Fenghuang, Hunan is called “one of the two most beautiful towns of China” – the old town of Fenghuang, it is a very important town that connects Huaihua, Hunan and Tongren Guizhou together. It is the hometown of Shengcongwen, a very famous auther, archaeologist and historian of China. Mr Shen devoted all his life to writing, his 5 – million words works are though as the precious legacy to the world literature. These works are also very valuable for researching the history of Hunan province and even China.
How to get in:
You can fly to Zhangjiajie, Hunan first. There are airlines connecting Zhangjiajie directly with many big cities of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc) . It is about 4 hours’ ride from Zhangjiajie to Fenghuang. There are buses heading to Fenghuang in the downtown of Zhangjiajie (at 8:00 am, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm). The cost is 62 rmb for one person. If you wanna fly to Changsha, Hunan first. It is a little bit far away from Fenghuang from Changsha and you will need to drive for 6 hours to get to Fenghuang. In the old town of Fenghuang, the most common vehicle is the tricycle. The cost is about 1 rmb if you are travelling inside the old town of Fenghuang. If you are going to some place out of this little town, it is about 2 – 5 rmb.
Eat in Fenghuang:
The food here is the typical Hunan food and is very spicy. If you don’t want too much chili in your dishes, you need to tell the waiter / waitress when you are ordering your food. ( To get more info about Lhasa travel and China vacations, you can visit Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM )
Shopping in Fenghuang:
The ginger sugar (Jiangtang) is very famous here. It is a special food made from the ginger and sugar. An interesting thing I found here is that almost every store here is selling the ginger sugar. They all claim to be the genuine ginger sugar of Fenghuang, 🙂 You can try some free samples in these stores first. If you really like it, you can bring some back to your home. This ginger sugar is very unique and you will not be able to fine the same thing in other places. The batik painting is another interesting thing you must see here. You can visit a little store near the Hongqiao bridge. The name of its owner is Tengshufang and he will take you to the place making these batik paintings. They will show you how they make these batik paitnings and it’s free. 🙂
Accommodation in Fenghuang:
There are a lot of family inns in the old town of Fenghuang and the cost is about 10 – 100 rmb for a night. Here are some good family inns for your Fanghuang travel: (1). Tuojiangrenjia Inn: The name of its owner is Baozhongyi and the phone number is: 0743 – 3224558. (2).Jiangbei Inn: The name of its owner is Huangjianhe and the phone number is: 0743 – 3260234.
See:
The former residence of Shencongwen: Lined in the Zhongying street in the south part of the Fenghuang old town, the residence is a typical spacious ancient countyard with special tectonic style of Ming and Qing dynasty. Walk into the yard, you can find that there is a small patio in the center of the countyard, which is built with red rocks. Around the patio , there are about 10 rooms which are small but decorated by special carved wooden windows. It is so beautiful. This 100-years-old countyard was renovated in 1989. The 1st room on the right hane is for displaying Shen’s photos. What displayed in the 2nd room are Shen’s handwriting articles. At the left side, you will find a list of Shen’s work of different additions. In the center of the middle room, there is a line drawing hanging on the wall. The left fringle room is Shen’s bedroom and another one on the right is full of marble desks and chairs.