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Published: April 27th 2017
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I think we may have stumbled upon Blackpool in China! We've just spent a couple of nights in Fenghuang, which is a wonderfully bizarre destination. By day it's a ancient, picturesque, river side town with houses on stilts, city walls and back alleys lined with shops. By night it's party central, which for the Chinese means banging karaoke blasting out from from every neon lit bar that you pass.
Fenghuang was the second of our off the (western) beaten track spots. It was an appealing side trip from Zhangjiajie as there was a direct bus from right next to our hotel which was meant to take 3.5 hours. In the end if took 5.5 hours, but that's China for you! The journey itself would have been pretty relaxing as the Chinese sleep anywhere and especially on public transport but for the last hour the bus hostess blurted on in Mandarin over a microphone. To give her credit she had forewarned us (via a translation app) and suggested we put headphones on but Ed Sheehan is no contest for a loud, enthusiastic bus host in China!
We arrived at Fenghuang late afternoon and our hotel was (thankfully) right at the
far end of the town so by the time we made it out and into the main area day was turning into night and the karaoke bars where just opening up. We walked past lovely looking chilled out cafes that were empty only to find the super loud, neon karaoke bars filling up. We didn't quite know what to make of the place!
The next day we woke to sunshine, which was a welcome break after two days of rain, and headed back into the old town. We had a lovely relaxing day meandering around the place which had a completely different vibe from the previous evening. The streets were lined with sweet shops, souvenir shops, old ladies making hand made shoes and food shops with all sorts of caged animals outside. I had my hair braided for £1.20, as that seemed to be the thing to do here and we bought some of the random local sweets that we'd seen being made by bashing it with a big wooden hammer (very random). It felt like we were getting an insight into the Chinese version of a seaside town.
The place isn't very big so we really only
needed a few hours to tick off everything we wanted to do. Our sight seeing to-do list included walking across the crazy stepping stones, wandering inside the walled part of the city, visiting the Three Kings Temple to get views back across the town and eating ice cream. That's my kinda day!
Our celebrity status reached its peak here; we were asked for pictures by five groups of people, starting as soon as we stepped off the bus. Usually it was by girls but we were also approached by a group of what looked like Chinese bikers (bit scary!), and a group of old ladies. It is so funny and odd to think we are that much of a novelty.
On our second evening we managed to find a lovely cafe for dinner which was perched on the side of the river and had great views. Afterwards we hung out in a great bar where a girl was singing and playing soothing Chinese songs on a guitar (that you could really enjoy if you just ignored the person face timing at the top of their voice on the table next to you).
The next day we had
another early start for another crazy travel day. We woke up in Fenghuang, went back to Zhangjiajie town (rather than National Park) for an afternoon of sightseeing before boarding a midnight (train to Georgia) flight to Xi'an.
We'd enjoyed our side trip to Fenghuang but agreed that the 10 hour plus round trip from Zhangjiajie probably wasn't worth it. However, if you ever find yourself in China and passing by then it's definitely worth at least a night here to experience this Jekyll and Hyde town.
****As always please scroll down for more pictures****
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Sharon Tomasi
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Looks better than Blackpool!
Well it looks a lot prettier than Blackpool! ? Can't believe how many places you made it to in just three weeks. No wonder you were ready to chill out in Gili!