Dehang, Miao Village
I thought that today was going to be another day wasted with travel, but it actually wasn't too bad.
We got up at 7:30 ish... I got up semi-naturally, meaning that if Reece hadn't been up already I probably wouldn't have gotten up. We went down to eat the complimentary breakfast, and had some nearly western food. They had cereal, toast, eggs, banana bread, and the normal Chinese crap. The banana bread made me miss eating loaves of banana bread from the xiaomaibu (小卖部) at Beiwai (北外), which is weird because the banana bread from the 小卖部 makes me miss mom's banana bread.
After breakfast we checked out of our amazing hotel and hurried down to the bus station so that we could get to Jishou (吉首). That bus ride was abysmal.
We had a tiny little bus, that was full, so normal sized people had no leg room. At all. To make matters worse the guy in front of me put his seat back and opened his window so I had less room and was constantly being pummeled by the wind. It was extremely bu shufu (不舒服: uncomfortable). The driver thundered around turns and sped down the crap Chinese roads, so it was a lot like riding a shitty carnival roller coaster`(the kind that make you swear you are going to die) for three hours.
Jishou is not a very nice city, which is fine because we were just passing through. It has some strange obsession with digging 10ft by 10ft by 10ft holes in the middle of busy roads and depositing large stones in the middle of the street, so the traffic seems to be worse than Beijing's. Once we got to Jishou we took another bus to Dehang (德夯). Dehang is another Chinese tourist spot that does not see a lot of international tourism and has recently been highlighted in the Lonely Planet. One of the draws to the town is that it is a Miao (苗) minority village in Hunnan province that is situated in a beautiful canyon.
I thought that the bus ride to Dehang would be worse than the one to Jishou, but it was actually a lot better. For one thing the bus was bigger, granted it did smell like mildew. The ride was also only an hour, and the roads were much better.
We found a guest house that is recommended by the LP when we got to Dehang. Jielongqiao Inn (接龙桥客栈) a cute little guest house that is situated right up against the river, it has no AC and the bathroom is a bit scary, but I think it will be nice anyway. We got a room, deposited our stuff, and set out on one of the walks that is recommended by the LP.
The walk follows a stone path through rice terraces, along the "Nine Dragon Stream." Mountains rise up on either side of you, covered in greenery before rising off into the mist with sheer rock faces. The whole walk was made more beautiful by the fact that it had recently rained, so there was water flowing everywhere.
You got an amazing view of the complex irrigation methods used in rice fields, because you could see the water running from field to field through little canals or bamboo piping.
There were also people in the fields plowing and replanting rice.
Through out the walk I kept thinking that Laura would have a field day here, snapping pictures and being inspired like all of the Chinese artists. I have been taking pictures like crazy, but there is no way for me to capture how amazing the walk was. Partially because my camera is not very good, and partially because any photo just doesn't do the view justice.
We crossed the stream on stepping stones on several occasions and wandered down the path to the "Nine Dragon Waterfall." The waterfall is one of the main tourist attractions in Dehang, it is suppose to be pretty spectacular but it was closed off and had a 10元 entry fee. Reece and I by passed the waterfall and continued down the main path, unlike most of the tourists and tour groups. We were thus awarded with the sight of the even more spectacular Liusha waterfall.
This fall starts from the top of the mountain, some fifty (probably more) feel above you, and comes pounding down in three wide ribbons. It is the most impressive waterfall that I have ever seen. Even before you could see of hear the waterfall you could feel the mist coming off of it; I had thought that it was raining.
The path loops around behind the waterfall, so we walked around on the path and were consequently soaked. By the time we came out on the other side the only dry patch on me was where my purse had been. My purse was, miraculously, dry inside.
Since we were already soaked Reece and I sat around in the mist enjoying the waterfall and eating peanuts.
Then we walked back to town.
We wandered around the town for a bit; it is kind of cool, but mostly just touristy. The shops are all selling the same general minority souvenirs that you see in any "minority" tourist trap. In accordance to the general homogenization of China many of the shop owners are probably Han Chinese and not Miao minority anyway.
