CHINA – CENTRAL EAST II

After two weeks with Anna, I returned to the China Central East area to see more previously unvisited NM regions and a few more WHS.

Day 28 Mon July 17
All the NM sites in Guiyang were a long way away and it was a Monday when most museums are closed. All trains to Nanning and Wuhan were booked for at least 2 days (I guess this is the summer holidays in China), so I booked a flight to Wuhan.
Flight. Colourful Guizhou Airlines. Guiyang to Wuhan @15:50-19:25. GY7129 3’35”. 574¥. What a weird flight – we flew the first 40 minutes due west to Bijie, deboarded for 55 minutes and could not leave the boarding gate.
In Wuhan, it was 36 km by metro from the airport to downtown Wuhan. I walked the 1.5 km to the hostel. 
ON Enjoy International Youth Hostel.

CHINA – HUBEI EAST (Wuhan, Jingzhou, Jingmen, Suizhou)

WUHAN (pop over 11 million) is the capital of Hubei Province, the largest city in Hubei, and the most populous city in Central China. Wuhan lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain, at the confluence of the Yangtze River and its largest tributary, the Han River, and is known as “Nine Provinces’ Thoroughfare”.
Wuhan has historically served as a busy city port for commerce and trading. Other historical events taking place in Wuhan include the Wuchang Uprising of 1911 led to the end of 2,000 years of dynastic rule. Wuhan was briefly the capital of China in 1927 under the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT) government. The city later served as the wartime capital of China for ten months in 1937 during WWII. Wuhan is considered the political, economic, financial, commercial, cultural, and educational center of Central China. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads, and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan is sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of China”. The “Golden Waterway” of the Yangtze River and the Han River traverses the urban area and divides Wuhan into the three districts of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge crosses the Yangtze in the city. The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity, is located nearby. Historically, Wuhan has suffered risks of flooding. While Wuhan has been a traditional manufacturing hub for decades, it is also one of the areas promoting modern industrial changes in China. Wuhan has three national development zones, four scientific and technological development parks, over 350 research institutes, 1,656 high-tech enterprises, numerous enterprise incubators, and investments from 230 Fortune Global 500
On December 31, 2019, SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that later caused the COVID-19 pandemic, was first discovered in Wuhan and the city was the location of the first lockdown of the pandemic in January 2020. The market has been closed, but the buildings still stand. The Wuhan Museum does not mention Covid.

Day 29 Tue July 18
I had my usual tour of a city using the metro, walking, and a rental bicycle. 
Tortoise Mountain TV Tower is 311.4 metres (1,022 ft) high, a concrete TV Tower with an observation deck at 221.2 metres (726 ft). It does not stand directly upon “Turtle” Mountain, one of the two famous hills of Wuhan, the other being Sheshan (the Snake Mountain) on the opposite, right bank of the Yangtze where the ancient Yellow Crane Tower is located. Both hills have many historic ruins and rows of sculptures of ancient warriors line the hill. It is also occupied by an ancient temple complex from the Three Kingdoms, Song, and Ming Dynasties). This is China’s first self-developed TV tower, opened in 1986.
Guiyuan Temple is a Buddhist temple built in the 15th year of the Shunzhi period (1658) of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). It is a large complex with the Big Buddha Hall as the highlight. Outside on the square is a huge stone Buddha statue and a large old pagoda.
It was a long 6.5 km bicycle ride to the Metro Museum.
Wuhan Metro Museum. This used to be at the location on Google Maps but is no longer there. I couldn’t find any more information if it was still open.
Wuhan Museum. Don’t miss the Cultural Relics of the Dynasties here. On the first floor, it has many amazing pieces – enamelware, seals, ink stones, ivory, jade, bamboo carvings, rhinoceros horn carvings, agate, and many bronze pieces. Other halls have traditional  Chinese paintings, porcelain, and bells. Free
Hanjie Wanda Square. I ate at a Pizza Hut here. A nice mall.
Riverview Plaza. At 376m, it has 73 floors (+3 underground). It was built from 2013 to 2020 and is an office building with a mall on the bottom. Riverview Plaza A3 is 186 m with 34 floors. Riverview Plaza A2 is 156m with 27 floors.
Wuhan Art Museum. In a grand old bank building with many great columns, the main exhibit was Zhou Shifong’s Chinese Painting, which I don’t like much. Free
Wuhan Science and Technology Museum. The usual fun scientific experiments and experiences are mostly geared toward kids. Free

