My Little Fenghuang Travelogue
Taking advantage of annual leave, we boarded a train to Western Hunan to trace the old town and vowed to see its beauty for ourselves. We left home by taxi at 9 p.m. for Guangzhou Railway Station, and the train departed at 10:23 p.m. At 2:33 p.m. the next day, after a night of fatigue and jolting, the train slowly pulled into Jishou Station. With the people we'd met on the train...
This article is compiled from the original travel notes on the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com); it is a record of trips from earlier years. Time-sensitive information such as ticket prices, schedules, and accommodation prices is subject to the latest announcements from scenic areas and transportation authorities; the itinerary ideas and attraction introductions still have reference value.
Taking advantage of annual leave, we stepped onto the train to Xiangxi, seeking traces of the ancient city, determined to catch a glimpse of her beauty.
At 9 PM, I took a taxi from home to Guangzhou Railway Station, and at 10:23 PM, the train departed from Guangzhou Station.
At 2:33 PM, after a night of fatigue and bumpy travel, the train slowly pulled into Jishou Station. I shared a taxi with a couple I met on the train, costing 100 yuan from Jishou to Fenghuang (since it was peak season; I heard it's usually only 80 yuan, haha, it doesn't matter, as long as we have fun). The sunlight warmed my body, and outside the window, the fleeting beautiful tree shadows and verdant green bamboo became increasingly blurry, while the car's roar faded into the distance, like a faint scent of green grass from afar.
The taxi driver was very talkative and skilled, but had a bad habit (which I later found out is common among drivers in Xiangxi): he didn't drive in his lane and always liked to veer into others', almost hitting a little boy on a bicycle coming the opposite way on the road from Jishou to Fenghuang. With my heart in my throat, we finally arrived at Fenghuang Bridge, and the clear, gentle Tuo River came into view. In that brief moment, I knew I was completely captivated by this beautiful scenery.
Fenghuang City stands quietly like this, simple and elegant, outstanding in the world. I am bathed in pure, unpretentious beauty.
On the second day, we joined a one-day tour of Wulong Mountain and Goulian Miao Village (120 yuan including a farmhouse lunch; later, a taxi uncle told me this was definitely a great deal). We had dinner at the Gaolaozhuang Restaurant they recommended, ordering the highly praised Blood Duck, which is a must-eat in Fenghuang, but as said online, it wasn't tasty at all (luckily we only ordered a small portion for 28 yuan). A Beggar's Chicken cost 55 yuan, with the skin overcooked and the meat even worse, like chewing tree bark, dry and harder to swallow than coarse buns from Northeast China, so we wasted that 55 yuan. Fortunately, we also ordered a delicious wild celery for 8 yuan and a sour and spicy pig ear for 15 yuan that went well with rice, so we barely filled our stomachs. In the evening, we had a late-night snack at the barbecue street in front of Hongqiao, ordering a grilled eggplant, two skewers of lamb, two of beef, two of river crab, one of chives, and one of mushrooms, costing 23 yuan (it seems the 0.5 yuan per skewer barbecue rumored online is from which era?). After paying and leaving the food stall, Mimi and I said in unison: Is salt free for Fenghuang people?
On the third day at 6 AM, I woke up to the birds' urging songs. I stretched, opened the window, and on the utility pole in front of it, seven or eight unknown birds were neatly lined up. It seems I am quite popular; even the lovely birds are lining up to sing in welcome (you all shouldn't be jealous of me). The stone street below the window was already crowded with people. I quickly pulled up my LG who always loves to sleep in, and after a hurried wash, we went upstream along the Tuo River. The entire Tuo River was shrouded in morning mist, as if we were in a fairyland on earth.
Regardless of age, everyone can't help but strike a few poses, all wanting to keep this beautiful scenery by their side forever.
After morning exercise upstream on the Tuo River, on the strong recommendation of the innkeeper, we went to a beef noodle shop called Ruihong for breakfast. The 6-yuan bowl of beef noodles left me and LG with endless aftertaste. After breakfast, we strolled along the ancient city wall to the club, ready to set off for a day trip to Wulong Mountain and Guliang Miao Village. Wulong Mountain has beautiful scenery, with up-and-down, winding mountain roads stretching 8 kilometers, circling the mountainside.
Guliang Miao Village has nothing particularly attractive; apart from the performances by the Miao brothers and sisters, there is almost nothing worth seeing (I'm very sorry, folks of the Miao Village, because I was also born in the countryside, so relatively speaking, the Miao Village has little appeal to me).
On the way back, we passed the Southern Great Wall. Because we could only view it from afar and not get close, no one got off the bus; we only viewed the Great Wall from the bus. By the time we returned to Fenghuang, it was already past seven. We quickly had dinner at a restaurant by the river and then went back to the inn to rest. After walking mountain roads all day, our legs were weak!
On the morning of the fourth day, we slept until we woke up naturally (hehe, it's been a long time since I felt that way). After washing up, the couple we met on the train called and said they were going to take a boat tour on the Tuo River, 20 yuan per person, for over an hour. The person soliciting customers on Hong Bridge was a woman in her forties, of Hui ethnicity, who had married a Miao man. She led us along Huilong Pavilion for a few minutes before reaching the boat dock. The boatman was her son in his twenties, a very shy young man who didn't like to talk and couldn't sing Miao songs, so at twenty-one he still hadn't found a partner (this was told to us by the boatman's mother). We toured the lower reaches of the Tuo River for over an hour, and the scenery on both banks was equally fascinating.
On the way back, we visited the grave of Mr. Shen Congwen, whom I had admired for many years.
Returning to the city, I had lunch at a Miao restaurant near the Ambassador Hotel. It was more delicious than any other meal I had on this trip, and the price was cheap too. Four people ate five dishes for only 75 yuan. Unfortunately, I didn't remember the restaurant's name. What a pity! Otherwise, I would definitely recommend it to everyone.
After lunch, I bought silverware, ginger candy, blood duck, and Miao handicrafts on Dongzheng Street. At 3 PM, I returned to the inn to pick up my luggage. The four of us took a taxi back to Jishou (80 yuan) and took the 18:56 train back to Guangzhou, ending a pleasant trip to Fenghuang.