Fenghuang, China most beautiful old town

In Sep 2018, 15 of us majority friends from Kediri with my mom as the eldest among us joined tour to China, Fenghuang was one of the city we visited. It’s quite a long journey to Zhangjiajie using flight, train and bus, from Surabaya – Hongkong – Guangzhou by flight then staying overnight in Guangzhou. The next day riding around 3 hous bullet train to Changsha, then continuing by bus for 6 hours to Fenghuang with distance about 400 km.

Finally almost dark we arrived at a bridge decorated beautifully with phoenix bird lighting at the left and right of the bridge. It's Fenghuang, at the Southwest of Tujia-miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi in Hunan, we checked in to Fengting hotel, having dinner before start exploring the city. During dinner we also celebrated my mom’s birthday, the birthday cake from our tour agent was beautiful and yummy, I preferred eating the cake than the main course :-). The main attraction in Fenghuang (Phoenix) ancient town, is the traditional house decorating with beautiful lighting at the edge of the Tuo Jiang river. It’s not too far from our hotel, just went across the street, then going down to the river bank. Although it’s raining, it didn’t stop us for enjoying the scenery. I brought a small umbrella, but it’s difficult for me to take picture while bringing the umbrella, sometimes my mom or my friend helped to hold the umbrella for me.

I didn’t bring a real camera, just using my smartphone (iphone 8), the quality and zoom feature were limited comparing to SLR camera. Anyway I’m quite happy with the result as the actual view was fascinating. I kept taking countless pictures of the magnificent scenery traditional house and bridge decorating with colorful light that illuminated to the river. Using iphone, the face of persons were too dark, if I use flash the beautiful background could not be captured well. Our tour leader was creative enough, she turned on her smartphone lamp to light up our face while our friend taking the picture.

The trail along the river bank was not smooth, we had to be careful, the path was made from stones and quite slippery while raining. I tried to guard my mom, walking hand in hand slowly, it’s quite embarassing when I was the one who slipped and falled down when stepping down stairs. Lucky nothing was hurt and my smartphone was not broken, just getting wet on my pants and a little bit dirty of the dust. After that my mom didn't trust me anymore, she preferred walking by herself and refused me to hold her hand. We've got a chance to take some pictures together on the colorful light bridge on the river with glittering houses belong to Miao ethnic as the background.

It's getting late, almost 22:00 o'clock, our guide asked us to rush as she was afraid that the shops would be closed soon, they were located around 20 minutes walked from our starting point. Passing by the seller either on the street or shop, we were not allowed to shop as she would like to show us the landmark of Fenghuang first.

The 21-meter tall Wanming Tower stands at the foot of Qinglong Mountain, on the north bank of the Tuojiang River was our destination. It’s very beautiful at night with yellow light surrounding the tower. We queued to take picture in front of the tower. Diaojia Building the landmark previously was home of the richest man in Fenghuang facing directly to the river and near the beautiful rainbow bridge. There were some traditional boats which could be rent for sailing along the river, we didn't take it as we still would like to explore the village.

The 2 storey rainbow bridge art building was built in 1368 AD, we didn’t go on top of the bridge, just admired the charming lighting decorating the bridge from the river bank. Illumation of yellow light on the arc of the bridge created an awesome scenery. Sometimes a traditional boat decorating with lights passed under the bridge. Under the bridge there were some bronze statues showed people activities.

We stopped by at a shelter where we could take the picture of Wanming Tower and the river from the other side. There were a service for taking picture wearing the traditional clothes. My couple friend rented the clothes and took pictures from different angles with colorful light scenery as the background. She looked beautiful like the local people as she has a fair skin and small eyes.

It’s free time after that, so I kept walking to explore the shops with my mom and my friend from Jakarta. Some restaurants, coffee shop and bars were also available along the road. We tried to find souvenirs for our relatives and friends, this is one of Indonesian people habit when traveling. Some pastel colors pashminas were attracted us, we bought some soft beautiful pashminas in the store. We passed by a fruit seller on the street, the fruit was yellow with some small bulges, we didn’t dare to buy and taste it, do you know the name and the taste?

