Wèi shénme bù?: Post-Fúzhōu Fun Part 1: Visitin' The Land Down South

Hello strangers!

Firstly, fans, before anything else, I want to apologise (again) about the gap between posts. I’ve now been back in jolly old England for 2 and a half weeks and have quite happily spent that time eating, reading, seeing old pals and sitting in my pyjamas watching the crappy TV I’ve sorely missed. But I owe it to all you avid readers out there to tell you all about the 2 months I was travelling for before finally arriving home. So this is the first of I don’t know how many posts about my solo, then group travels: where I went, what I did and any general ranting. Here goes nothing!

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Well, it finally happened - and despite a typhoon trying to (literally) rain on my parade – I LEFT FÚZHŌU!!!! And Belief! YES YES YES!

The first stop on my whistle-stop tour of southern China was Chángshā to rendezvous with a couple of travelling friends. It began with a hard sleeper train of 18 hours (this is where the typhoon came in – threatening to cancel all the trains if it got bad enough – but like the last one Fúzhōu faced, it amounted to only a minor storm, so ain’t nothin’ but a thang!) And the train itself wasn’t as bad as the length makes it sound! And then after no trouble whatsoever (strange considering my usual travel luck), I found the hostel. To be honest, I don’t think there is a huge amount to do in Chángshā, but we weren’t too bothered. We had a spot of bother trying to get train tickets (of which I purchased a hard seat ticket for the first time – I’ll cover this awful journey later) so that didn’t leave an awful lot of time so we just went out! Maybe not too touristy, but we did find a great bar street with negotiations for prices of drinks left, right and centre. We settled on a bar (can’t remember the name) with the deal of 8 beers for 100 yuan and free access to the karaoke system – which went down a treat let me tell ya. I’ll not soon forget hearing some fantastic renditions of Westlife.

Short but sweet, the next day we bid each other farewell and I had to catch my hard seat 10 hour train to Guìlín. Cost effective, but Christ on a cracker it was an experience I won’t ever be repeating if I can help it. Firstly, the train itself was delayed by an hour, which is never welcome news. Secondly, the standing tickets they sell here (how anyone can do over an hour journey standing is beyond me) also figure in the seated cabins so there are people constantly clogging up the aisles. That and stealing any seats they can get their hands on – though to be fair to them, when someone with a ticket appears (like I did) the person in your seat will move without a fuss. Thirdly, the noise isn’t great for an overnight journey, but luckily my train only arrived at 12am so wasn’t too big a deal. It was quite nice being in with the people though – but at the same time, NEVER AGAIN.

So after arriving, tired, hungry and unwell, I made my way to my hostel and was out like a light! I didn’t do an awful lot in Guìlín – which is a shame, as I’m sure a fitter, more determined person could have made the most of the city! In the end, I visited Folded Brocade Hill which had some fantastic views. Bit of a hard trek up but definitely worth the time. Other than this, I only really wandered around the area near my hostel (Backstreet Youth Hostel – definitely recommend with friendly, helpful staff and comfortable dorms!) – I ended up at Shan Lake and saw the Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas which were very pretty, during both the day and night! I also visited a very touristy area with a heck of a lot of shops and picked up a few bargains at the market. Lovely city, but my main cause for excitement was my trip to the nearby Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces – for next time!

Here are a few pics! Just a general point, I have THOUSANDS of photos of my time travelling and it was very difficult to whittle it down to what you’ll see here, but I hope they do it justice!