Day 30 Wed July 19
I used the metro and then rented a bicycle to visit all the below sites. 
Hubei Provincial Museum. Actually, the Hubei Museum of Art has wonderful exhibits over 3 floors. I like realistic art and there were some great paintings, especially of ethnic subjects. On the 2nd floor hall were many interesting “sculptures” – travelling trunks on wheels and a timepiece display with a guy pushing a watch up a hill. The third floor was all about the war resistance movement of artists producing propaganda during 1938 and onward during the war with Japan, which was centred in Wuhan. Free
Baotong Temple is one of the “Four Buddhist Temples” in Wuhan and is located on the south hillside of Mount Hong. It was first built in the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) and has undergone several name changes. The Mahavira Hall was added in 1457 and was largely extended in 1485. In the heyday of the temple, it had more than 1,500 monks.
During the disastrous Cultural Revolution, all Buddha images were destroyed and resident monks were forcefully disrobed. A pair of exquisite stone lions from the Ming dynasty were also destroyed.
Now the existing main buildings include Heavenly Kings Hall (Great Buddha Hall with 10 great brass figures on each side), Mahavira Hall, Free Life Pond, Jade Buddha Hall, Meditation Hall, Dharma Hall, and Hall of Maitreya.
Shadowless Pagoda. This Buddhist pagoda in the Baotong Temple is the oldest standing architectural feature in Wuhan built in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). It is a seven-story, octagonal Chinese pagoda – 44.1-metre (145 ft) tall, made of brick and stone, doors and windows, as well as columns, rafters, and brackets).
According to legend, there is a dragon vein under the mountains in that area, including Mount She (Snake Mountain). It is believed that the head of the dragon was beneath the Yellow Crane Tower and the area beneath Wuying Pagoda the tail of the dragon.

Wuying Pagoda. In Hongshan Park, the small stone pagoda has eight sides and seven stories. The four-story has carvings of the Buddhist arts and small Buddha statues in small niches. The Wuying Pagoda is 11.25 m tall and has a diameter of 4.25 meters.
Yellow Crane Tower. In the NM Urban Legends series, it is a traditional Chinese tower built from 1981 to 1985, but the tower has existed in various forms from as early as AD 223. The current Yellow Crane Tower is 51.4 m (169 ft) high and is situated on Snake Hill (蛇山), one kilometre away from the original site.
The tower was destroyed twelve times, both by warfare and by fire, in the Ming and Qing dynasties and was repaired on ten separate occasions. The last tower at the original site was built in 1868 and destroyed in 1884. In 1907, a new tower was built near the site of the Yellow Crane Tower. Zhang Zhidong proposed ‘奧略樓‘ (Aoliaolou Tower) as the name for this tower and wrote an antithetical couplet for it.^[3] In 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was built with one trestle of the bridge on the Yellow Crane Tower’s site.
It is an imposing building and a very busy place with large crowds on a Wednesday afternoon.
The Sacred Stupa is 9.36 meters high and 5.68 meters wide made of stone. It is the oldest and most complete single building preserved in the former site of the Yellow Crane Tower and the first type of stupa after Buddhism inherited from India to China. It is the only existing Lama-style white stupa in Wuhan. ‘

