Fenghuang Bus Station, Hunan

From OSM map, there were at least four bus stations in Fenghuang. I was not sure which was where the long distant bus from Changsha would arrive. Nevertheless, from what I read, it was most probably the one outside the ancient town.

I thought that taxis would not go into the old town, imagining that the streets in the ancient town would be too narrow for them. I was thinking that maybe I could take the taxi to the boundary of the ancient town and from there, walked to my hostel. There was too little information on the Net to help me.

In fact, Fenghuang was not exactly a small town. The bus station may be 2.6 km from my hostel in the ancient town near Hongqiao Bridge but it was in the the city, the modern part of it. Hence, it was easy to catch a taxi from the bus station to the ancient city.

Readers can also refer to https://oneveryshortlife.blogspot.com/2019/08/day-7-arriving-in-fenghuang-and-walking.html for more pictures.

Hunan Food - Fenghuang/ Phoenix Ancient City

1 MYR = RMB1.6461;
1 RMB = MYR0.6075

I arrived in Fenghuang at about 1:00 p.m. By the time I got into Fleeting Night Hostel, it was about 1:40 p.m. When I went out to look for lunch, food stalls had already closed or were on the verge of closing.

That evening, I was not sure where I should be going for dinner. As I crossed Hongqiao Bridge to the south, I decided that I would just walk along Hongqiao (Mid) Road and see what were on offer.

The owner was touting potential customers. I obliged. A picture of the Mei Cai Kou Rou was displayed on the wall inside the restaurant. I pointed to the picture for my order.

Early the next morning, I strolled north from the hostel. In front of this shop, food was steaming. I entered and ordered noodle soup. I then decided to order Baozi (steamed bun) while waiting for the noodle to be ready.

After visiting the square with the Phoenix Statue, I exited through West Gate. It led to the market and near it I found the most incredible food in Fenghuang. Fried Baozi and Guotie (pot sticker). It was so good that I decided to walk a total of two kilometers the next morning to get my fix of the Baozi and Guotie before leaving for Changsha.

I decided to walk further north outside the touristy area for lunch on my second day in Fenghuang. At the boundary of the touristy area, I had my meal at a restaurant there after the owner asked me to go into her shop.

I had no more appetite for Fenghuang food. I did not know where to go for dinner when I decided to give Chinese KFC another chance. KFC food in Kunming, Yunnan Province was a disappointment.

Day 9: Fenghuang to Changsha ... Exploring Huangxing Street

18th April 2019 (Thursday)

Where should I get my breakfast? The fried bun stall at the market was probably over one kilometre away. If I didn't go there and get another bagful of the buns, I would forever regret not going there. On the other hand, my back was aching. Should I risk aggravating my back pain for the sake of the fried buns?

In the end, I decided that the fried buns were too good to give up. Instead of buying one bag, I bought two bags of the fried goodies, one bag of fried buns and another bag of guotie (pot stickers). On the way back to the hostel, the buns disappeared into my belly. The other bag would be served as lunch.

After arriving back at the hostel, I took my bath and went down to the street to catch a taxi to the bus station. There were taxis arriving every now and then and I waved down one, driven by a woman.

At the bus station, I gave her ¥10, but she gave me a change of ¥2. I was caught by surprise. It cost ¥10 yesterday and my hostel receptionist who wrote me a note to tell the taxi driver where I wanted to go also told me it was ¥10. She was an honest taxi driver.

Since I arrived early, I decided to take more photos of the bus station terminal which I could put up on my blog to provide more information about the bus station.

As I returned to the ticket office/ departure hall, I bought two pairs of souvenir from a trinket peddler at ¥30 x 2. I asked her for a discount and was given ¥10 off.

The original destination was another bus station, which I tried to decipher on Google Translate but failed (on returning to PNG, my staff member told me it was to Changsha Maglev Station/ Changsha South Railway Station). Half-way through the journey, the conductress announced that the bus would be going to West Bus Station, where passengers could easily walk to the Wangchengpo Subway Station to go to their respective destinations. We reached Changsha West Bus Station at 2:15 p.m.

Arriving at West Bus Station, I walked along the street where we alighted and on the way, I asked a young woman, probably a student, for the direction to Wangchengpo Subway Station. I was totally ignored. Was it because she could not understand English or she was simply too arrogant?

I walked back to where I was dropped at the bus entrance and walked into the bus station. I asked an elderly man where the "Ditie" (subway) station was. He pointed to me the direction. It was just at the opposite corner of the bus station.

This happened only in China. It was my normal habit of taking photos of subway stations. However, photography was not allowed beyond the security screening point. A security woman barred my way and I was ordered to stop taking photos. I had to delete two photos but she spared me the rest.

I took the subway to Furong Square Station because the distant from here to Kaiserdom Zhongshan Rd hostel and the next station to Kaiserdom was almost the same. I randomly took Exit 4. I wasn't too hopeful of finding Kaiserdom Zhongshan Road hostel based on the coordinates given by Booking.com. So far on this trip to China, the coordinates provided had always been wrong.

My Garmin eTrex 20x showed that the hostel was across the road from Furong Square Station Exit 4 and a short walk away. When I reached there, I did not see any hostel. I decided not to waste my time searching for it, after learning my lessons in Wulingyuan and Zhangjiajie City. I turned around and walked down the stairs to hail a taxi to the hostel. The taxi fare was ¥9. I also noticed that the coordinates given by Open Street Map (OSM) was more accurate.

At the hostel, the receptionists could barely speak any English. Nevertheless, it was sufficient for them to check me in. After settling down into my room, I came down to the reception desk to ask for the direction to Furong Subway Station. Since I had Furong Subway Station Exit 4 coordinates already, I should be able to find it but one of the receptionists was quite pretty. Asking her for the direction was a legitimate way to get close to her. From Furong, I would take the subway to Wuyi Square Station, and then walked to Huangxing Square.

Wuyi Square Station has a very large underground shopping mall. There were many food vendors but I could not find anything to my liking. In the end, I stopped at a noodle restaurant for my dinner. After taking my dinner, I went to look for the exit that would be close to Huangxing Square. The direction sign showed Wuyi Square Station Exit 3A and that was where I headed. After exiting, I followed the crowd and walked forward to Huangxing Square. It was on my way there that I found the nearest exit to Huangxing Square was actually Wuyi Square Station Exit 9. Exit 9 was at the entrance to Huangxing Square.

There was really nothing to see and though there was street food, it was not as abundant as in Taiwan. Since I was already here, I decided to find something to bite and taste while walking back. Hunan food was certainly good and suitable for the Malaysian palate.