As it’s getting late, and we’re afraid of getting lost, we decided to turn back to the hotel using the same way, actually we could go by taxi there, but I still would like to take some pictures of the river and stroll the narrow alley. On the way back, my friend accompanied my mom to go first as I often stopped taking some pictures. We also got a chance to stop by at the seller on the street to buy imitation silver bracelet, necklace and beautiful hand embroidery paintings. You could bargain to buy stuffs both on the street and in the stores.

The next morning, after breakfast I rushed to go down to the river again. It’s already the time to check out and go to the bus, as I saw some of our friends were still not there, they were not check out yet, I asked my friend to accompany my mom so I could run to the river to see what it looked like. My tour leader said that the picturesque night scenery is much more beautiful comparing to the day scenery.

Quite surprising I met my couple friends from Semarang at the river bank. I saw 3 women wearing traditional clothes taking picture, they have difficulty as it’s drizzle, making the stairs and footpath were wet while their dress was quite long, so they had to manage it well avoid the dirt. From my opinion, the day scenery still looked good with the traditional house and beautiful form of the bridge with the mist pervades the scene, only the water was not too clean, the colour was brown at that time and the houses were looked rather gloomy. It's different from the night scene which looked brighter and shining.

Lucky my friend was there, so we could help each other to take picture. We didn’t dare to go further as we’re afraid the group will leave us soon. Some pictures were able to take to capture day scenery in Fenghuang. In front of our hotel was nice too, we could see the mountains covering with cloud at that morning.

Although the journey to reach Fenghuang was quite a long time, we’re quite happy with the amazing night view with it’s traditional unique wooden houses built on stilts, settled by Miao & Tujia ethnic, the minority tribes in China. The natural beauty scenery which well-preserved more than 300 years looks like traditional Chinese paintings.

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Magnificent Scenic Natural View Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie

In Sep 2018, my friends, my mom and myself created our own group of 15 people to go to Zhangjiajie which is famous for its unique natural scenery and abundant tourism resources. It's a long way to reach there from Surabaya, we went using CX transit in HK, continued flying to Guangzho. The next day took a 3 hours bullet train to Changsha. Bullet train was very lovely, very clean toilets, that you seldom find in China :-) Hot water was available free for passengers to make your own tea/coffee or instant noodle, an electricity plug also put at each passenger seat to charge your smartphone, with it's convenience soft chair to sit. Although the train speed was up to 350kms/hour, we didn't feel the movement at all, it's very stabil and punctual, more convenience than flight :-)

Zhangjiajie is located in the northwest of Hunan province, about 400 kilometers away from Changsha, capital of Hunan, covering a total area of 9,563 square kilometers most of them are mountainous area. Total population of 1.62 million, 72% is minority ethnic minority tribes e.g. Tujia, Bai and Miao nationalities. After lunch we went to Yuanjiajie, the bus driver drop us near to the market. We walked a few blocks to the beautiful gate with high tower and mountain background. Based on our local guide info, our bus could not go inside the area, we had to queue to ride on their shuttle transportation.

I sat at the back of the shuttle, along the way we could see beautiful scenery, I would like to record it, but difficult to take from the middle seat, so I swapped seat with my mom in the middle of the trip. Lucky the car's window could be opened, so I could take some pictures well although the car moved quite fast. We dropped at the 1st stop, the view was amazing, we passed by a bridge with clean water called golden whip stream. The scenery was amazing, the bridge, river, a valley of freestanding, shrub-and-tree-clad towers surrounded by a wall of massive sandstone blocks.

There was a wide open space where we took a photo group of Yuanjiajie which became more popular as the Southern Sky Pillar inspired the floating mountains in the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar. We still liked to stay longer there, but our tour leader mentioned that there would be better scenery from above. We had to wait for the other shuttle bus to bring us to the place where we could take the lift to the top of the mountain.

