Phoenix Grand Hotel Fenghuang

Another overnight train followed by couple of hours on a bus and I arrived in the centuries-old riverside town of Fenghuang. Welcome to China a la Disney...


This place must have been beautiful before the attack of tourism. A calm green river flowing slowly through wooded hills; houses on stilts lining the river banks; a hotchpotch of steep narrow lanes, too narrow for traffic, radiating outwards; huge ...

דחאנג, כפר קטן באמצע פארק גיאול 90;י של הרים מחודד 97;ם. לשם ברחתי מהמול 14; החג הסיני של אוקט ...

... 1489;חבל חונאן כשהרא 13;ון באוקט 93;בר הגיע. רצה הגורל והגעת 97; לפונג 95;ואנג יום לפני התארי 98; הז ...

... camera, passport and money on us we started to cross. We were about 2 or 3 steps in when we noticed that nearly everyone in Fenguang had decided to cross at the same time . The problem is that once your on, you cant easily turn back with out the risk of knocking several people into the water, so we slowly crossed praying every step we took and celebrating when we reached the end.

Other weird and wonderful additions ...

... The only down side was the toilet and shower both had see thorugh glass. Which was a bit awkward when we needed to go. We did get a knock on the door though about 11.30pm and it was a member of staff with the local police. Finally they had caught up with Alison and were taking her away. Peace at last. Unfortunatley it was the wrong room. There are no pictures as the town was rubbish.

Alison: Ditto except the part about the police :-)

... I wanted to take a photo, but didn't want to look like some stupid western tourist gawping at the locals. I feel like I'm in the 'real' China now, there are people wearing conical bamboo hats, beautiful green mountains, and rice terraces everywhere.

I'm now sitting in an internet cafe in Fenghuang, it's an ancient town on a river, with buildings on stilts leaning out over the water. It's kind of like a Chinese version of Brighton, Camden or ...

... guy that had traveled with Young (name?), and a Chinese girl named "Huh". We had a good time exploring the town even though the weather was a bit overcast. Yesterday we had planned to go out to another small village close to Feng Huang where the "Miao" people (a Chinese minority group) live. The weather made the roads very difficult to maneuver and ultimately we decided not to go. We did however go outside and walk around for some photo opts. While we were beside the river we found ...

not finished

notes:

arrived off the bus with 3 hours to sightsee fenghuang. Came with canadian friends. dropped off bags at their hostel. very beautiful river town. could stay longer, but saw most of the city in 3 hours really. mostly selling wierd stuff on streets. amazing views along water. walked across a rock step bridge. blitzed through everything. caught bus with 20 minutes to spare.

... tallest in all of China. I have my doubts to the truth of this but it certainly had promise of being amazing after a heavy rain.             The return to Jishou was quick and without note and we spent the two hours before our train hunting out dinner and mooncakes to eat on the train. I am fairly certain most people fell asleep before night had fully set but a few of us stayed up to attempt quick glances at the moon through dingy train windows while heartily consuming our cakes. 

Sorry I haven't been updating this. I discovered I couldn't access my blog from Shauna's, nor from the internet cafe near the main gate of SJTU. By the time you read this, I'll have moved to another blog or figured out a way past the Great Firewall. Well, I arrived in shanghai exactly a week ago. Basically the first thing I did was get a massage :). Next on the agenda was getting a cellphone. That might not sound like a big deal, and normally it wouldn't be...but the battery I got with ...