Reece and I were just remarking on how cool it was that we had finally gone a day without seeing another Waiguoren (外国人) when a bus full of white kids pulled up. Since I've been in China I have unexplainable started getting upset when white people appear, especially when they are in a place where I don't expect to see them. A few weeks before we left Beiwai (北外) a group of Northeastern students showed up for a summer travel thing, for some reason the fact that they spoke English irked me. I didn't mind the Italians, the other IES students, or anyone who had been around for a while but for some reason I felt like they shouldn't BE there. And yet when Chinese people speak English i applaud them.
We ended up wandering deeper into town to eat dinner; we had taken our seats, ordered, and started discussing how displeased we were with the appearance of laowai (老外) when a whole group of the kids turned a corner and came into view. As our luck would have it, they happened to be looking for a place to eat and they just happened to pick the little restaurant that we were eating at. How ironic that we refused to go to another place because we had assumed that the whole group would eat there together.
The kids barely spoke Chinese, and by barely I mean they could say maybe ten words between them, and they didn't seem to be to keen to try their luck playing iny-miny-miny-moe for dinner. So in the end they came over and asked us to help them order.
Reece and I actually had a very good meal. We had a dish of bamboo(竹) shoots in a spicy sauce that was quite good, zhurousi (猪肉丝: a dish of shredded pork and vegetables) that was not standard rousi as the pork wasn't actually shredded, and the Chinese version of sausage (香肠). My favorite was the rousi, but the sausage was also excellent.
After dinner, we began another hike toward another waterfall, but we ended up stepping in too many spider webs so we went back. It is a good thing too. On the way back we started noticing spiderwebs all over the path; we had missed many of them in the first pass but many more were being re-spun. We tried very hard not to disturb the spiders on the way back for our benefit and our own.
The room we have at the guest house reminds me a lot of the Dai huts in Xishuangbanna: it is relaxing, surprisingly cool for not having AC, and you can hear the water running right outside.
We got up at 7:30 ish... I got up semi-naturally, meaning that if Reece hadn't been up already I probably wouldn't have gotten up. We went down to eat the complimentary breakfast, and had some nearly western food. They had cereal, toast, eggs, banana bread, and the normal Chinese crap. The banana bread made me miss eating loaves of banana bread from the xiaomaibu (小卖部) at Beiwai (北外), which is weird because the banana bread from the 小卖部 makes me miss mom's banana bread.
After breakfast we checked out of our amazing hotel and hurried down to the bus station so that we could get to Jishou (吉首). That bus ride was abysmal.
We had a tiny little bus, that was full, so normal sized people had no leg room. At all. To make matters worse the guy in front of me put his seat back and opened his window so I had less room and was constantly being pummeled by the wind. It was extremely bu shufu (不舒服: uncomfortable). The driver thundered around turns and sped down the crap Chinese roads, so it was a lot like riding a shitty carnival roller coaster`(the kind that make you swear you are going to die) for three hours.
Jishou is not a very nice city, which is fine because we were just passing through. It has some strange obsession with digging 10ft by 10ft by 10ft holes in the middle of busy roads and depositing large stones in the middle of the street, so the traffic seems to be worse than Beijing's. Once we got to Jishou we took another bus to Dehang (德夯). Dehang is another Chinese tourist spot that does not see a lot of international tourism and has recently been highlighted in the Lonely Planet. One of the draws to the town is that it is a Miao (苗) minority village in Hunnan province that is situated in a beautiful canyon.
I thought that the bus ride to Dehang would be worse than the one to Jishou, but it was actually a lot better. For one thing the bus was bigger, granted it did smell like mildew. The ride was also only an hour, and the roads were much better.
We found a guest house that is recommended by the LP when we got to Dehang. Jielongqiao Inn (接龙桥客栈) a cute little guest house that is situated right up against the river, it has no AC and the bathroom is a bit scary, but I think it will be nice anyway. We got a room, deposited our stuff, and set out on one of the walks that is recommended by the LP.