To take the lift, it's quite a long queue, we often experienced local people tried to overcut our lane, it seemed that they were not discipline enough in queueing. Bailong lift space was quite big, all of our group could go in together. As it's very crowded and I was the last, I could not get a good picture during the movement, as the glasses area facing to the lift's door. It was the highest and fastest elevator with the maximum loading capacity, only took around 2 minutes to reach the top with 326 meters height. The lift looked like a giant dragon which is built onto the side of a huge cliff. Open in 2002, then Guinness World Records recognized as the world’s tallest outdoor lift in 2015.

Exit from the lift, we could see amazing views, peaks and pillars there are nearly at the same height, which makes Yuanjiajie Scenic Area a great mountain platform. Fields and gardens in the Air will come into view, the mountain trail invited us to walk around the area and taking pictures. All of us were shocked at the sights before eyes. All the mountains you have seen at the foot of them stand in arrays at your feet at the moment. Lucky it's not cloudy, so we could enjoy the scenery well.

Our tour leader was tired reminding us to continue the tracking, as my friends still took picture around lift area while others already waiting including my mom who sat on the wood bench near a souvenir shop. We kept walking through the path, we saw amazing scenery along the way. Our tour leader was kind enough to help us taking picture, we took a beautiful picture on the stairs with the marvelous background of the pillars karst stone garden.

Walking further we found the Hallelujah pillar or the “Southern Sky Column, which was stretched 3,544 feet into the air. Avatar, the famous Hollywood movie, used photographs of the pinnacle as inspiration for the floating Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora. It's one of the successful attempt to bring more tourists into the national park to discover the real world of Pandora.

Some food stalls were available on the way, then we crossed a bridge that enable us walking on the cliff and seeing the scenery from different angle. People was very crowded, so it's not easy to take picture in the middle of the bridge. I also wonder why Chinese people often open their shirt showing their stomach in public area, even they didn't feel ashamed about it although they didn't have a six pack stomach :-). The track was going up and down, it's tiring, but worthy with the views we could enjoy. Finally we reach the end of the path, waiting for the shuttle to bring us to the next destination.

Helong park our next destination, the only huge human landscape of the whole Wulingyuan area, we had to go down the stairs for around 15 minutes, my mom was tired already. One of our friend decided not to go, so I asked her to take care of my mom. Lucky that my mom didn't join us to explore it, I almost could not breath well, very tired climbing on the track. We could see the bronze statue of He Long (a militarist and the marshal of the republic of China). Tourist floods here to recall the history and great feats of the elder proletarian revolutionist.

Our tour leader showed the original steep path of the stairs before they built the shortcut, it took more than 4 hours to reach the place using the track. Continue following the track to Yunqing Rock, it's also stunning, to go back the stairs were very challenging. I had to stop to get more energy and take a deep breath. The Imperial Writing Brush Peaks covering 4,810 ha, one of several national parks within the Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Zhangjiajie is a green treasure house, the forest coverage rate is above 98%. Within the park, there are altogether more than 8,000 cliff mountains, towering into the sky like a dancing group, with various physical appearance and grand force of character.

Finally, we took the bus again to the last destination, the Tianzi Mountain Cable Car, located in the center of Wulingyuan. The queue was not too long anymore, because it's already 17:15, it's almost close. We still have to climb more stairs to the cable car station. Inside the cable car could contain up to 6 persons, low at four sides and high in the center. The view, a large forest and spectacular scenery was very amazing from the cable car, it's not too long but it's very impressive. Looking from the top, the magnificent view stretches with distinct layers, so that it is an ideal spot for viewing Wulingyuan peak forest.

I'm very satisfied with the most beautiful scenic view, you should visit the magnificent Zhangjiajie. Its unique geographical features make it as popular tourist destination. You should be ready wearing comfortable shoes to walk and prepare a good stamina to explore quite challenging track path.

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Spectacular Rainbow Mountains at Zhangye

One of the most interesting place which attracted me to join inner Mongol tour was the picture of Rainbow Mountains with its beautiful layering color. From our hotel we had to travel around 4 hours by bus to reach the place, we stopped by for lunch first in a restaurant near to the place, it's a set menu of Chinese food, served for 10 persons/table. The restaurant was quite crowded with tourists, so we had to wait for few minutes to get the meal. Lucky we still get tables at the ground, no need to go to the second floor. Our tour leader informed that the toilet was not good in the restaurant, if we could wait, the toilet at rainbow mountains would be cleaner and not smelly. I decided to follow his suggestion, although the weather was getting cold there.

