Woke up once at 5am thinking we were already at Changsha. One of our upper berth guy reached his destination instead. Slept for an hour more and woke up to get ready. Mr Xiao had already awoke.
The lady woke up as well. She was putting salt on my wound when she said it would be a pity not to visit Zhangjiajie if one were in Hunan!
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Splendid breakfast treat
from a stranger! |
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Crossing a bigger bridge
with nice statue |
At Changsha, Mr Xiao walked me to the bus stop where I could catch a bus to the south train station to take the bullet train. Before that, he treated me to a famous local shredded pork noodle shop for breakfast!! The soup noodle was very delicious!!! I couldn't thank him more. I got his number and bid him farewell.
The bus ride wasn't too long. I reached the last stop where the south train station was. Again, it was huge like the one at Chengdu.
I bought the next train at 8:42am and still had time for a McD coffee and the toilet break! The morning was great. I felt blessed to meet nice people again!! The songs at McD were great too!! It was a happy moment to start off the day!
At the platform, I met a junior HK actor Francis Ng!! Looked damn alike!!
Along the way, I saw many fields! Farmers were busy like a bee. Half an hour later, I reached Hengshan west station. I love high speed train!! I believe China could become a place where everyone would like to come and live!!
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Overpriced entrance
fee temple |
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| A small waterfall |
As usual, many taxi drivers were offering for a ride. 10rmb for 2 persons wasn't expensive at all! The bus was 4rmb! Not many pay much attention to them but walked on. Myself included. Then I heard the bus attendant yelling, "Going to Hengshan scenic area!! Going to Hengshan scenic area!!"
I hopped in like many others and about 15minutes later, we reached the small town, Nanyue. The place was pretty tourist friendly. There were even free bungy ride to the famous Nanyue temple. I walked along the main road towards the temple where the hike path should begin. There were many lodgings. I thought I should look for one too since the hike up and down would take the whole day. I saw one with the sign saying rmb88. There wasn't anyone entertaining me. When I was about to leave, a lady came over and showed me the room. Lazy to look around further, I settled with that. Left my luggage, paid the rent and walked to the temple.
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It's green! It's white!
It's yeah yeah yeah! |
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| Let's go down to the water! |
Mr Xiao told me that this Nanyue temple was so famous that on the first day of Chinese New Year at 12am, the first incense would easily cost 100k to 200k rmb!! He said usually only those from Hong Kong or the Taiwanese could afford that.
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| Nice view along the way |
Many shops were selling incense too! Then a car seemed to be looking for a parking space. One of the shop attendant started yelling from inside his shop and waving to the car not to park at his lot. The car tried to move further up, but the next shop started to do the same thing, shoving
the car away. And so as the car moved, the shop attendants yelled one after another like a talking "Mexican waves"!!
I reached the temple and noticed the entrance fee was not cheap at rmb50! Certainly not for the normal Chinese family in this area! Glad to see the sign that direct me the way to the hiking path!
Met a father and daughter walking the same way as well but they were taking the bus up later. When I asked how long was the hike up, the father replied two hours would be sufficient, but the daughter told me not to trust her dad! She said 4 hours might even not be enough!!
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| Lake water as still as a statue! |
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| Beginning of the trail.. |
Soon we reached the ticket counter. The walking path was not difficult to find at all. It was around 10:30am when I started. The route was refreshing and beautiful. There seemed to be no one walking up. There were many signs along the way and lots of rubbish bins. Came to a wonderful lake where the water was so still that you can see the reflection very clearly. Took a number of pictures.
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| Follow the path of the trail... |
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...and keep walking up till
you see the bridge below... |
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|
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| ... and cross the bridge.. |
Finally, I met 3 youngsters at a small waterfall and then 2 girls at a junction. We went the separate way.
I was enjoying the company of many beautiful butterflies and birds.
Then, I met a family of three generations. The lady introduced her father and grandparents, her 2 sisters and a kid.
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| Edible flowers! |
Along the way, we saw a white flower and she told me it was edible!! I wanted to pluck and chew it immediately before they stopped me that I needed to cook them first!
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| The farmer's house.. |
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| The farmer's chicken.. |
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| This way to the peak! |
Later, the trail led me to a farmer's house and I began to follow red ink signs around the area like those days at the Shikoku pilgrimage.
Finally, the signs brought me to the main road. At this point, the 3 youngsters caught up and we started to walk together.
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| My hike mates! |
Liu Wei, 22 and Zhang Wan Rong, 21 were a couple. Zhang Jian Xiang was the youngest guy at 20! They were studying in the university at Henyang, an hour away.
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| View of a pagoda from mid way |
We chatted a lot and were on very slow pace. Stopping at lot because it was Wanrong's first hike!! They shared a lot of their local food they brought with me and thought me some local slang too! If you didn't like to do something when someone asked you, you add the verb with the infamous phrase "你妹". For example, 去你妹！(no, I don't want to go) 吃你妹！(no, I don't want to eat)
The rest of the hike was through forests and less scenic. We scanned through a few temples along the way. It started to get very misty. We hardly could see our path clearly at some point.
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| The temple at the peak |
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| Me at the peak with spacious area |
When we reached the cable station, we met many tour groups and was very crowded. There was still the last 3km stretch from here. We finally reached the peak after 4 hours and 35minutes!
We explored the temple at the peak and the surrounding for about half an hour! Soon, we could not see much of the view because of the heavy mist! We had some snacks before we began to descend, taking partly the main road and occasionally the trail path.
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| Misty view from the peak |
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| Portraits inside the temple at the peak |
Almost at the foot, we met some stranded foreigners! We walked over to offer help, since I speak English. The trio were from Paris studying in Shanghai. They actually wanted to take the bus to the peak and spend a night there but was somehow directed to where we met. The bus couldn't take them without tickets and they don't sell on board. The local couldn't bring them up in their private car because they were afraid of being caught for touting! They were suggesting to bunk at their hotel. The French decided to give up Hengshan and followed us back to the town.
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| The locals & a foreigner! |
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| Statue at the peak |
The Zhangs were pretty excited. Both over the opposite sex. They kept taking pictures together with the foreigners! =]
Ilan (the guy, 24), Marie (24) and Oaurelie (21) would be going to Zhangjiajie via Changsha. I told them about the bullet train. They were delighted and wondered if they could catch the night train. We managed to find out the schedule and I got a cab to bring them to the west train station where I came from. They thanked us very much and left us their contacts.
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| A crafted stone at the peak |
It was already 7:30pm and getting dark. The locals shopped for some souvenirs. Later, they managed to negotiate a good deal with a cab driver to bring them back to Hengyang. I bid them farewell and we took more photo together.
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| Great and cheap dinner! |
After they left, I did feel pretty down actually and missed their company. I walked back to my hotel and was looking for food. But the staff didn't bother much to entertain me. I walked over to a restaurant just opposite and had a big serving meal for just 14rmb!!
Back to my room, I watched Li Na beat Sharapova in the French open quarterfinals. Had my shower and decided to check out the Internet cafe I saw somewhere this afternoon. Glad there was still an Internet cafe at such area to keep me entertained. And I was surprised I could locate it somehow in the dark because the cafe was at a small alley!!
When I reached the hotel, I thought the main gate was locked. I tried to pull and couldn't push as well. I started to panic. The lights were all off. Before I planned to do something crazy, I was relieved that the lady owner came out and slide the door open!! She said they don't lock the door and she knew I wasn't back yet! I returned to my room embarrassingly. It was around 12am!
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