here. These are small cafe’s where people pop in for a coffee and write little messages or proverbs onto small post it notes and sticker them up all over the place, strange but interesting. It gets pretty cold on a night still even though I’m still moving south so I’m now sat huddled round a table with the girl from the hostel sharing a heater to keep warm while I type this, sipping my beer and small bottle of 56% rice wine that Doc and Shua bought me as a present today. Tomorrow will bring more of the same lazy ambling but will hopefully bring a brighter day for some better photos as its been a bit damp and grey since I arrived.
What I have started to really appreciate is just how much China has to offer. I will have visited around 12 different places in just 4 weeks, ranging from the Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors to beautiful Zhangjiajie and with Yangshuo still to come I sense that is the very tip of the iceberg with China. It feels as if there is so much more that would take months and months to get around. The infrastructure here is brilliant, the people are amazing, the food incredible, the sights stunning and it’s cheap as well. I really feel it’s underrated and under visited by us from the west for various reasons. Yes the Government are out there somewhere in old communist land but the general folk are not, they are friendly and warm and happy and distanced from the regime and it should be high up on any bodies list when they think of visiting Asia as oppose to the usual suspects of Thailand and such like.
Give it a thought, it’s truly amazing.