Day 30 Wed July 19
Train. Wuhan to Zhangjiajie West @22:40-05:35+1, Z295, 7’3″, soft sleeper.
I had a great sleep, arrived at the train station at 05:35, and had breakfast in the Tourist Center, but the luggage storage there didn’t open till 9!! I then took bus 17 – 2¥ to the city bus terminal and stored my luggage in the terminal at the lunch counter in the middle 10¥. Bus to Yongshun 35¥, 
The bus dropped me off at the outskirts of Yongshu on the road to the World Heritage Site marked in the rock, instead of the bus station. I didn’t know I was in Yongshun. I asked a man driving by how to get to the site and he said it was 10 km but there were no taxis. He offered to help me rent a car for over 100¥!! A bus passed and I got that. Even though I said Laosicheng, the bus almost passed it.
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CHINA – HUBEI WEST (Yichang, Enshi, Xiangyang, Shiyan)
TUSI SITES WHS In the mountainous areas of southwest China are several tribal domains whose chiefs were appointed by the central government as ‘Tusi’, hereditary rulers from the 13th to the early 20th century. Its purpose was to unify national administration while allowing ethnic minorities to retain their customs and way of life.
The three sites of Laosicheng, Tangya, and the Hailongtun Fortress combine as a serial property to represent this system of governance. The archaeological sites and standing remains of Laosicheng Tusi Domain and Hailongtun Fortress represent domains of the highest ranking Tusi; the Memorial Archway and remains of the Administration Area, boundary walls, drainage ditches, and tombs at Tangya Tusi Domain represent the domain of a lower ranked Tusi.
An empire can only grow so much until the people at the peripheries feel discontented and neglected by the central government. Maintaining control needs more than military prowess. Governing an area so large and with a multitude of ethnicities makes it even more difficult. The emperors extended their influence over ethnic minorities by legitimizing tribal rule. They made the tribal leaders hereditary rulers and established the Tusi System. The system granted political autonomy,  retained the ethnic identity, and at the same time allowed the central administration to exert its leadership.
Laosicheng. The best-preserved example of the highest-rank Tusi System of governance, Laosicheng was ruled by the Peng clan for centuries.  The cultural interchange between imperial China and Tujia customs was evident from the paved streets and layouts of the administrative areas. Streets were decorated with pebble patterns (triangles, diamonds, lines) and were distinctive features of Tujia nationality. Remains of the administration halls and other surviving relics illustrated the patterns of imperial influences.
Laosicheng is an easy day trip from Zhangjiajie with multiple buses going to Yongshun, where local buses to the sites were available. The bus station is hidden among communist-era apartment blocks), take a minibus/one per hour, the last one at 5 p.m, 40 minutes.  Stop at the visitors’ centre a few km before the site itself at the bus stop called the Museum. Pay the entrance fee, visit the museum, and take an electric vehicle to the start. Board a small vessel to the Patriarch Hall, they open it when a boat arrives. Made of wood and reconstructed many times in its history, it was first built in the first half of the 10th century and is a typical building of the Tujia minority. Cross the river to the remains of village walls, a watch-out tower, and a newly reconstructed temple. The Hall of the Patriarch is at least 2 km from the bridge.
The administrative, residential, and funeral quarters of the domain, pass through a modern village. Reconstructed temples – Ancestral Hall of the Peng family, Memory Archway, Ancient Tomb Complex, water management system, road system, and administrative buildings.
Ticket 98¥. I went to the museum but entered the office area by mistake and luckily found a very nice woman who adopted me. We visited the museum with a lot of ethnographic material, some archaeology, and maps, most in Mandarin. 
She drove in her personal car to the river avoiding the bus and made sure we had a traditional wooden boat instead of a motor boat to go down the river. It is a lovely serene river with two small riffles and karst formations. We went all the way down to the Tao Temple. It was a long climb up to the temple on steps. We witnessed a complete Tao religious ceremony with a “flute”, drums, and chanting asking for health and long life. After they took photos with me. We climbed up to the hall behind a building for manuscripts. 
It was then a long walk high above the river on a gorgeous walkway paved with small river rocks laid in a herringbone pattern – literally made from zillions of stones. We passed through the ancient village – arches, stelae, pavilions, cemetery, and a lot of foundation and terrace walls back down to the river, crossed it on a bridge, and returned to her car. It was raining very hard and after yesterday’s experience in Wuhan, had remembered to bring my umbrella. I still got soaked. She was very gracious and kind, not even letting me buy her a Coke. 
Because of time constraints, she then drove me all the way to Yongshun bus station and returned back to work even though she lived in Yongshun. She came into the bus station and helped me buy a ticket. The bus left almost immediately at 3. She was truly wonderful – another example of my extremely good luck and some of the very nice people in China.
I then made a major mistake. I had asked if the bus ended at the bus terminal where my luggage was, but it stopped first at the west train station and I got off at 15:40 with my train leaving at 18:45. Realizing my mistake, I got a taxi to the bus terminal and back and arrived at 18:30, enough time to get my train 60¥ with a 5¥tip. The big board said my train was not leaving till 19:00 so I got a burger at Micky’s and just made my train.
My first-class sleeper room had not been made up and was filthy, but I was all alone, so ate, had a coffee, and tried unsuccessfully to sleep for the 3.5 hours to Changsa. 

Train. Zhangjiajie West to Changsha @18:45-23:30, K687, Soft sleeper 92.5¥.
Transfer Changsha 2’40”.

