Trip to Zhangjiajie

 

Day 1

I started my trip again with a train trip to Guangzhou. I had a working day on Thursday until 15.00 and my train for Guangzhou left at 18.10 from Zhuhai. That was enough time for me to go through the customs at Hengqin and then take a bus to Zhuhai station.

One hours train trip and I was in Guangzhou. I had booked a hotel about 10 minutes metro ride from the Guangzhou south train station where I arrived and from where my train to Zhangjiajie would leave the next morning.

Unlike during the Christmas holiday, I found my hotel easily and settled in there. I tried to withdraw Chinese Yuan in the morning in Macau as my bank’s ATMs give MOP, HKD and RMB. However the one near my home wasn’t working, the next one didn’t have any RMB and the third one near where I work was out of order. So I thought, I will have enough time to do it in China proper.

Didn’t see any ATMs near my hotel and it was quite late as I settled in. I had some RMB from my previous visit so I spent those to buy some food for the evening and morning and went back to my room.

Day 2

The next morning I woke up early and left for the train station. It was smooth going and I arrived there about half an hour earlier than necessary. Yet, whenever I travel, I do have a habit of trying to be there rather early as so many things can go wrong.

It took 4,5 hours to get to Huaihua, where I needed to change trains. I had about two hours there and I went to search for the ATM. Couldn’t find one at the station so couldn’t go to the restaurants to have food. It was something like 2-3 P.M. and I was getting hungry. I had 17 RMB in my wallet. Luckily I had bought some instant cup noodles the night before and there’s always hot water at the stations in China so I ate that one. Then the next train came at 4.30 and it was only 1,5 hours to Zhangjiajie.

When I arrived there I went to have a look at the busses. I had read that the bus trip to Wulingyuan where my accommodation was would be 12 RMB, which I had kept in my wallet. It was 17.35 when I found the place where the buses would leave and it said that the last bus was 17.30. So I went to look for a taxi stand and when I found one, I explained that I needed a taxi to Wulingyuan, about 40 km away but I also needed to go to an ATM. The driver said OK and we agreed that it would cost 100 RMB. I had read that it could be 150 so I agreed with that.

Off we went but not soon after the driver stopped and picked up another passenger. The driver tried to speak with me but his Hunan accent was so thick, I could hardly understand anything he said. Anyway, I didn’t mind the extra passenger as I thought the price was cheap anyway.

We arrived at Wulingyuan and I went to two ATMs before I was able to get money from the third one. I paid the taxi and walked to the hotel, about 2 km away from where the taxi had left me. All was well, the hotel was near the park where I was going and I had money to go for dinner. The dinner was nice, again a minority nationality food, this time Tujia-restaurant. Had  dinner and spent the rest of the evening in my guest house room room. The guy at the guest house gave me a map of the park and some suggestions how to spend my days there.

Shenzhen and Lanterns

 We have presidential elections in Finland and so I went to Hong Kong to vote. After voting, I took the MTR to the Chinese border at Lok Ma Chau. This was said to be a quicker one to cross the border than the old Lo Wu crossing. It was quite good as it only took about 20 minutes for me to cross the checkpoint to Shenzhen.

The main point of my coming here was to see the lanterns in the Chinese Folk Village. The lantern festival ends the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival celebrations but these lanterns have been on show since December.

I went there after dark and in my opinion, the lanterns were really impressive. Also the village is worth another visit as it exhibits the different minorities living in China. There are 56 minorities. I just walked around the area and took photos of the lanterns.

The next day I went to have a look at a book shop, which claims to be the biggest in the world. I don't know if this is true but it surely was a big one. Bought two books and before returning to Macau I also had a look at the big electronics market in Shenzhen. As I wasn't planning to buy anything and most of the things they had, had no prices, I didn't stay there for long. An exception to not having prices where the drones, which started from something like 30€ up.

Again during these two days, I had been walking quite a lot so I decided to go back home. Took the metro to the harbour and a ferry back to Macau. On the way we went under one of the world's longest, if not the longest bridges, the Hong Kong - Macau - Zhuhai bridge, which is 55 km long.

Shenzhen still has quite a few places I want to see and as it is only one hour ferry ride from Macau, I will surely visit it again.

Kunming 2 and back to Macau

I had booked a car to take me to the railway station in the morning. The train from Lijiang to Kunmig took around 3 hours and I had booked the same hotel where I was previously. It was easy to find as I now knew my way there. Took my things to the hotel and I thought that there’d be enough time to visit the Western Hills.