I started worrying when coming out from the bus, I didn't expect the weather that cold. I didn't bring scarf, just wearing a thin sweater. It's windy and cold, definitely I need scarf to protect my neck. Lucky there was a seller right at the front of the restaurant, I asked my friend's opinion to select the best while waiting for the food was ready. After lunch, we rushed to the bus, I couldn't wait seeing the Zhangye National Geopark soon.

Arriving at the place, our bus was not allowed to go inside the area, the bus had to park at the parking lot, while we had to walk further passing through some stalls selling snack, souvenirs and others towards a building where the proper many toilet rooms available for the tourists, it's clean, not smelly, water flowing well. So many tourists were coming, we found a little bit difficulty to find our group member, then our tour guide asked us to make 2 rows hand in hand to avoid losing members to go to the bus terminal. A bad habit of most Chinese mainland, they could not queue properly, they would like to overtake any queue, so we had to hold tight to avoid separation.

The shuttle bus provided by the government to bring tourists among places in the park, it's good to avoid traffic and pollution. Unfortunately the officer could not speak English, so we couldn't communicate well with them, and most of them were quite fierce, maybe because of many tourists could not queue well. Our tour leader argued and complained him, as she would like to have all of us in the same bus, while the officer forced us to get on the bus based on the queue. Finally we could go in the same bus, giving a chance for the tourist after us to take the bus first.

There were 4 stops in the park, where we could explore the scenery. The first one was the lowest part while the fourth was the highest. On the way we already could see beautiful scenery with colorful layering rock as if layer cake. I tried to take picture, but it's rather bumpy and must take from the window's bus, so it's not too good, sometimes it's blurred and had shadow. It's still drizzle, people said that after raining, the red color would be more obvious. It's still cloudy when we arrived on the 1st stop.

After short briefing about gathering time, I ran to the edge of the area, where we could take picture with the layering mountains as the background, we had to queue as many tourists prefer to take picture from the same location. Based on the signage it's called "Returning Sail in The Sunset". We walked around and found a helicopter parked in the area. You could rent the helicopter to enjoy the aerial panoramic of the rainbow mountains. I also asked my friend to take my pictures on a bench. Finally our friends joined and we took picture at the end of the bridge, as we could not go across the bridge, it's closed. We also tried to jump while our friends' husbands captured the action, it's difficult to jump together at the same time.

As the time was not enough to explore each stop, Sunny, our local tour guide suggested us to move to the fourth stop, the last one, skipped the 2nd and 3rd one. It's a good decision, it's much better than spending short time in every stop, wasting time by queuing for shuttle bus to go to the next stop. The 4th stop was more amazing, the color was more obvious. This time our friend who stayed in Auckland encouraged us to climb to the top. The path was quite good, it's already built well with wood stairs and fence, so it's not too difficult to climb. I stopped many times to take a breath and take picture, till my roommate friend got a little upset waiting for me.

It's very windy, but to make the picture looked good, I took off my sweater & glasses while taking picture, it's quite troublesome, to take off and on again and again .... I really felt amazed and enjoyed Zhangye Danxia, the unusual colours of the rocks, as result of deposits of sandstone and other minerals that occurred over 24 million years. Wind, rain, and time then sculpted extraordinary shapes, including towers, pillars, and ravines, with varying colours, patterns, and sizes. Our friend from NZ already returned from the end of the path. They said that it's more beautiful there, my roommate insisted to go back as time to gather getting closer.

I said I would like to continue, she could go back first if she would like to. Then continuing to the end of the path alone, I met our tour leader from Indonesia, it's safe, as he just arrived, so I won't be left by the group. It's true, it's very beautiful, so I took some more pictures, I really would like to stay longer, unfortunately we didn't have time anymore. Then I returned to the bus stop, on the way I met some of our friends who just went up. I informed them that it's beautiful to continue to the end of the path, so they ran to reach there.

