People in Fenghuang (Fenghuanians? Fenghuangers? Fenhuangistas?)
Fenghuang by night.
Fenghuang is a quaint little river town in Hunan province. We spent a few days there, staying in the Old Town, strolling the alleyways and crisscrossing the river, whiling away misty mornings and sunny afternoons.
View from our window: A Good Year Guest House, Fenghuang. 10:00 am, 13 November 2013.
View from our window: Overnight train from Hangzhou to Changsha. 9:00 am, 12 November 2013.
We took the overnight train from Hangzhou to Changsha. We booked soft sleepers, which are four beds to a compartment. Reasonably comfortable (free slippers!), but there were actually three other occupants, one of whom was about 12 months old and did not exactly sleep soundly through the night. However, perhaps a small child is better than alternatives since it seems you can smoke on sleeper trains. Almost every other compartment in our car was thick with smoke.
One of those random things that sometimes happen: we were lolling around in the hostel café in Hangzhou. I was still recovering from my sickness, the weather was a bit minging, and we were really just waiting until it was time to catch the sleeper train to Changsha. Then the café staff approached and asked us if we would be willing to appear in a TV show about their restaurant in exchange for free lunch. And so it was that we were sitting in the restaurant watching the chef being interviewed as he prepared dishes, and then being interviewed on-camera ourselves
View from our window: Hofang International Youth Hostel, Hangzhou. 12:50 pm, 11 November 2013.
Well, it was inevitable that one of us would lose at least one day to sickness somewhere on the trip. Not sure if it was the 3000+ steps or some bug I picked up in the slightly filthy dorm room at the summit, but I was violently ill the night after we hiked Huangshan. (It likely wasn’t something I ate since Sam was unaffected and we were eating all of the same dishes.) Anyway, it was as good a place as any to get sick, especially since the hotelier lived for many years in North York (i.e. suburban Toronto) —
View from our window: Pine Ridge Lodge, Huangshan. 9:10 am, 09 November 2013.