Day 31 Fri July 21
Train Changsha to Wuchang (Wuhan) @01:55-05:22 T290, 3’27”. Hard sleeper 62.89¥
The upper bunk on hard sleepers is the top of three and has very low headroom. The beds are quite narrow, but I was able to sleep.
In Wuhan, I took the metro 14 stops to Hankou Railay Station.

I then got a train to Wudangshan WHS. I had to change stations from Wuchang to Hankou to get this early train. 
Train. Wuhan Hankou to Wudangshan West @08:10-11:02 G9221 2’52” 148¥.
I stored my luggage at the small convenience store just outside the station 10¥ and was hustled immediately for a taxi to the mountain 50¥, a bad deal as it is not far. 

ANCIENT BUILDING COMPLEX in the WUDANG MOUNTAINS WHS. The palaces and temples from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties over 1000 years. Situated amongst the peaks, ravines, and gullies of the picturesque Wudang mountains, it was established as a Taoist centre from the early Tang Dynasty, some Taoist buildings could be traced back to the 7th century. However, the surviving buildings are from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The Ancient Building Complex reached its apogee during the Ming dynasty, with 9 palaces, 9 monasteries, 36 nunneries, and 72 temples. Today, 53 ancient buildings and 9 architectural sites survive.
A vast area of stunning mountain landscapes, numerous beautiful temples and palaces, and nice hiking routes. Good to study early Ming politics and the Chinese history of religion.
Get There. Wudangshan railway station is seven km from the centre of the city and hotels. I was left off at the bottom of the mountain. Walk a way to the ticket office – 100¥ for a senior, 264 regular prices. Board a bus to the mountain with the hordes of people, many with suitcases. It climbs up many switchbacks for 20 minutes to the Prince’s temple. Board another bus that continues the same steep ascent. It stops at the Tianlu Resort and then a temple.
Get Around. General ticket 240 RMB. Includes entry to the majority of the temples, a leaflet with the map, and limitless use of shuttle buses that circulate regularly around the mountains. Bus to the eastern terminus – go up via the eastern way by cable car to Tianzhu Peak (1600m) 90 RMB one way. Peak 17 RMB. Walk down the Western Way.
At each bus stop are a plethora of shops, restaurants, and hotels.
SEE
I found the place quite confusing as I was not given a map and all the “tourist” signs were in Mandarin. I finally found the cableway by asking a lot of people.
Prince Slope (Fuzhen Temple) from the 15th and 17th centuries.
Golden Palace on the peak. Golden Shrine and the Ancient Bronze Shrine are prefabricated buildings made entirely of bronze from 1307. Labyrinthine stairs and alleys between the buildings on different levels.
Cableway 150¥ return, 80¥ one way and walk down (I took the return trip).
Good Luck Hall (Turning Hall) is the oldest bronze building from 1307. Walk up to squeeze around the small hall in total darkness and down to the left). Walking down, see Facing Heaven Palace, Yellow Dragon Cave, and Langmei Shrine.
Walk up another long set of steps to the top Golden Shrine. It is larger, has a bronze roof, and is surrounded by bronze pipes all finely engraved. Inside is a heavy, black Tao diety.
The total number of high steps was 680 from the cableway to the Golden Shrine. I was steady but slow, only beating a 3-year-old, a very fat guy, and two old women with canes. The place was crowded but I imagine much worse on weekends and holidays.
Southern Rock or Nanyan Palace (near the coach terminus) – from the 12th and 13th centuries, a beautiful building complex, located on the edge of a cliff with skillful and colourful woodwork and panoramic viewing platforms.
Purple Heaven or Zixiao Palace was built originally in the 12th century, rebuilt in the 15th century, and extended in the 19th century. One of the best-known complexes of the Wudang Mountains. 17RMB
Stone Zhishi-Xuanyue Gateway was built to mark the entrance to the Wudang Mountains in 1522. Stone-walled Forbidden City of 1419.
After the cable car and Golden Palace, I returned to the bottom, ate at Micky’s, and made a bad decision. For some reason, I thought that Shiyan was close and booked a hotel there. But it was over 48 km. After picking up my luggage at the railway station, the taxi cost 170¥. It would have been much easier to use one of the many hotels at the base of the mountain. Apparently, most take foreigners.
ON Hilton Garden Inn, Silyan 385¥. A very nice room despite the bad reviews. Chinese are very picky tourists.
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Day 32 Sat July 22
Taxi back to Wudanshan 99¥ – it is much cheaper when they drive fast.
Train. Wudangshan to Nanyang East @09:11-11:29 with an hour stop in Xiangyang.
There is remarkably little to see in Nanyang or in Henan South for that matter. The Xixia Dinosaur Relics Park in the NM Bizzarium series, was 129 km from Nanyang East Railway Station. There was nowhere to store my luggage at the train station so I had to lug it around. I caught a city bus (#25) into the center of the city and went to a McDonald’s and a Starbucks for the afternoon.

