July 15th
Visited the Huanglong Cave in Zhangjiajie. Remember to bring a long-sleeved windbreaker for the kids, as it can get chilly inside after a while.
The cave is worth photographing, but if you don't have solid photography skills, an iron arm, or a tripod, it's better to use a compact camera with a "night landscape" mode than to blur photos with a single-lens reflex camera.
Old Wen dropped his over two thousand yuan sea willow cigarette holder while touring the dark river in the cave... Painful and heartbreaking, hehe.
There's another cave within the cave: the Maze Cave. Actually, the most spectacular part requires an additional 15 yuan to view~ Personally, I think if you've come this far, you might as well see it~
Including travel time, visiting the cave takes more than half a day. After lunch, we headed straight to the ancient town of Phoenix~
Currently, the expressway only reaches Zhangjiajie. To get to Phoenix, you must first pass through Jishou. Without the expressway, you can take a secluded small road pointed out by locals, which is said to be a provincial road... Head towards Jishou.
After driving for some time and entering the mountainous area, you can see many local villagers selling a yellow fungus by the roadside. The price varies depending on the size of the fungus. In Zhangjiajie county, we learned that this fungus is called Songjun. It can be washed and stir-fried with pork or cured meat. It can only be harvested on rainy days after rain on pine-covered slopes during the season we visited. It's a pure mountain delicacy, selling for more than 20 yuan per pound in the county. On this road, after bargaining, even large ones are sold for ten yuan per pound. I was somewhat disappointed not having had the chance to eat this, but now my wish has been fulfilled, hehe~ Later, we found a small shop to process it and satisfy our cravings. How would you describe the taste? Unlike the tender mushrooms we usually eat, these have a chewy texture similar to meat. Due to the spiciness and my recurring stomach ailment, I couldn't savor it thoroughly - what a pity!
When passing through Jishou and moving forward, we had to go through the city. While asking a passerby for directions due to unfamiliarity with the roads, we mistakenly entered a one-way street and were caught... After pleading bitterly, we were finally let go.
Leaving Jishou, we continued on the national highway. Phoenix is located between Jishou and Huaihua. Later, we learned that there is a G65 Bao-Mao Expressway opened between Jishou and Huaihua, extending all the way to Guilin. If you're not interested in Phoenix, you can directly get on the expressway in Jishou and leave~
The national highway to Phoenix passes through Furong Town. Frankly speaking, personally, I think today's Phoenix is not worth visiting at all. The ancient town is no longer ancient, the Tuo River water is already murky, and the whole town is immersed in a strong commercial atmosphere, exuding restlessness and promiscuity. It's better to stay a day in this calm Furong Town. Unfortunately, the car isn't ours, nor is the group under our control, so we can't do as we please. We could only follow the original plan and rush to Phoenix.
As it got close to dusk, we finally arrived in Phoenix. Under the guidance of tour guides wandering around the streets, we reached the Jiangtian Square to find a place to stay. After seeing the rumored riverside stilt houses, the rooms were small, infested with mosquitoes, and filled with the incessant creaking sounds of tourists going up and down the wooden stairs, making us too tired to want to stay. The Jiangtian Hotel was fully booked, so we ended up choosing a nameless hotel nearby (180 yuan/night). Parking is the hardest thing to find in Phoenix. There are almost no empty spaces in public parking lots. Even if there are internal parking lots in places like Jiangtian Square, you must be staying at a hotel in the area to park there. Upon leaving, you present a hotel clearance slip and pay ten yuan for parking fees. Spaces are extremely tight.
After checking in and putting down our luggage, it was already pitch black outside. Looking at the clock, it was past nine o'clock and almost ten. We hadn't eaten dinner, so we decided to have a late-night snack at the food street near the parking lot exit as our dinner. A very long street was lined with various barbecue stalls, tofu shops, etc. Tofu is priced by how many pieces you get for ten yuan. I randomly ordered some; except for Old Wen, everyone else loved it, so I ordered more, making Old Wen quite upset~ Haha
After eating, we took a stroll on the Rainbow Bridge nearby. We noticed quite a few beautiful women, but fewer handsome men. Phoenix felt like a chaotic Yangshuo... leaving us with absolutely no appetite to continue appreciating.
July 16th
In the morning, we rushed to the riverside to admire the legendary beauty of the stilt houses reflected in the Tuo River. But upon seeing the nauseating green water... sigh... nothing more to say...
On the way, there were many people trying to attract tourists to visit several attractions for about 150 yuan. We had lost our appetite and interest, so we didn't go, although there might have been some pleasant surprises... Anyway, I wasn't expecting much.
After breakfast, the men went back to the hotel to sleep, while the women chose to go shopping for bargains~
I bought a few locally made wide-legged pants for twenty to thirty yuan each, and also found a colorful batik wall hanging of the Thousand-Handed Guanyin that I liked very much.
