Day 11: Changsha Maglev Train ... Huanghua International Airport

20th April 2019 (Saturday)

[To have a better view of the wide landscape photos, you are encouraged to download them, zoom in so that the top and bottom of the photos touch the edge of your computer screen and then scroll them left and right to get a 180° perspective of the landscape]

Today was the last day. I have another full day today because my flight was only departing at 23:20 p.m. tonight. However, I have no plan for today. I could leave my backpack in the hostel and explore the city again but that would leave me sweaty and needing a bath before going to the airport. I could also take it easy, checking out from the hostel at 12:00 noon and going to and exploring Changsha Maglev Station/ Changsha South Railway Station before taking the maglev train to Changsha Huanghua International Airport. I was in no hurry to do anything.

I went to find breakfast at Cai'e North Street, a street which I had not taken before. Like the day before, I was glad I made that decision because I discovered some really good breakfast food. I actually returned to the same shop and bought another piece of the egg wrap. After breakfast, I went back to my hostel and spent my time on Youtube, downloading videos. Internet in China sucked. It was so slow using VPN to access Youtube.

Just before 12:00 noon, I checked out from the hostel. I would take another route to Furong Square Subway Station. On my way there, I saw the name Huatian Food Street emblazoned boldly on a building. It was part of Huatian Hotel and was in the same building as Bank of China. Food Street was on the first floor (2nd floor in American English) of the hotel. It looked more like a food court and I did not even bother to walk in as the place was practically empty of diners.

From Furong Square Station E4, I took the subway to Changsha South Railway Station.  From South Railway Station, I took the underground corridor to the Maglev Station, which was quite a walking distant away.

At South Railway Station/ Maglev Station, I had lunch. I explore the station but there was nothing interesting. The station provided free WIFI but it required registration to access it. I could not understand the instructions to register an account. There was no aircon. The weather at that time was warm and it was uncomfortable waiting at the station.

In the end, I decided to leave for the airport, by Maglev train. As I entered the door to the Maglev platform, I was greeted by the security screening team. Everyone had their token to show to the security officers. I panicked. Where was I supposed to buy the token? I did not see any counter or ticket vending machine selling the token. I asked a security officer manning the screening machine. He looked sheepishly at me and could not answer me in English. I saw counters on my left. From the corner of my eyes, I spotted a row of ticket vending machine behind me. I walked over, bought my token and queued up again for the security check before taking the escalator up to the Maglev platform. I have no photos to show since photography was prohibited.

The Maglev train was very comfortable, with plenty of empty seats. It took only 20 minutes to reach Huanghua International Airport at 3:05 p.m. There was a security officer in uniform in the train who was monitoring the passengers. Security in China was really tight.

At the airport, all the train passengers were again screened by security officers, in groups before they were allowed to leave. The scanning was done in a strange manner. I did not know what the small pieces of item were and the security officers were using them to touch the passengers.

Once the passengers arrived inside the airport terminal, they should not leave the secured area, i.e. Departure Hall and Arrival Hall. I unknowingly left the secured area when I walked down to the basement, which was a public area. I could only re-enter the terminal at a designated gate to the Arrival Hall. I was again scanned in the same manner before I was allowed to re-enter.

I had too much time. As usual, I explored the airport. Most of the restaurants were in the basement but they were literally empty of people. There were also restaurants/ shops in the Departure Hall and Arrival Hall. At the basement too, there was an airport hotel.

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.