CHINA – HENAN SOUTH (Nanyang, Zhoukou, Luohe, Pingdingshan)

NANYANG (pop 10.26 million, metro 9,713,112) Nanyang was the capital of the state of Shen in the first millennium BCE. It became commercially important under the Han dynasty, as it had many iron foundries and other manufacturing sites.
It is the political and cultural center of southwestern Henan province and a hub for trade.
The city lies within the Nanyang Basin in the gap between the eastern end of the Qin Mountains and the source of the Huai River. To the north is Mount Du, which is famous for the Dushan jade, one of the four famous jades of China, now a rarity. To the southwest is Neixiang County with the newly developing Baotianman Biosphere Reserve—an area of high biodiversity, with 65 rare and endangered species.
Xixia Dinosaur Relics Park. In the NM Bizzarium series, it was 129 km from Nanyang

I then did a dumb thing. I didn’t realize that my train to Hefei left from Nanyang Railway Station, the slow train station, not Nanyang East, the high-speed station. I took the same #25 bus, realized that it was not immediately returning to the station, got off, and took a taxi. Still confused about my departure station and not helped by my taxi driver, it became apparent that I would not make the 18:40 departure from Nanyang East (but could have made my actual booked train as Nanyang Station was in the middle of the city). He took me to a hotel that didn’t accept foreigners and ended up at a Howard Johnsons. I lost an entire day and a 143¥ train trip.
ON Howard Johnson Zhongtai Hotel Nanyang. 330¥. A nice hotel.
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Day 33 Sun July 23
Train. Nanyang to Hefei. Nanyang East to Zhangzhou East @11:59-13:23 1’24”, Zhangzhou East to Hefei @14:10-17:00 2’50”.

CHINA – ANHUI NORTH (Hefei, Huainan, Yushan, Suzhou, Bozhou, Lu’an)
HEFEI (pop 9,369,881, metro 7,754,481) is the capital, largest city, and the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui Province. A natural hub of communications, Hefei is situated to the north of Chao Lake and stands on a low saddle crossing the northeastern extension of the Dabie Mountains, which forms the divide between the Huai and Yangtze rivers.
The present-day city dates from the Song dynasty. Before World War II, Hefei remained essentially an administrative centre and the regional market for the fertile plain to the south. It has gone through a growth in infrastructure in recent years. Hefei is the location of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak.
I ate at a Micky’s at the train station and OMG, what a f**k up finding the hostel. It was too good to be true at $10/night. I took the metro to the Google Maps location of the hostel I had booked, Maker House. It was not there. I then took a taxi to the address listed. It was on the 3rd floor of an apartment building and I actually found it in the maze of hallways. No one answered the door. I then had a succession of very helpful Chinese. They all directed me to the same door. They phoned the number and the person answering knew nothing of the hostel. I tried an actual hotel in the building but they had no rooms. I found the location of the hostel on Booking.com and as it was only 3 blocks away, I walked there. It was in the lot of a highrise under construction that couldn’t be accessed. I finally gave up. 
Back on Booking.com, I went to my old standby, a Holiday Inn. 
ON Holiday Inn Express Shushan, 278¥ including tax and BF. A simple but very adequate room.

Day 34 Mon July 24
Up early, I had the hotel BF and hired a cab to take me to the museum. 
Anhui Museum. Another great regional museum was founded in 1956, one of the four model museums at that time. In 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong inspected the Anhui Museum and instructed that the main cities of a province should have such a museum. The main exhibits include lacquerware, ceramics, gold and silver, and bronzes, the usual stuff in most regional museums. Free 

HUAINAN
Piano House. I would have liked to see this but it is a long distance from Hefei. I include this for interest’s sake. In both the Bizzarium and Architectural Delights series, this building in  Shannan in Huainan is a 50:1 scale of a grand piano and a violin with black and transparent glass. The Grand Piano and Violin-Shaped building was constructed in 2007 by architectural students at the Hefei University of Technology.
Supported by three concrete legs just like a real piano, hundreds of black glass panels with clear and white glass represent piano keys. The roof terrace is sheltered beneath a canopy shaped like the propped-open lid of a piano.
The transparent violin is made up of clear glass panels. It contains escalators and a staircase for the entrance to the main piano building with two concert halls.
The house was originally constructed for music lovers but now it is being used by music students that attend the local colleges as a practice area.

