Phoenix Ancient Town Free Travel Strategy + Precautions

Phoenix Ancient Town is located in Hunan Province, a very ancient town with distinctive regional and ethnic characteristics. The ancient buildings here are perfectly preserved, the people have a very simple character, beauty and delicious food coexist, here is a detailed strategy for Phoenix Ancient Town free travel.

The once quiet Phoenix in Shen Congwen’s writing is now full of noise and controversy due to ticket events.

Everyone who goes to Phoenix for tourism, besides taking photos, has the urge to write a travelogue, because the scenery there, the lens can only record its shape, words can only tell its spirit.

I decided on Phoenix in the evening, I booked a train ticket online two hours later, packed my travel essentials and rushed to the station. There was no anxiety, but more like a wanderer’s expectation of returning home, because that place, in Lao Shen’s book, is so familiar.

All the way, the train was steadily moving forward, it was dark outside and very quiet, I put on my headphones and leaned against the window and fell asleep. Twenty hours of journey, I wanted to try to use sleep to escape the unbearable anticipation, I woke up many times along the way, all because of the noisy sounds of people getting on and off the train at the stops, the people sitting around me also changed one after another.

The train entered Hunan province at noon the next day, my final stop was in Huaihua City, and soon I arrived. I walked out of the station with my bag, and was greeted by the heat wave of this place, it was definitely warmer than Kunming, the Spring City. Yes, this was the first impression of Xiangxi.

I quickly ate a bowl of noodles on the street, browsed the forum, and then I set off according to the route given by my online friends, hoping to reach Phoenix Ancient Town before dark.

The bus station to Phoenix County is not far from Huaihua Station, and there were not many people going there at this time of year, so I quickly bought a ticket and boarded the bus to Phoenix County. After eating and feeling refreshed, I could finally take a good look at the scenery of Xiangxi.

The mountains here are almost the same as those of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. On the mountains of Yunnan, there are mostly tall parasol trees, pine trees, and coniferous forests. Here, there are more broad-leaved small forests, not tall, and there are wild rice grass everywhere, and the clouds are also floating high.

Soon, the bus arrived in Phoenix County, the kind bus driver decided to take us to the ancient city, from a distance you can see a mountain gate, named “Wuhua Gate”, the ticket seller said, after Wuhua Gate is the Phoenix Ancient Town.

I was the first to get off the bus with my bag, and walked straight towards the gate. When I got out, there was a high bridge, and that scene, became the place I couldn’t forget and appeared in my dreams many times later. Standing on the bridge, the whole Phoenix Ancient Town was within sight, the scenery of Phoenix is compact, not big but rich.

I stood quietly on the bridge for a few minutes, asked the locals, and decided to go down the bridge to the river, to feel the water of Tuojiang River up close.

The Tuojiang River water is very quiet, flowing slowly, like a gentle girl rolling up her sleeves to paint, while the river water of Yunnan is a fierce tiger descending from the mountain, a leopard crossing the ridge, roaring forward.

I walked around the riverbank, and it gradually got dark, my thoughts were pushed to the highest point by the myriad of sights, ferry, Cuicui, stilt houses… it seemed as if everything that Lao Shen described in his writing was still here, never gone…

The bustling crowds couldn’t catch my eyes, all I saw were pavilions, shops, willow shadows turning red, reflecting paintings of faces.

For a moment, I was so busy admiring the scenery that I forgot to eat, so I found a local smoke-cured meat rice noodle shop to have dinner, I was probably too hungry, and thought it was quite delicious.

After dinner, I almost forgot the most important thing of this trip, I inquired about Mr. Shen Congwen’s former residence, and then I went with my bag, all the way I recalled those famous lines of Lao Shen, and unknowingly I arrived. Thinking of not wanting to disturb, I didn’t take pictures of the former residence of Congwen, I only took pictures of the signposts along the way.

Coming back from Congwen’s former residence, I found a youth hostel and stayed there, I met an old man in the youth hostel who was selling some Miao silver ornaments at the door, and in talking with him, I learned that running a small shop had always been his dream, and that in recent years, with his son often selling these handicrafts at the door, it didn’t make much money.

Perhaps this is filial piety, supporting parents to do what they love, respecting the elderly’s thoughts.

This generation has their own hardships, in the early years of the Cultural Revolution, running a business, opening a small shop was seen as taking the capitalist road, and would be criticized.

Perhaps, it’s not just the commercialization of the ancient city in people’s eyes.

I had a good night’s sleep at the youth hostel, tomorrow, I will go to the next stop.

Phoenix Ancient Town Backpacker Strategy: http://www.k1u.com/tour/7.html

Phoenix Ancient Town Self-Driving Tour Strategy: http://www.k1u.com/tour/3274.html