I was recently lucky enough to spend two weeks in Southern China visiting a good friend who's currently teaching at a University in the Hunan Province. Considering I've never even been out of Europe this was a pretty big experience for me.
The 10 hour flight wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting (perfect opportunity to watch all those films I hadn't got round to going to see) and before I knew it me and my travel buddy Hazel had landed into Changsha - the capital of the province.
We spent the first day enjoying the warm weather on Orange Island - basically a huge man made park in the middle of the river in Changsha which homes a giant statue of Mao. This was where I had my first experience of a group of people insisting on having their photos taken with me and my friends - the areas we visited aren't particularly touristy areas and a lot of people wouldn't have been foreign people before, let alone a group of five wandering around.
Further into the city itself and the place was filled with lanterns, we went pretty soon after Chinese New Year so most places still had their lanterns up which made everything look especially pretty.
On an evening this street was all lit up and bustling with people getting street food. On our second night in Changsha we pulled up a table outside a BBQ place and got ourselves a selection of "meat on a stick" which is a very popular meal option in China!
After Changsha we moved onto Guilin which is famous for the scenery in the area. The city itself was just as loud, bright and busy as Changsha. The streets are lined with people selling food, above's a picture of the smelliest fruit in the world - seriously it's banned on public transport because it smells so bad. Unsurprisingly I didn't sample this Chinese delicacy...
One of the most amazing parts of the trip to Guilin was the day trip we took to view the outstanding landscape around the city. The four of us clambered onto a motorised raft and travelled down the Li River and it felt as if we were going through the set of a Lord Of The Rings film. It felt as if we were the only people on the river and was an incredibly tranquil environment to take in the scenery around us (it was, however, also freeze your tits off cold and we all had to huddle for warmth the entire journey.)
Despite it being freezing cold the low lying clouds and mist made the mountains look extra impressive.
The tour group we were with then took us to some more sights around the area, one of which is this naturally made arch which I'm told is very popular with paragliders and other adrenaline junkies who like to fly through it! Definitely need to look up some youtube videos of that!
While staying in the city HuaiHua we took a day trip to Fenghuang which is a traditional Chinese town. Albeit being pretty touristy it was stunning. Despite it being February the weather while we were here was lovely which made the whole day even nicer after the near frostbite experience on the boat in Guilin.
While here we took yet another boat trip (seriously there were so many boat opportunities in these places) which gave us chance to see the traditional architecture as the buildings jut against the river. It felt almost like a Chinese Venice.
Fenghuang also had its own Pagoda which I'm told most Chinese cities own. However no one seemed quite sure what a Pagoda was actually for...pretty none the less.
Forest covered mountains surround the town and provide a beautiful backdrop to the traditional buildings.
Just like in Changsha and Guilin there was a river winding through the town splitting it in two. We decided to cross this on the stepping stones which, being the scaredy cat I am, was terrifying. Genuinely my legs felt like they weighed about 20 tonnes I was so paranoid about falling in. This wasn't helped when a small lady stopped us from going further so a group of girls could take a photo halfway across,
They like their meat fresh in China...
I didn't quite know what to expect from China but it was a once in a life time trip. I'm already planning a return trip but this time to the more touristy spots like Beijing. I'd definitely recommend people paying this beautiful country a visit, just being somewhere so culturally different was an amazing experience.
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