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Train. Hefei to Yangzhou. All the direct trains were sold out, but one can often make stops to still connect. Hefei South to Nanjing South @10:09-11:01, Nanjing South to Yangzhou East @11:58-12:57.
I went to my hotel, dropped off my luggage, and saw the things in Yangzhou.

CHINA – JIANGSU NORTH (Xuzhou, Yancheng, Yangzhou)
YANGZHOU (pop 4,559,797, metro 2,635,435) Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze was one of the wealthiest cities in China, known for its great merchant families, poets, artists, and scholars.
Slender West Lake and Historic Urban Area in Yangzhou Tentative WHS: (28/03/2008) is located in the northwest of Yangzhou City covering an area of two square kilometres. In the mid-18th century, the moats and a large number of suburban villas of salt traders along the moats (over 6 dynasties) were connected elaborately. The classical gardens used stone archways, and winding water to become the garden centre in China.
The historic urban area in Yangzhou refers to Luocheng City and Dacheng City over 5.09 square kilometres. The original city layout, streets and lanes, water system, and city landscape had residential houses, gardens, temples, government offices, old stores, ancient bridges, ancient wells, and famous trees. Handicrafts included lacquer, jade ware, paper-cut, etc Entertainment was Yangzhou Ditty, Yangzhou storytelling, Yangzhou puppet show, etc,
Yangzhou Museum. In another modern building with nice architecture. It has seven halls on Yangzhou history, jade, bronze, pottery, paper cut art, and a block printing museum. Free
Garmin Temple is a Buddhist Temple in a semi-rural setting about 7 km south of downtown Yangzhou, on the western shore of the Old Channel of the Grand Canal of China. It was first built in the Sui dynasty. In 1651, Tianzhong Tower was built. They were all destroyed in the Daoguang and Xianfeng eras and subsequently rebuilt. During the Cultural Revolution, it was occupied by the Red Guard who dismantled the halls and fixed other buildings
Daming Temple is a temple located at the middle peak of Shugang Mountain. It is known for a famous monk, Jianzhen, who studied the sutras and initiated people into monkhood here in 742 AD before he left for Japan. It was constructed during the period of Daming (453–464 AD). In 601, Emperor Yang Jian issued an edict to build 30 pagodas across the country for the worship of Buddhist relics and Qi Ling Tower was built in this temple. The magnificent tower had nine floors and was known as “China’s most magnificent and special architecture”. In 1922, Japanese scholar Tokiwa Daijo built a pavilion, a gallery, and a memorial hall before the Daming Temple to commemorate Master Jianzhen.
It consists of the Great Hall, the Pingyuan Hall, the “Jianzhen Memorial Hall” and Si Garden.

ON Vienna Hotel Yangzhou Wenchangge. 288¥. Not a typical Western hotel but I noticed in the reviews that foreigners had stayed here. Google Maps again was totally wrong about the location. I trusted it but from now in will use the address, not its location. #1 South Wenhe Road.

Day 35 Tue July 25
Train. Yangzhou East – Yancheng @07:38-09:12.
I asked if there was luggage storage at the train station. I was told there was, then there wasn’t, then there was and then there wasn’t. These people could drive you nuts. After wasting half an hour, go to the west end of the station for a taxi 2 minutes to the coach station. After another long session trying to find out if there was luggage storage at the bus station, I finally gave up. Then I was directed to the bus departure, past another two buildings (quite confusing), and took a golf cart about 200m. Just as I arrived K2 was leaving and I boarded.
It was 40 km to the Yancheng Nature Reserve for Rare Birds. It took 1’30”. 

