A pure adventure!
We made this trip after getting off a Yangtze River cruise that we booked for $999pp for 8 days as advertised on Travelzoo in June 2014. For the first time in China, we did not have a native speaker friend guiding us & English was not spoken much in these villages and small towns in central China. All the Chinese words and characters we ever knew became useful! (Yangtze River cruises tend to be expensive going with a cruise line based in the U.S. or Europe. However, local companies do offer cheaper options. Here’s an example.)
All the trains and buses and cabs cost no more than $100pp. Lodging cost total was under $300. Meals were cheap: mostly $5-10pp including beer for Pat.
Day 1: The river boat let us off in Chongqing, and we took a cab to Tujia Sweethome Serviced Apartment, which turned out to be about 15-20 minutes away(by car) from the center of town. Yes, the name was spelled exactly like that. I found it on Agoda.com for $58/night. The place was pretty nicely set-up. Explored the town by taxi and on foot.
Day 2: Train to Pengshui, 2,5 hours SE of Chongqing, then got in a van to be transferred to Wanzu, 20 minutes away. A minibus dropped us off near the boat dock. We accomplished this by showing the Chinese characters: 龚滩古镇 written out for us by native speakers. The boat, however, would not leave unless there were 15 customers, but there were only 5. A long story short, we ended up hitchhiking to the next town & got a van taxi to take us to Gongtan Ancient Village. We found a room facing the Wu River at the best hotel in town for $15/night. Walked around the village. [Gongtan blog link]
Day 3: Bus to Youyang to catch the train to Tongren, about 2 hours SE. At one corner of the square outside of the train station, there were buses with signs saying “Fenghuang” in Chinese characters(鳳凰). Lucky I recognized them! About an hour later, we arrived in Fenghuang, known as the Phoenix Town in English. It took a while to find our hotel, Melody Inn Phoenix($62/night for a deluxe suite on Agoda.com), which was right on the river and was pretty well equipped and nicely decorated. Walked around town. [Fenghuang blog link]
Day 4: Lingered in Fenghuang as long as possible & got on the bus to Jishou, a busy transportation hub 1.5 hours NE. $44 bought us an “Executive Twin” room at Hollyear Inn Jishou.
Day 5: Got on the 8 AM Train to Zhangjiajie City, about 1.5 hours NE. Taxi to our hotel near the south entrance to the National Park. Our room at Guanxanyue Honeymoon Mansion($61/night on Ctrip.com) had a bathtub in the middle of the room. Very nice hotel near a shopping area. Taxi to the Park, which we explored all day on our own. Pat got a senior discount on the entrance ticket. [Zhangjiajie blog link] [Baofeng lake link]
Day 6: A 40-minute taxi ride back to Zhangjiajie City & visited Tianmen Mountain National Park. Covered the 30-minute cable car ride, the skywalk and other famous stuff in half a day. Found a hotel in town for a late flight. Can’t remember the name, but the owner spoke perfect English! [Tianmen Mountain link]
That night, we flew 1.2 hours NW to Xian on Capital Air.
