Fenghuang(China): 1N/2D

June 2014 (by Pat)    Itinerary Link

PHOENIX ANCIENT TOWN

Our next destination was Fenghuang, also known as Phoenix Ancient Town as the name refers to the mythical bird. This is another town with a long history, but bigger and more popular than Gongtan. We encountered many Chinese tour groups there.

The plan was – bus to Youyang, the closest town with a train station from Gongtan, train to Tongren, then bus to Fenghuang. It happened pretty much as planned with a couple of glitches at the beginning and end.

We had inquired about the bus when we arrived in Gongtan and were pointed to a yellow bus on the road above the hotel. When we asked about the schedule, we were told, “whenever there’s enough people.”

The next morning, there was no yellow bus on the road. We went up to the road and waited at the spot we thought we had seen the bus the day before. Nobody around. After about 15 minutes, someone came down the road and we asked about the bus. We were directed up the road and eventually, and around a bend, we came to an area with a couple of shops and a couple of mini buses, one of which was what we wanted. But it wasn’t yellow.

When we arrived in Youyang, we hailed a cab to take us to the train station. We started off and I noticed the driver hadn’t started the meter, but I thought he had said the fare would be 15Y which seemed reasonable. I repeated the number to be sure and learned not 15Y, but 150Y, which seemed way out of line. We said no, got out of the cab and retrieved our luggage.

With the next cab, we asked the fare before getting in. He said 100Y. It occurred to us then that the train station may not be right in the town as we had expected.

It wasn’t. It was a good 30 to 40 minutes outside of town. The fare was still high, but he got us to the station on time.

Once again, the train was crowded and we had to eject people from out seats.

It was on this train ride that I saw the fish for the second time. But this time there were children and grandmas. The grandmas bought the fish for the kids and the kids loved them. I noticed at that point that the fish had wheels and would scoot around on a table or the floor and YK noticed that the tune it was playing was Gangnam Style. I decided to buy one for my granddaughter Emy, but, when the vendor returned, there were no more fish. The grandmas had bought them all. The vendor was now selling a toy airplane, but I wanted the fish.

There would be one more train ride on our trip, however, so I held out hope for the fish.

Once in Tonren, we found the bus to Fenghuang fairly easily, but, when we arrived there, the cab driver didn’t know where our hotel was and, when he called the phone number we had for the hotel, he got a message that the phone was disconnected. He took us to the general area and we started wandering around and asking. Eventually, I stayed with the luggage and sent YK off down a long crowded alley where she eventually found the hotel.

The room proved to be wonderful – spacious, fully equipped bathroom, floor to ceiling window and small balcony overlooking the river running through the center of town. The town itself was charming, though, unlike Gongtan, bustling with Chinese tourists. We bought several boxes of the spicy ginger candy for which the town is known.

JISHOU

Our next destination, Jishou, was basically a way station and we were in no hurry to leave Fenghuang. We stayed for lunch and the hotel clerk not only called us a cab, he carried our bags across the river (no cars can reach the hotel,) told the driver to take us to the bus terminal and told us the fare (20Y.) After an unnecessary stop at the ticket counter (you pay on the bus,) we found our bus and were off to Jishou. The only problem was that we didn’t know when to get off the bus and overshot our hotel by quite a bit. A cab driver was happy to bring us back, however. Not much interesting in Jishou.