18 April 99
On the road again after recuperating and stocking up on supplies in Hong Kong. The plan this time was to travel to the inner provinces and avoid the annual floods. First stop was Hengyang; hometown of Hengshan, one of the five famous mountains in China, Hunan province.
There was some confusion when I purchased my bus ticket for Hengshan; the place is also known as Nan Yue and Hengshan is actually another city. At any rate, I discovered my error and managed to catch the 09:00 bus. Getting there at 10:00 didn’t leave me with much time for serious touring; as I had to catch the last bus at 16:30 back to town.
Taking the cable car to Nan Tian Men saved me at least a couple hours of walking. From there it was a 5 minute bus ride to Zhu Rong Feng. I had purchased some lucky charms and firecrackers at the foot of the mountain, and was “assisted“ by an old lady who instructed me in the correct way of offering such to the gods. Needless to say, I had to part with some cash for the “service“.
Notwithstanding the minor rip offs here and there, I still managed to have a rather pleasant day. The hotel I stayed at even managed to procure my train ticket to Changsha at no extra cost. Normally hotels need 3 days advance notice and charge anything between 20% to 50% of the ticket price as service charge. Another nifty feature of the hotel is that they have a sneaky side entrance to the train station; which allows you to bypass the security check. My reproductive organs were most grateful for being spared another round of gene mutating rays.
Hunan University
The first day in Changsha was spent visiting Yuelu Academy. Regrettably, my ticket stub only says that the academy was built in 976 A.D. during the Northern Sung dynasty; and was renamed Hunan University in 1926.
Getting to and from the academy was relatively easy on public transport.The second day was spent at the Hunan Provincial Museum, where the exhibits are the contents of an archaeological site discovered in the early 70’s. The mummified remains and everyday personal articles of the deceased are on full display. Scientists were even able to discern the contents of the deceased’s last meal. One thought that ran through my mind was that cryogenics might achieve the same outcome; albeit using more sophisticated methods. After the macabre exhibit, I went off to Zhu zhou tou (Orange Island); the island in the middle of Xiang Jiang (Xiang River).
The night of the 21st April was spent on the wopu, a double decked sleeper coach, hurtling through the dark night. Arrived in Zhangjiajie city by 06:00 and was picked up by the local tour guide.
After breakfast we headed off to Zhanjiajie Forest; where we toured Huang Shi Zhai and Golden Whip Brook. The next day we were supposed to tour the Ten Mile Painting Gallery, but was cancelled due to damaged roads. The whole morning was thus spent hiking up Tian Zi Shan and strolling around He Long Park.
Heading north, my next stop was the city of Yueyang. Yueyang Pavilion, which overlooks Dongting River, is the city’s drawing card. It being the slow season, the ferry service to Junshan Island was suspended. I had to take route 15 public transport instead. Junshan Island is billed as a national park, but I found the settings quite disappointing. There are some historical sites; but they are hardly of significance.