China: From Changsha to Hengyang
Published: 14.12.2013
When we purchased the tickets that we guarantee that we will be able to leave the Zhangjiajie National Park, we did not protest when we found a complete state of affairs: a printed inscription in characters wu-cuo quite clearly said that most likely during the way we sit.
As you certainly know, the Chinese train ticket to the emergency whole time. This leads to the fact that they also sell tickets without a reservation and their owners can only hope that some places for a while to clear, or you can bring a folding chair.
When a person is prepared for the worst, the reality usually is not so terrible. And so we were lucky and one seat on the train remained unoccupied. In addition, the six-hour drive in China is not a long distance at all.
In Changsha us again welcomed the hot weather. Chinese specialty station are large open space in front of the building. Neither Changsha was an exception. Fatigue of traveling for us was getting to know, but we bravely dragged backpacks through endless red-hot plain and thinking about the origin of the name of the place - literally "long sand". Unfortunately, that's definitely probably never ever find out.
The first impression of the place where Mao Zedong began his political career, improved quickly find the hotel. But since we soon went to the next town, Cheng-yang, left us no time to visit Chunang rovincial museum known thanks to Mrs Tai, whose body was preserved in the tombs of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). Perhaps next time, we said when we sat down to the next train.
The area in front of the station was in Cheng-yang perhaps even larger than in Changsha. With much more proficiency we found accommodation near the station in an inconspicuous small hotel and set off to explore the city itself.
Although it might sound very rude, the greatest joy to us that day was a discovery of a small restaurant with our favorite dish - la-mien ("pulled noodles"). We quickly justified our barbarism. Everyone from time to time needs a break. However, we also had another plan. First up was to be the second day Tung-chou island, tourists not very well know, however, about this beautiful place. So we happily settled with a huge bowl of noodles, opened the guide and got to the discovery of new information that we were to discover Cheng-yang adequately prepared.
Text/photo: Hana Bašová
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Photo: Amy Challen a Jan Lidmaňský