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Published: February 26th 2011
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Day One
Up early, but unfortunately not early enough. We headed off to the bus station I queued up to buy the tickets to be greeted with a flurry of Chinese. After a couple of minutes and with the help of a man who spoke his Chinese slowly for me I found out that there is only one bus a day that goes between Shaoyang and Jishou so I bought our tickets for tomorrow and we headed home again. I think that travelling around Hunan is going to be a little more tricky than travelling around Henan.
Day Two
Up even earlier today. We got to the bus station in plenty of time. We had a chat with a young man who was returning to his university in Jiangxi as we waited for our bus. The bus arrived on time and by the time we all got on all the seats were taken. There is one thing that both Dany and I have noticed here in Hunan and that is that there seems to be a lot more smokers and they smoke everywhere even on the bus. Luckily our seats were next to a window that we could open so
when the old guys behind us sparked up we could open the window for some fresh air. The bus journey from Shaoyang to Jishou took seven hours and passed through some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen, even if the roads turned to gravel at points. We even saw men ploughing their fields with water buffalo. After arriving in Jishou we organised our train tickets for the journey to Changsha. I didn't get the train I wanted though. I wanted to leave Jishou at around 11 am but all the tickets were taken so we had to make do with a sleeper train that leaves Jishou at 9pm so it means a long wait but hey-ho.
We found the minibus and after around 50 minutes we arrived in this little riverside village set in some of the most stunning scenery. The driver of the bus was kind enough to show us where the inn was and we got ourselves booked in. We stayed in the Jielongqiao inn which is a pretty building right next to the Jielong bridge. The room was clean and comfortable but there was no heating and no glass in the windows so it's
a bit chilly at night.
Day Three
So up with the cock crow, well almost I heard it crowing and saw that it was still dark so I went back to sleep. It was a little chilly in the night but we were both that tired from yesterdays travels that we both slept for twelve hours! It seemed rather strange to wake up to the sound of nature, birds singing and the sound of running water from the river below our window. After getting ourselves ready we left the inn and crossed over the Jielong bridge and headed off into the mountains. It was hard work climbing all the steps and the final clamber to the summit was a little slippery and dangerous but I made it. The view down onto the village was awe-inspiring. Dany gave up with about 200 metres to go because she's scared of heights and didn't like the steep steps to the top. We made our way down back to the village and ate in a tiny restaurant in the main square. Note here for travellers the menus in all the restaurants appear to be the same but the restaurants in the square are
a little bit more expensive than those in the village. Lunch eaten we went off to visit the Yuquanxi scenic area. We had a lovely stroll through terraced fields and crossing over the river several times on stepping stones. It's been really fantastic to be out in nature after our city hoping adventures in Northern China. We saw beautiful birds, tadpoles in pools in the terraced fields, oxen, water buffalo and there was nothing but the sound of the mountain stream to keep us company. We got to a rather high waterfall and decided to go no farther as time was getting on, there is no street lighting here so when it gets dark it's dark! After dinner we retired to bed early rather worn out from our exertions
Day Four
Our last day here so we set off to see the Nine Dragons waterfall, which is about half an hours walk out of the village. We got to a bamboo hut where I imagine that in the summer a man sits and take the entrance money. A miao lady was behind us and she indicated that we should just go round and keep going so we did. We
came to the first part of the falls and the lady indicated where we were to go. We sat down to have a cup of tea and the lady set off climbing up the steps. We never saw her again it was like she vanished. The climb up was very hard work and turned into almost rock climbing in some parts. We got to a large water fall and there was a ladder so that you could continue climbing but it just didn't look safe so we decided to give it a miss and after some photos decided to climb back down. Once we got back down again we found the hut had been opened and a man was kind enough to relieve us of 30 rmb for the entrance fee, 15 rmb each. Once down again we continued on the path way to the Liusha waterfall which is supposed to be the highest waterfall in China. There wasn't that much water going over today but I imagine that in the rainy season it's a sight to behold. So once again it was back to Dehang for lunch. The climb up to the Nine Dragons waterfall and yesterdays exertions were
staring to take there toll and we were both starting to stiffen up in the legs. After lunch we gritted our teeth and went out of the village taking a path that followed the river though a valley with some beautiful views of the karst mountains. We got to a point on the path were we came across some cows, three females and one male and we decided we didn't want to try and push pass them so we went back to our inn. It took us a while to get back and Dany looked like the walking wounded when we did get back her legs were hurting that much. In the evening we sat and chatted with another couple who were staying in our inn then at 10 o'clock we climbed the stairs, with gritted teeth, to our room.
Day Five
Our time in Dehang is over. It's been special here and we've had an absolutely fantastic time and we will not forget it in a hurry. Our next obsticale was a 10 hour wait in Jishou which neither of us was looking forward to. To our surprise we had a good day in Jishou. We left the
case in left luggage, 5rmb, and went for a walk around the city. After a bite to eat we walked back towards the train station, only another 9 hours to go, and passed by a park and we could hear music and singing.
So in we went and sure enough there were people playing traditional Chinese instruments and people taking it in turns to sing on the mic., a form of old school Chinese karaoke I suppose. So we sat down and decided to play a few games of cards to pass the time. After a while we got a fair sized audience. People were trying to speak to us, I showed them photos of Sleaford and Atena on my laptop. We ended up having a fun time today.
All in all these past few days have been incredible. We still have those pinch ourselves moments because we just can't believe where we are. I hope you all enjoy the photos and my Jah bless you all.
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