After completing our tasks, we returned to the hotel to gather and discuss the next destination. From other travelers, we learned that the national road from Huaihua to Guangxi was under repair. They spent nine hours covering more than two hundred kilometers, even though they drove very fast... It seemed exaggerated~ Precisely because of our disbelief in this statement, we suffered a great loss! In fact, the Bao-Mao Expressway had already opened, allowing direct access from Huaihua to Guilin! However, there was no trace of this expressway in either the map book or the GPS navigation system... Locals were also largely unaware...
Before noon, we checked out and drove straight to Huaihua, bypassing the city center via the ring road towards the Guangxi direction national road. Along the way, we passed by a highway entrance. Seeing the signpost indicating a turn towards the highway, which read Maoming..., we hesitated for a moment and thus created a regrettable mistake~
The road just out of Huaihua was smooth, then it became bumpy like the smaller provincial road out of Zhangjiajie. Not long after passing Hongdong, we encountered "road construction ahead, detour required". After an hour and a half of mountainous roads, we finally re-entered the national road after taking a super large detour. We thought we could finally relax, but little did we know that this was the beginning of a nightmare! Road repairs everywhere, along the way we constantly saw landslides and slope failures caused by previous heavy rains. The worst part was the newly laid gravel roads, where once a vehicle passed ahead, the dust raised was so thick that we had to stop and wait for it to settle. Plus, there were many one-sided roadbed construction projects, and there were continuously sudden large potholes in the middle. My husband's colleague's new car kept dragging its bottom and being hit by gravel stones here, and the colleague's wife's expression kept getting worse, haha~
After passing Tonghui, we started to see no road signs at all. It was also getting dark. Under the doubts of whether the end was near and the pressure of the new car being battered, everyone in the car dared not speak, fearing to add fuel to the fire. Finally, around nine o'clock at night, we arrived at a small county in Xiaotongdao, still a long distance from our predetermined destination - Longsheng. Thus, we abandoned continuing the journey and found a hotel to rest.
By the way: After leaving Phoenix, you will pass through a small ancient town called Gǔzhàng, which is Song Zuying's hometown. This place is famous for Gǔzhàng green tea, and you can occasionally see villagers roasting their own tea by the roadside, which you can buy.
July 17th,
Given the incorrect estimation of road conditions yesterday, we could only set our predetermined destination as He Mountain when setting off in the morning. As for what to do after reaching He Mountain, we would decide based on the situation at the time.
Not long after leaving the channel, the road conditions gradually improved until we entered Guangxi.
Taking the 321 National Highway in Hunan enters the Xiangxi Autonomous Region for Ethnic Minorities, and entering Guangxi is also an autonomous prefecture for ethnic minorities. However, the houses seen entering Xiangxi are basically old black wooden houses that haven't been repaired for a long time, some resembling the stilt houses in Fenghuang, with black villages scattered in various mountain hollows, plus the mysterious Chu witch culture, really giving a sense of oppression that makes one feel they can only admire from afar and not play close by... After entering Guangxi, the villagers' houses gradually transitioned to red bricks and white walls, plus the distant green mountains and clear waters, truly pleasing to the eye~
With the relaxation of mood, we realized that the famous Hunan national highways with the most toll booths actually didn't encounter a single toll point on our entire journey, without spending a single cent on tolls. Instead, shortly after entering Guangxi, the toll sections began.
Before reaching Longsheng, possibly at a place called Longji, there were long stretches of road along the Sang River. In the clear river water, we often saw groups of people picking stones, and cars stopping by the roadside ready to load stones. Many households had piles of river stones in front of their doors, with signs selling peculiar stones, not knowing if this place produces local jade...
We passed through Longsheng without stopping to sightsee, as the previous roads had already exhausted us. We just wanted to reach our destination as soon as possible and have a good sleep~
After getting on the expressway to Guilin, we discovered that the G65 originally goes straight to Guilin, and at this point, everyone started regretting and pounding their chests...
It only took three hours to drive directly from Guilin to He Mountain, and we decided not to get off the expressway but to drive straight to Yunfu. When calling a local friend in Yunfu to arrange rooms, we learned that these expressways had just opened recently, and many people didn't know about them. Recalling the hard times in 2008 when I didn't have a driver's license and relied solely on Old Wen to drive through Guilin on national highways, I was deeply moved by the miracle of being able to reach Guilin in just a few hours now~
We arrived in Yunfu at around five in the afternoon and got off the expressway (you can drive straight to Guangzhou or Shenzhen without getting off). Our local friend first took us to eat some local specialties before checking into the hotel. In the evening, everyone gathered in the room to discuss the plans for soaking in hot springs in Longxing the next day.
July 18th
Plans often fail to match expectations. After breakfast the next day, my husband's colleague informed us that his wife's company had an emergency and they needed to return, so the hot spring trip was canceled. My son's heart... shattered into pieces...
At noon, we revisited Paradise Village to eat wild game. I remembered bringing a team here for a visit in either 2005 or 2006, so I'll dig out the pictures to compare later~
While taking photos of the food, I noticed that there was something wrong with my camera and couldn't continue taking pictures. As for what the problem was, I'm lazy, so I'll figure it out after finishing writing the travelogue and organizing the photos~
Around six in the evening, we safely arrived in Shenzhen.
(End of full text) Photos are being organized...