Now I just needed to find the metro entrance. Several webpages didn’t mention it at all, one said that it was by the South square of the railway station but there was no direct connection there from the North square which was close to my hotel. So I started walking to find a way the the south side of the station. Again this was a long walk before I finally got there. I was thinking that I might need a taxi on my way back as I didn’t fancy another long walk.

It was too late for the Western Hills so I just went to have a look at the downtown area and the Nanping walking street. Neither were anything spectacular after Dali and Lijiang so after a short time, I returned to the hotel. I don’t know how I could have found my hotel easily on my first day of arrival because I had walked a long way to get to the metro station today. Now I decided to try the other direction than the one I had walked to the metro earlier today and actually this was only about 1 km to my hotel. So this is where I thought, it was good I took the taxi on my first night in Kunming. Finding my way to the hotel when I was already tired from walking might have taken a long time. A good lesson learnt here; use taxis in China.

Returning to Macau

Nothing eventful for the last day. I knew my way to the metro station and got to the Kunming airport smoothly. The flight was 2,5 hours to Guangzhou, the metro trip from the airport, north of Guangzhou to the southern railway station, was 1,5 hours with maybe additional half an hour when I thought I might have time to have a look at a bookstore in Guangzhou but time was too short. Then an hour’s trip from Guangzhou to Zhuhai and after that across the border and a bus home in Macau.

During the nine days on my trip, I walked altogether 107,8 kilometers. That is an average of almost 12 km per day.

Conclusions

Hotels

Hotels were in the price range of 20-35€ per night. Nothing too fancy but adequete. Choosing the locations is a bit difficult when you don’t know the place.

Transportation

I tried planes, trains and buses, everything was comfortable, even the long distance bus which in the late 80’s was anything but comfortable. I saw trafic jams only in Kunming, In Dali Ancient City there were only very few vehicles that were allowed to the streets. Some of the wider street had buses, vans and taxis but the smaller ones only small motobikes. Travelling by train in China nowadays is very nice, you can book the tickets online and no need to go anywhere to queue for a paper ticket. You just show your passport when entering the station and the reader tells the inspector that you have a ticket.

Food

Food in China is good and cheap, of course you can pay a lot if you choose a fancier restaurant but in basic places you can eat with 2-5 Euros.

Weather

It was winter time and so the nights were just above zero C. Daytime it was anything between 10-17 C in Yunnan. Particulary my room in the B&B in Dali was cold but luckily the matress was an electric one and kept me warm throughout the night.

My next plan is to visit Zhangjiajie (also called the Avatar-mountains) in Hunan in March-April when we have a week’s holiday between the 2nd and 3rd terms.

The three places in Yunnan province.

Lijiang day 3

I had booked a ticket to a trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge some two hours away by bus but in the evening before, the hotel informed me that it was cancelled because there had been a landslide in the area and the roads were closed. So I just had a lazy day with some leisurely walks in the old town during the day and the evening and the rest of the time I spent in my hotel room. Lijiang is mostly likely the most picturesque place I have visited in China. Full moon time was a bonus to compensate for the disappointment of not seeing the gorge.

Lijiang - Day 2

 

On the second day in Lijiang I had a plan to go to Black Dragon Pool Park, I had read the scenery would be great with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at the background. I had decided to find a bus that would go there and this time I was lucky as I found the bus stop fairly easily and not far from my hotel.

I arrived at the park and noticed that there was no entrance fee, maybe because of the low season. Anyway, the only entrance fee I paid during my trip was to the Cangshan- mountain in Dali and even there I got a discount price being over 60-years old. No talk about any double or triple pricing China had in the 80’s. Then it was; Mainland Chinese paid the lowest price, oversees Chinese a bit higher and ”Foreign Guests” the highest. After a short walk, I came to the place which was very photogenic. You could see a Chinese pavilion and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain behind. It was truely wonderful. I walked around the park and everytime I could see the mountain, I just had to sit down and take a few more photos. The highest peak seen in the photos is at 5,596 meters above the sea level. 

The only other place I have seen such a wonderful scenery was back in 1988 at the Tianchi lake in Xinjiang’s Tian Shan mountains. Here is the Tianchi area, sorry for the dirty photo, it has travelled from China to Finland to Thailand and back to Finland before I put it into a digital form in 2018 but you get the idea.

There was also a small museum at the park, where they had Chinese calligraphy and Chinese paintings. I really like the latter so I’m always happy to have a look at the paintings.

After some hours in the park I walked back to my hotel through the Ancient Town and after a rest returned to the town for supper.