Blogs from Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China, Asia

Aby przejachać z Dazhai do Zhangjiajie trzeba pokonać ponad 550 km. Można autobusem, można pociągiem, można samolotem. Aby przygotować się fizycznie i psychicznie do ewentualnej, przyszłorocznej podróży koleją z Pekinu do Lhasy w Tybecie postanowiliśmy pokonać ją koleją. Nie jest to jednak droga usłana różami. Po standardowej wczesnorannej pobudce po pierwszym pianiu koguta czekał nas godzinny marsz w dół, do wsi na pierwszy z etapów naszej podróży - autobus. Odprowadzeni do wyjścia przez naszą gospodynie zostaliśmy miło zaskoczeni. Nie tylko ona zadbała o nasze bezpieczeństwo o świcie. Jeden z psów na granicy osady, gdy tylko nas zobaczył, zerwał się na równe nogi, dał poglaskac, po czym szedł z nami nastepne pół godziny obsikując wszystkie krzaki po drodze. Gdy zaczelismy zbliżać się do lezacej w dolinie wsi, najwyraźniej stwierdzil, że nic już nam nie grozi, obsikał ostatni ... read more

Despite the sheer size of China's cities and the millions upon millions that live in them, unlike India, they never feel overcrowded. This can probably be put down to better infrastructure, public transport and cities expanding upwards. But despite the cities' burgeoning population, passing by the beautiful scenery of plentiful farmland on the train ride from Yichang to Zhangjiajie made you remember just how many people here still farm the land. I also saw lots of construction; of more railway bridges, of more apartment blocks, of more everything. You then think about the fact that not long ago, say 20-30 years ago, China was still considered a developing country. Looking around now, you wouldn't think so - the pace of change and improvement has simply been staggering and almost inconceivable for such a big country. Even ... read more

Geo: 28.4059, 110.66Zhangjiajie to Changsha. Our return train ticket was 25RMB for 20:59 which is 9pm and we arrived at 1:30am. The tickets are very cheap but the only thing wrong was that we didn't have a seat..... We would have to stand the whole time.We went to the train station to see if we could change... read more

The drive to the hostel was nice going through mountains and little towns such beautiful scenery and I was hopeful when I seen the reception area of where I was staying bug chandelier and balcony thought I'd hit it lucky until I seen the room felt the bed and nearly died upon opening the bathroom door. It's ok I can do this I repeatedly told myself it's only for a few days so I jumped in to bed and had a few more hours sleep. Woke up in need of a shower so let's brave this bathroom with a squatter toilet close enough to spit in I stood under the shower head that looked older than me turned it on and let out an almighty scream it's bloody freezing!!! I'm already soaked so can't go anywhere ... read more

As we sit in Marcus apartment waiting for him to finish a lesson and go to lunch in the school canteen I though I would update the blog with yesterdays news. Day 2 in Zangjiajie was another relaxed start to the day, not up to early but early enough. Once we were all ready we checked out, left our bags with Cozi at the hotel and headed off to the cable car lift to Tianmen Shan. First stop was at the little restaurant on the edge of the street round the corner from the hotel for breakfast noodles and something that resembled deep fried doughnut sticks which you dip in the sauce of the noodles. From there we headed round to the start of the cable car to collect our tickets and queue for the next ... read more