Travel ponderings: 阆中 Lángzhōng [updated]
We have National Day holidays in October. From memory, we get a week off... Ordinarily I'd rather kick myself in the head rather than go travelling in China during a Chinese public holiday, but my friend Alice mentioned 阆中 Lángzhōng to me when she was here and it caught my fancy and made me want to go travelling again.
It's in Sichuan Province. The Canadian and I have been there before. We went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province and we also went to Wolong to see the pandas. Sichuan really is a gorgeous and diverse sort of place that has all sorts of things to see. Anyway, 阆中 Lángzhōng is an ancient city first built during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). They say that it is one of the four best-preserved ancient cities in China, renowned for its old streets, lanes and courtyards.
Wikipedia is hilarious. The wikipedia entry here is so brief:
Langzhong (Chinese: 阆中; Pinyin: Lángzhōng) is a 2300 year old city located in Nanchong, Sichuan province.
The town's perimeter is 1.5 km². In 1986 the State Council named it a famous and historical town.
I found another description that goes as follows:
Located in the northeast of Sichuan Province and the middle and upper reaches of the Jialing River, Langzhong is so far the most well-preserved ancient city in China. The architecture style there still retains those of the ancient times. The city is credited by the expert as the “Treasure House of the Chinese Folk Architecture”.
It looks nice:
I checked the Bus Timetable for the 北门汽车站 (North Gate Bus Station) of Chengdu, the bus to 阆中 Lángzhōng seems to leave quite regularly.
I went to a tourism site for 阆中 Lángzhōng but it's not all that photo-friendly. A hotel list is here but it will be a bit of hard work to work through it :) If you scroll down, there are links to a bunch of hotels but it's hard to see form the photos whether they are any good or not.
The Thorn Tree Travel Forum had a variety of comments on it. One person said:
That said, Langzhong is interesting, but not that interesting. Certainly an overnighter is more than enough.
Still, I rather welcome the notion of a chilled out break where we don't really do much except vegetate and enjoy the day ... This page has a very nice description of the city and this description is also pretty good. Photos are here. I realised that Hola China is a Spanish site, which makes sense given that name :D
I haven't discussed the plan with The Canadian yet but he's always very intrepid and likes to explore :D
*
Also, the Hola China site has a fascinating article here about Beijing. A really wonderful read and very thought-provoking ... and true ...
Also the travel page of the Hola China page is really making me have wanderlust again :)
I want to go to:
Fujian Province
Xinjiang
Guizhou
Wuyuan
It's in Sichuan Province. The Canadian and I have been there before. We went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province and we also went to Wolong to see the pandas. Sichuan really is a gorgeous and diverse sort of place that has all sorts of things to see. Anyway, 阆中 Lángzhōng is an ancient city first built during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). They say that it is one of the four best-preserved ancient cities in China, renowned for its old streets, lanes and courtyards.
Wikipedia is hilarious. The wikipedia entry here is so brief:
Langzhong (Chinese: 阆中; Pinyin: Lángzhōng) is a 2300 year old city located in Nanchong, Sichuan province.
The town's perimeter is 1.5 km². In 1986 the State Council named it a famous and historical town.
I found another description that goes as follows:
Located in the northeast of Sichuan Province and the middle and upper reaches of the Jialing River, Langzhong is so far the most well-preserved ancient city in China. The architecture style there still retains those of the ancient times. The city is credited by the expert as the “Treasure House of the Chinese Folk Architecture”.
It looks nice:
I checked the Bus Timetable for the 北门汽车站 (North Gate Bus Station) of Chengdu, the bus to 阆中 Lángzhōng seems to leave quite regularly.
I went to a tourism site for 阆中 Lángzhōng but it's not all that photo-friendly. A hotel list is here but it will be a bit of hard work to work through it :) If you scroll down, there are links to a bunch of hotels but it's hard to see form the photos whether they are any good or not.
The Thorn Tree Travel Forum had a variety of comments on it. One person said:
That said, Langzhong is interesting, but not that interesting. Certainly an overnighter is more than enough.
Still, I rather welcome the notion of a chilled out break where we don't really do much except vegetate and enjoy the day ... This page has a very nice description of the city and this description is also pretty good. Photos are here. I realised that Hola China is a Spanish site, which makes sense given that name :D
I haven't discussed the plan with The Canadian yet but he's always very intrepid and likes to explore :D
*
Also, the Hola China site has a fascinating article here about Beijing. A really wonderful read and very thought-provoking ... and true ...
Also the travel page of the Hola China page is really making me have wanderlust again :)
I want to go to:
Fujian Province
Xinjiang
Guizhou
Wuyuan