So today was a much funner day, and things actually went right! I am extremely thankful.
First, there was no rain. Well - it rained a little bit, but not enough for me to want to pull out the raingear. This made travelling much more comfortable. And even though it didn't rain, it was cloudy so it wasn't too hot and sunny - perfect weather. Second, I got to visit a pretty cool village. About a week ago, I was watching the program "Zoubian Zhongguo" (Going everywhere in China) which is a great program featuring random travel places in China. There they featured a village with many structures dating back severl hundred, even a thousand years. The program mentioned that it was called Liukeng and it was in Jiangxi Province, and I checked all of my maps in an effort to find the place because I thought I might be going past it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it turns out is was only 30km away from Zhaoxi, and along my route. I couldn't help but feeling a sense of destiny that had brought me to this village.
However, the road to destiny is often neither smooth nor straight. There was supposedly a turnoff to Liukeng at a small village called Yinkou. However, I never noticed it, and kept going, and ended up making a long loop around before I made it to Liukeng - this probably added at least 20km to my trip, but I can say that it was worth it. I think that I have a thing for historical homes and properties - the oldest home there was built in the Song Dynasty (around 1000 AD) and I was amazed that it was still standing. Pretty cool. I hope our house in Durham can make it another 900 years. That much time is a little hard to grasp. Most of the homes there were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1400s - 1900), and it was a neat village composed of winding streets and narrow pathways. Very cool. Everyone in the village has the surname Dong. Around 99% of the people, according to my guide, is surnamed Dong! Anyways, it was a pretty cool place to visit, and it felt much more authentic than other cheesy Chinese attractions that exist solely to take your money.
First, there was no rain. Well - it rained a little bit, but not enough for me to want to pull out the raingear. This made travelling much more comfortable. And even though it didn't rain, it was cloudy so it wasn't too hot and sunny - perfect weather. Second, I got to visit a pretty cool village. About a week ago, I was watching the program "Zoubian Zhongguo" (Going everywhere in China) which is a great program featuring random travel places in China. There they featured a village with many structures dating back severl hundred, even a thousand years. The program mentioned that it was called Liukeng and it was in Jiangxi Province, and I checked all of my maps in an effort to find the place because I thought I might be going past it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it turns out is was only 30km away from Zhaoxi, and along my route. I couldn't help but feeling a sense of destiny that had brought me to this village.
However, the road to destiny is often neither smooth nor straight. There was supposedly a turnoff to Liukeng at a small village called Yinkou. However, I never noticed it, and kept going, and ended up making a long loop around before I made it to Liukeng - this probably added at least 20km to my trip, but I can say that it was worth it. I think that I have a thing for historical homes and properties - the oldest home there was built in the Song Dynasty (around 1000 AD) and I was amazed that it was still standing. Pretty cool. I hope our house in Durham can make it another 900 years. That much time is a little hard to grasp. Most of the homes there were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1400s - 1900), and it was a neat village composed of winding streets and narrow pathways. Very cool. Everyone in the village has the surname Dong. Around 99% of the people, according to my guide, is surnamed Dong! Anyways, it was a pretty cool place to visit, and it felt much more authentic than other cheesy Chinese attractions that exist solely to take your money.
A Nice Look over Liukeng
Me looking like a dork in a narrow alleyway.
Ye Olde Stone Lion.
After I left Liukeng, I continued my trip towards Yongfeng, a county seat west of Le'an. Here was the third thing that went right today - I decided just to make sure, to ask directions to Yongfeng at a small village store. I thought that I had to go up through a township called Niutian, but it turned out that there was a small paved road which wasn't shown on my map that went directly from this village to Yongfeng, and probably saved me 20-30km!!!!!! Talk about destiny! The road to Yongfeng was directly across from this small shop, and I was super lucky to talk to that guy. So, I continued on to Yongfeng, and the road was fairly easy to travel upon and I made it into to town at around 4pm.
Then the fourth thing that went right happened - at my hotel, I asked if there was any way to wash my clothes and get them dry in a day, and it turned out that although they don't have a washer, they do have a clothes dryer, so I just washed my clothes by hand, and put them in the dryer!!!!! It is so good to have clean clothes. After all the mountain roads and muck, my clothes were really gross, and I really can't express how happy I am to have clean clothing.
That's it.
1 comment:
Kent. I love reading about your adventures. In a serious way...they make me laugh like crazy.
Post a Comment