In the middle of Hunan Province in the middle of China, there is a whole town that is UNESCO-marked for being the same all these years, I think it is over 400 or so. When planning the trip at home, this seemed like a wonderful little adventure out of our usual comfort zones with beautiful scenery and the authentic chinese feeling we feared we weren't going to experience in Beijing and bigger cities.
That was months before entering Changsha, our first stop in China, when the adventure actually started. After almost 2 weeks in the constant struggle to be understood and to understand, we were already tired of the country. Frankly, we were less exited then we should about entering this unique piece of world heritage.
So how did it really go? Is Fenghuang worth the detour?
Here's our story - and some handy tips and things to know.
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GETTING THERE
We took a bus from Wulingyuan to Fenghuang that took 4 hours and left at least twice daily. Not sure about the details, there is also a bus leaving from Zhangjiajie a couple of times a day. We recommend going to the train station one day before leaving to buy your tickets - and bring the chinese symbols for Fenghuang, 凤凰县, as well as the time and date you wish to leave.
While on the bus we got offered to pay the driver directly for the return ticket to Zhangjiajie three nights later, which we did.
We got left of by the smaller bus station in Fenghuang and had gotten instructions from the driver on which bus to take (Number 1, 1 ¥) to get to our hotel. You can also take a taxi which usually costs 10 ¥ regardless of where you are going.
Chinese people are usually very helpful even if you don't speak the same language, and asking around with the help of pictures, translation apps and body language will take you far.
...It 's kind of the only way to go as we found that all the places we visited in Hunan Province knew absolutely no English.
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EXPLORING
EXPLORING
So we were tired. Arriving in the middle of the night the day before to cold humid room without aircon, we weren't very much up for the task of seeing every sight there was - knowing we wouldn't understand anything because the signs would be in Chinese. Instead, we took to our old BFF - strolling.
When walking around the cobblestone streets alongside the emerald green river, we realised a few things.
1. This is a MAJOR tourist destination - for Chinese people
Meaning:
- The prices where quite high to very high.
- There wasn't another western person in sight which ment 'no need for English signs' which limited our availability to the city's scenic spots and sights.
- Although the place is not known to the rest of the world at all, the place are really crowded at times - especially around national holidays.
A happy surprise - we found the girls we had wandered around in the national park with three days earlier, by an accident!
2. The food was also a problem finding at decent prices,
since we were limited to places with a menu with pictures and prices. There was a lot of riverside restaurants that offered English menus - for the lovely price of 6x anywhere else in China (50-70 ¥ or more).
To be fair, we did the most of our strolling around the river. If you instead of turning on to the rainbow bridge follow the street the other way, you might find cheaper meal alternatives as the ancient city kind of stops there and an ordinary Chinese city starts.
3. This is, althought it is an ancient village, also a major place for partying.
We saw more drunk people per day than we did anywhere in Thailand. Odd, but gave the once sleeping village a heartbeat that we enjoyed to be a part of, even if we didn't participated in the drinking ourselves.
4. There is a tourist pass for 148 ¥ for 10 sights in Fenghuang, valid for two days, most of them well known to Chinese people but completely new to us.
After having trouble enough ordering food, we decided to give orselves a break and spent the days in Fenghuang sleeping long, wandering the streets, eating its famous ginger candy and taking an occacional drink by the river.
Even when not seeing all the tourist places, the town was still one of the most unique places we've been to and we enjoyed watching people drawing, singing karaoke and posing for photos.
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HOW MUCH DID
WE PAY FOR STUFF?
The hopefully-not-a-million-dollar-question...
As mentioned, the prices rose like the phoenix the city got it's name from (Fenghuang = Phoenix) and combined with our lack of knowledge about both Chinese and the towns heritage, and the general lack of cash (sure there is an ATM. Somewhere. We just didn't find it...) made us feel limited.
But, you can always decide which way you look at your glass, and we choose to take a few days of just relaxing and trying to get in fase with our selves and everything we had yet experienced.
Therefor, our views on expences might not be fair for someone who is going on a shorter trip and have a higher budget; as well as for a shoestring-living backpacker who has to live for 15 dollars a day.
Good to know about prices:
FOOD:
Food ranged between 15-70 ¥, with the food stalls without English menues ended up at around 20-25 ¥. Western food is of course in the higher price class.
We kept to a place close to KFC that had pictures and prices on the walls.
Here, on a tiny "restaurant" alongside the river, we found noodles with beef for 15 ¥.
SNACKING:
There is corn and bread to buy from carts in the middle of the street anywhere which usually costs around 10 ¥ for those who needs a snack or a lighter meal.
There is also supermarkets around that has a little bit of everything - just no Coke Zero....
COFFEE:
Only place we found that had coffee for an ok price was KFC. They didn't understood our "niú nǎi" (milk, pronounced [new-nay]) until we bought a separate cup of hot milk. THEN we got small packages of creamer.... Sorry, first world problems for coffee-addicts. Alongside the center of Fenghuang, they'll charge you about 30-50 ¥ for a single cup of coffee.
ACOMMONDATION:
Our room was 100 ¥/per night at Jiangjhu Inn and nice located on a backstreet from the river, but if we would do it again we would have put in some more money in accomondation for a better experience, since we had to sleep in layers and layers of clothes because of lack of isolation and heating.
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GOOD TO KNOW
● This is a Chinese tourist site.
If you plan on seing all sights, a tourist pass is probably the best choice for you. Just don't count with English signs, guides or basically anyone to ask, so you will have to do the research yourself beforehand.
If you're like us, the strolling-taking-our-time-just-people-watching-kind, you'll be fine/more than fine with the estetically satisfying views.
● We stayed 3 nights. 2 nights is more than enough, we think, as we started to climb the walls after the second. With two nights, you'll have time to complete your tourist pass, walk the streets tranquily, buy some ginger candy and enjoy the view with an overpriced drink.
● Visiting in April, the humidity was everywhere. Our room was constantly wet, my hair constantly frizzy. Dressing according to the weather wasn't easy - one day it rained, the next it was super sunny and the day after that almost winter. Bring clothes for dressing in layers!
This was perfect to wear most of the time - with a t-shirt under for when it suddenly switched to summer.
● The food are traditionally Xiang cuisine, meaning it's strong but not salty.
... We didn't like it much.
But dumplings though!
● Being Western, African, Latino i.e not Chinese, you'll have to put up with some smiling for photos.... 30 times a day. Since we and one other canadian girl were the only western people we saw our three days, it's safe to say that foreigners in this part of the world are not that common.
Be prepared, but friendly. People are just curious and a tad bit exited because encounters with foreigners are a bif thing for many of them, since it might be their first time speaking to a non chinese-person. We also never got so many compliments a day as we did our 3 weeks in China.
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DONT MISS!
● Cruising down the river on one of the ancient boats
● Buying almond candies after watched the men make them with a big
wooden sledgehammer or the famous ginger candy, also made before your eyes.
● Walking over the river on the wooden planks
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That was all for now.
If you enjoyed this post or have further questions,
please leave a comment below!
And pin this for later!
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Don't miss our post on things that might
be kind of... different in China
be kind of... different in China
Click the picture!
Any questions this guide didn't answer? Check out this site: China Highlights
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