Blogs from Hunan, China, Asia - page 14

Admist the pollution and traffic, the crowds and the noise, the urban monstrosities, the construction and the modernity, I had forgotten how beautiful China is. On the train leaving Qiyang, I had just woken up when the whole car became astir, and passengers rushed to the windows to fascinate over the landscape. Gigantic grey rocks, pocked and jagged by time, towered over farmfields, dwarfing the farmers and their oxen as they sowed and reaped in their shadows, seemingly oblivious to the giant-guardians of the land. At times we passed them standing in clusters like splintered mountains, their pocks looked like domestic entrances to an ancient cave community. Buried in my life in Shanghai, I had forgotten the rest of China. So is how I found Qiyang a year and a half after I had left- more ... read more

The next morning, we booked our train tickets over to Kunming for later in the week before heading out to explore the seven peaks park. We stopped en route to pick up lunch from the street sellers along the road and enjoyed a delicious picnic in the park (well a quarter of a picnic, as we had eaten most of it in the taxi ride over) consisting of bbq’d and generously spiced beef skewers, freshly baked plain and sweet flat breads and watermelon. Afterwards we walked around the park for a couple of hours enjoying the beautifully landscaped scenery and exploring a massive and absolutely beautiful cave, which had been only slightly ruined by the gaudy fluorescent lighting that had been installed everywhere to illuminate numerous strange rock formations; these had been given even stranger names ... read more

I arrived here early evening Friday, having left Yangshuo at 08:10am. I was told the bus ride would take around 4-5 hours from Gulin, so after 6 hours and continuous rural landscapes I had convinced myself I had either taken the wrong bus or had missed the point I was supposed to get off at. I was sure that I was supposed to get off at the end at a bus station, but as I sat there looking more and more pregnant from my swelling bladder, I went over and over in my mind what Desta from the Buckland office had said. It was vague to say the least, it had not actually been said to get off at the end and that it was a bus station, however I had somehow gotten this impression and ... read more

Day 19 - 24 April We sit here, in the most extraordinary location so far. We are in Fenghuang, a mere 2 ¾ hour bus ride from Huaihua. Forced to stay an extra day in Guilin, through lack of train tickets, we secured 3 sleeper berths on Wednesday for a night train to Huaihua. This saw Frances and Lauren in one cabin, and Molly and I next door. We arrived there at 0115 hrs with no accommodation booked. As I am rapidly learning in China, this was not to be feared. Described as a city of 127,000 inhabitants, Huaihua is not to be confused with a Hamilton! The station was swarming, and the concourse alive with vendors and touts. Within 50 metres we saw probably 7 signs with the word “hotel” mentioned. The receptionist at the ... read more