There were some wishing bells hanging on the ceiling of the rest area next to the bus stop. It's good to become our shelter from the strong wind. We sat and chatted while waiting for the remaining of the group. We took photo group picture before leaving the The Amazing Rainbow Zhangye Danxia Landforms which became a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010. The area has become a top tourist attraction for Zhangye. A series of boardwalks and access roads have been built to help visitors to explore the rock formations.

On the way to the parking lot, some of our friends still managed to buy snacks at the stalls decorating with animal statues like cow, camel, etc. The snack was quite unique too such as crispy mushroom and other type of mushrooms. I thought it's rare, so I didn't buy. I only tried sunflower seed from the real big sunflower, when my friend and I tasted it, we canceled to buy as it's still wet & tasteless, the cooked one is better with its savory and salty taste. Anyway if you like mushrooms, the price was cheap here and the quality was quite good, some friends bought many of them. If you'll go to Inner Mongolia, ensure to stop at Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot, it's very amazing and unbelievable natural scenery.

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Enjoy ethnic Mongolian Culture at Ordos Grassland, Inner Mongolia

In Sep 2017 my friend offered me to join Inner Mongolia tour using charter flight, the difficult part was to get the correct pas photo for getting China visa, so many pre-condition, the pas photo size was not in normal size using cm, but even till mm. It's the first time difficult experience although I have applied visa for many other countries including China. Our travel agent rejected all my pas photos although it's passed for other embassy, finally I took at the photo studio that had been used by my colleague to get China visa recently. Finally my visa had been approved about 3 days before the departure, the departure city was Jakarta, while I lived in Surabaya, an hour flight from Jakarta. One of the destination place I like in Mongol, was the Ordos Grassland.

By bus from the previous city, we passed infinite grassland scenery, we could see a herd of horses or sheeps grazing, even some camels. Part of The Great Wall could be seen on the way to the destination. Our bus stopped at the tourist center building, there was a beautiful carriage in front of the building where we could sit on the red bench in the white carriage to take picture. A "Prairie Resort of Ordos" monument with wolves available at the central, unfortunately it's quite difficult to take picture as it's against the sun shine.

We welcome by Mongolian ladies wearing traditional clothes and put a blue scarf on us accompany with traditional live music. There's a corner decorated with Mongolian accessories, my friend and I waited for a turn to take picture there. In the building available a souvenir shop, most of us directly went there to find Mongolia souvenirs. Lucky I could got a bronze candle holder with standing horse which I would like to buy in the previous place, but it was finished, no much time to find other souvenirs, our tour leader asked us to go faster to the bus that had waited at the back of the building to pick us up to drive to the hotel.

We would stay in the unique Mongolian yurt. I thought it's the real yurt, in fact it's a normal 2 stairs hotel, but they build as if side by side yurt. It's beautiful, I like the design with white wall, white dome and blue ornaments. As there were many visitors, we had to wait for a long time at the lobby, waiting for the room key. Boring waiting, I walked outside to take pictures, but I had to be careful not stepping on the horse's shit :-) As soon as we'd got the key, we rushed to the room to take a rest after a long hour bus driving. Stunning going inside the room, I felt like inside a yurt, my eyes stared to a large half circle bed which could be used for 4-5 persons, but it would be only used for 2 of us. The decoration was nice, the bed was surrounded by woods, wide windows available for enjoying the scenery. As the weather was quite mild, we didn't turn on the air conditioning, just open the windows to enjoy the fresh air. My friend and I chatted, charged our mobile phone while resting on the bed waiting for the dinner time.

We would attend gala dinner, it supposed to be for ceremony/celebration with the king. Before enjoy the Mongolian ethnic culture, they would lend us traditional clothes to wear during gala dinner. We would be treated as the king's guest, so we have to dress up properly. There were around 150 tour participants, so you could imagine the chaos to take the clothes as nobody guarded the clothes and taught us how to wear them. No reservation for the clothes size either, if the clothes were too small, people would try to get the change, so people rushed to take the best costumes, the earlier was the lucky person as they could have more option. The costumes were worn on top of our own clothes, so we could change anywhere in the restaurant area, no need to be inside of bathroom or changing room.