MIGRATORY BIRD SANCTUARIES ALONG the COAST of the YELLOW SEA WHS. These are intertidal mudflats, marshes, and shoals considered to be the largest in the world. Important for 400 bird species, and critical for the over 50 million migratory birds that use the East Asian-Australasian flyway (which spans 22 countries) and that depend on the coastline as a stopover. The two parts are 30 km apart separated by the Dafeng Port.
There are 415 species of birds, 26 mammals, 9 amphibians, and 14 reptiles. Includes two of the world’s rarest migratory birds – the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Nordmann’s Greenshank. Also the Black-faced Spoonbill, Oriental Stork, Red-crowned Crane, and Great Knot.
The main body of the marine deposition plain and mudflat was formed before 1855 when the Yellow River changed its course. The Yellow River, Yangtze River, Yalu River, Liao River, Luan River, and Hai River continuously discharge sediments into the Yellow Sea and Bohai Gulf.
Pollution, marine traffic, the modification of major rivers and their sediment loads, wind energy, and infrastructure on land and in the sea.
This is a mudflat system serving as bird foraging and resting areas. The entire “Yancheng Coast” is a bird paradise that was a Ramsar Wetland and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve before a WHS. China’s new cities are being built on what used to be wetlands in the last decade plus.
There are three interpretation centers open for visitors, all are in the buffer zones. It is possible to walk into the core.
Dafeng Milu Nature Reserve. Only the northeast section is in the core, the deer breeding center is far from the inscribed area. The deer got eaten to extinction. It is not part of the inscription.
Tiaozini Scenic Area. Only one side abuts the core zone.
Yancheng Nature Reserve for Rare Birds. It abuts the core on its northeast corner. This is the primary tourist area of the WHS, where the well-photographed massive crane building is located. Wings are the roof and the head is a lookout tower.
The site is a hybrid between a zoo with cared-for birds (they breed and take care of sick/injured red-crowned cranes here) and a wild nature reserve.
Get there. Take bus K2 or K202 from Yancheng Coach Station. 40km, about 1.5 hours as the buses go very slow and have numerous stops.
Get around. The park is mostly reeds ponds and marches. There are camouflaged bird-watching tents. Rent a bike (20 RMB per 2 hours). At the corner, in the core zone boundary, there is a road to the monitoring station inside the core zone that is supposed to be for staff only, but one can still go in. Walk around on paths around the lakes.
SEE. It is good for both casual and serious birdwatchers. At certain times, they let some red-crowned cranes fly out. The red-crowned cranes are everywhere but they come in higher numbers in winter. September/October is the “best” time to visit. The actual rare birds don’t arrive from Siberia until November when it is very cold. See Siberian cranes and the tiny spoon-billed sandpipers. 40¥
My Experience. I paid the entrance forgetting to ask if there was an age reduction and left my luggage at the ticket office. It is a walk around the lake to the crane building, now grey not yellow. There are 2 large exhibition halls explaining all you want to know about red-crested cranes. It was interesting to see the stuffed examples of many of the other 15 kinds of cranes in the world. I didn’t see the captive program or know even if that is possible. 
After the museum, a massive rainstorm started – thunder. lightning, very heavy rain in massive droplets, and wind. It was obvious I was not going to walk around the reserve. Luckily I had brought my umbrella and walked back to the ticket office. After another laborious process of getting them to use translation, I was told that the next bus left at 1 pm. There were 6 buses parked and all idling but none of the bus numbers were displayed. I luckily stood in front of them as the bus driver suddenly came from the back of the bus, sat down, and left in about 10 seconds – with me aboard. However, it was bus K202 that required a transfer to bus 75 to arrive at the bus terminal. It was good I had 2 hours but still worried that I could miss my train.
Bus 75 didn’t go on a direct route and had detours through several neighbourhoods. The driver though was great and drove faster than usual. It seemed that we hit every stop light. He let me off at the bus terminal at 2:55 and I didn’t know how to get to the train station. I quickly found a taxi who got me there in a couple of minutes and I arrived on the platform 4 minutes before departure!!
Train. Yancheng to Qufu East @15:04-17:17 2’13” 152¥. No buses or metro from the train station. Taxi 30¥
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CHINA – SHANDONG INLAND (Jinan, Heze, Liaocheng)

ON Qufu International Youth Hostel US$7, dormitory. Interestingly this was sold out on the yhachina website but not on Trip.com. This is because YHA screwed the hostel – during covid, many reservations were cancelled but yha still charged them.
I did a load of washing in a machine for free. They even supplied washing powder.

Day 36 Wed July 26 A big two World Heritage Site day.
QUFU (pop 653,000, 188,000 urban) is 130 km south of the provincial capital Jinan. Qufu is best known as the hometown of Confucius. Qufu literally means “crooked hill”. The small historical center is surrounded by the restored Ming-era city wall and rivers/moats. The Drum Tower is in the center of the walled city along with the Temple of Confucius (Kong Miao), and Confucius Mansion.
The Si River and the Yi River both pass through the city.