The walk follows a stone path through rice terraces, along the "Nine Dragon Stream." Mountains rise up on either side of you, covered in greenery before rising off into the mist with sheer rock faces. The whole walk was made more beautiful by the fact that it had recently rained, so there was water flowing everywhere.
You got an amazing view of the complex irrigation methods used in rice fields, because you could see the water running from field to field through little canals or bamboo piping.
There were also people in the fields plowing and replanting rice.
Through out the walk I kept thinking that Laura would have a field day here, snapping pictures and being inspired like all of the Chinese artists. I have been taking pictures like crazy, but there is no way for me to capture how amazing the walk was. Partially because my camera is not very good, and partially because any photo just doesn't do the view justice.
We crossed the stream on stepping stones on several occasions and wandered down the path to the "Nine Dragon Waterfall." The waterfall is one of the main tourist attractions in Dehang, it is suppose to be pretty spectacular but it was closed off and had a 10元 entry fee. Reece and I by passed the waterfall and continued down the main path, unlike most of the tourists and tour groups. We were thus awarded with the sight of the even more spectacular Liusha waterfall.
This fall starts from the top of the mountain, some fifty (probably more) feel above you, and comes pounding down in three wide ribbons. It is the most impressive waterfall that I have ever seen. Even before you could see of hear the waterfall you could feel the mist coming off of it; I had thought that it was raining.
The path loops around behind the waterfall, so we walked around on the path and were consequently soaked. By the time we came out on the other side the only dry patch on me was where my purse had been. My purse was, miraculously, dry inside.
Since we were already soaked Reece and I sat around in the mist enjoying the waterfall and eating peanuts.
Then we walked back to town.
We wandered around the town for a bit; it is kind of cool, but mostly just touristy. The shops are all selling the same general minority souvenirs that you see in any "minority" tourist trap. In accordance to the general homogenization of China many of the shop owners are probably Han Chinese and not Miao minority anyway.
Reece and I were just remarking on how cool it was that we had finally gone a day without seeing another Waiguoren (外国人) when a bus full of white kids pulled up. Since I've been in China I have unexplainable started getting upset when white people appear, especially when they are in a place where I don't expect to see them. A few weeks before we left Beiwai (北外) a group of Northeastern students showed up for a summer travel thing, for some reason the fact that they spoke English irked me. I didn't mind the Italians, the other IES students, or anyone who had been around for a while but for some reason I felt like they shouldn't BE there. And yet when Chinese people speak English i applaud them.
We ended up wandering deeper into town to eat dinner; we had taken our seats, ordered, and started discussing how displeased we were with the appearance of laowai (老外) when a whole group of the kids turned a corner and came into view. As our luck would have it, they happened to be looking for a place to eat and they just happened to pick the little restaurant that we were eating at. How ironic that we refused to go to another place because we had assumed that the whole group would eat there together.
The kids barely spoke Chinese, and by barely I mean they could say maybe ten words between them, and they didn't seem to be to keen to try their luck playing iny-miny-miny-moe for dinner. So in the end they came over and asked us to help them order.
Reece and I actually had a very good meal. We had a dish of bamboo(竹) shoots in a spicy sauce that was quite good, zhurousi (猪肉丝: a dish of shredded pork and vegetables) that was not standard rousi as the pork wasn't actually shredded, and the Chinese version of sausage (香肠). My favorite was the rousi, but the sausage was also excellent.
After dinner, we began another hike toward another waterfall, but we ended up stepping in too many spider webs so we went back. It is a good thing too. On the way back we started noticing spiderwebs all over the path; we had missed many of them in the first pass but many more were being re-spun. We tried very hard not to disturb the spiders on the way back for our benefit and our own.
The room we have at the guest house reminds me a lot of the Dai huts in Xishuangbanna: it is relaxing, surprisingly cool for not having AC, and you can hear the water running right outside.