We came on time, but others already came much earlier, we're not lucky enough to get the costumes we wanted. My friend grabbed the available clothes in the room, succeeded to get me a red dress while she chose the golden one. Unfortunately my dress was too small for me, I could not close the right side button. As there were no more option for another bigger costume available, I tried to hide it by holding the right side when taking picture. The restaurant decoration was quite luxurious, full of red and golden colour, many places could become a good background of our photo wearing the Mongolian costume such as beautiful bronze sculpture painting, golden pillar, also royal seat which had to be queued.

Reaching the dinner time, we were asked to enter the restaurant room which was more amazing. It's arranged like a circle with different height for the guest seat, so whoever sitting behind was still able to see the middle area under the beautiful chandelier. Various meals were provided on the table for each person with a coke tin for drink :-). Opposite the entrance was the king throne, accompanying by 2 queens at his right and left side. They chose one man as the king and 2 women as the queen from the guests.

The celebration was started when some people entering the room behind a messenger, they went towards the king, reading the message that I could not understand as I can't speak Chinese. Then some dancing were performed for all of us, the king and the guests. While enjoying the entertainments, guests always served one by one with more and more food by the waitress and waiter in traditional costume. Most of the food was traditional which was served during the ancient days for the king, mostly made from lamb, it's not too suitable with my appetite. Finally the dancer brought a the main special menu, a whole grill lamb, to the middle of the room as one of the attraction, I heard they provided 4 grill lambs for all of us. Each of us got a full portion of small plate, first I only wanted to try a small bit, as I don't like lamb. When I tasted it a little bit, it's delicious and not lamb smell at all. I like it, it's very crispy, finally I finished the remaining portion for me.

The dinner was finished around 1.5 hours, we didn't forget to take group picture to record our experience with Mongolian party costumes before returning the costume. Another event had waited for us at the bonfire building. Outside the weather became very cold, my jacket could not help a lot to warm my body. I almost run to avoid the cold and getting faster to the place. As my friend jacket was thinner, she almost gave up with the cold, and planned to go back to the room first. Finally she agreed to join us to the bornfire place, she ran fast and reached the place before us. On the way we saw some Mongolians riding horse with their costumes brought archers or swords.

Entering the building was warmer, but we had to go to the open air bonfire area looked like a stadium, we sat closely to each other to make us warmer. The attraction opened with the horse parade with soldier on top of it. They started lit on the fire in the middle of the area, 2 master ceremony opened the event using Chinese, unfortunately I didn't understand what they said as I could not speak Chinese. It's continued with other performance such as singing and dancing by local people, till made fun with some guests for running race on the sand while carrying a woman, the winner who had struggled and tumbled many times finally got souvenirs from them. It's quite fun to close our day. The place was far away from the light pollution, we had a chance to see the shining stars at the night sky. Inner Mongolia has extreme weather. The difference in temperature between day and night was quite dramatic.

After early breakfast that I skipped, we had to bring our luggage to the bus. My roommate friend preferred to stay in the lobby while waiting for the departure time as she needed the free wifi in the lobby to check her email. I went first to the bus to put my bagpack, I saw the scenery was beautiful with some yurts, I took picture with my friends. We tried to jump while our friend took the picture, unfortunately it kept failing as he hadn't configured properly. We saw my roommate friend went out from the lobby, we shouted to ask her hurry to take picture together. She ran, unfortunately she tripped and stumbled down on the asphalt made her knee's hurt and her jeans torn. All of us were very shocked then ran to help her, after reaching her we could not stop laughing, when describing what's just happened. Poor my roommate friend, she didn't focus on the road, rushing to join us for taking picture while all of us encouraged her to come as fast as possible. Lucky it was the last day of the trip, as she was difficult to walk after that, it hurt when she bent the knee. Fortunate that her knee was not broken, so she still could walk by herself.

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