TEMPLE and CEMETERY of CONFUCIUS and the KONG FAMIYY MANSION in QUFU WHS. The temple, cemetery, and family mansion of Confucius, the great philosopher, politician, and educator of the 6th–5th centuries B.C., are located at Qufu, his birthplace. Built to commemorate him in 478 B.C., the temple has been destroyed and reconstructed over the centuries; today it comprises 104 buildings dating from the Jin to Qing dynasties including the Dacheng Hall, Kuiwen Pavilion, and Xing Altar, and over 1,250 ancient trees. The Temple houses more than 1,000 stelae, Han stone reliefs, carved pictures depicting the life of Confucius, and the stone dragon carvings of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Located 1,100 meters to the north of the temple complex, the 183-hectare cemetery has Confucius’ tomb and more than 100,000 of his descendants.
The small house of the Kong family developed into a 7-hectare aristocratic residence. 152 buildings remain where the male direct descendants of Confucius lived and worked. Over 100,000 collections are kept in the Mansion; among them are the ten ceremonial utensils of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the portraits of Confucius made in different periods, and clothes and caps dating to the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In the Ming period, many outstanding artists and craftsmen applied their skills in the adornment of the temple, and in the Qing period, imperial craftsmen built the Dacheng Hall and Gate and the Qin Hall, considered to represent the pinnacle of Qing art and architecture.
Confucius’s system of belief involving philosophy, politics, and ethics (subsequently known as Confucianism) exerted a profound influence on Chinese culture and was revered as the Sacred Model Teacher for Ten Thousand Generations by Chinese emperors.
Confucianism exerted a profound influence also on the feudal societies of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam and had a positive influence on the Enlightenment of 18th-century Europe.
Within two years after the death of Confucius, his former house was already a temple. Later, emperors visited Qufu after their enthronement or on important occasions such as a successful war. In total, 12 different emperors paid 20 personal visits to Qufu to worship Confucius. The original three-room house of Confucius was removed from the temple complex in 611. Fires in 1214, 1499, and 1724 and the Cultural Revolution in 1966 required 15 major renovations, and 31 large repairs.
The Confucius Temple is the second largest historical building complex in China after the Forbidden City – has 9 courtyards, and is 1.3 km long. The main buildings are the Stele Pavilions, Kuiwen Hall, Xing Tan Pavilion (Apricot Platform), De Mu Tian Di Arch, Dacheng Hall, and the Hall of Confucius’ Wife.
The 32 m tall Dacheng Hall is the architectural center and the principal place for offering sacrifices to the memory of Confucius. It is supported by 28 richly decorated one-piece rock pillars, each 6 m high and 0.8 m in diameter. The front ten columns are decorated with coiled dragons. The courtyard in front contains the “Apricot Platform” where Confucius taught his students under an apricot tree.
Kong Family Mansion. The direct descendants of Confucius lived in the Kong family Mansion east of the temple. They were in charge of tending to the temple and cemetery, conducting elaborate religious ceremonies at plantings, and harvests, honoring the dead, and birthdays. The Kong family was in control of the largest private rural estate in China. The first mansion was built in 1038
Three rows of buildings had 560 rooms and 9 courtyards, but today, 152 buildings have 480 rooms, Its tallest structure is the four-story refuge tower but was never used. The family mansion was inhabited until 1937 when Confucius’ descendants in the 76th and 77th generations fled to Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War and later during the Chinese Civil War to Taiwan, where the head of the family still resides.
The Cemetery of Confucius (Kong Lin) is 1.3 km north of the walled city. The original tomb of Confucius had the shape of an axe and a brick platform for sacrifices. The present-day tomb is a cone-shaped hill.
Since Confucius’ descendants were conferred noble titles and were given imperial princesses as wives, many of the tombs in the cemetery show the status symbols of noblemen. Today, there are about 3,600 tombstones from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties inside a wall 7.5 km long enclosing 3.6 square km. 100,000 descendants of Confucius were buried over 2000 years. The oldest graves date to the Zhou dynasty, the most recent from the 76th and 78th generations.
During the Cultural Revolution, the cemetery was branded “reactionary” and 2000 tombs were dug up, looted, and flattened. Confucius’s statue was pulled down and paraded through the streets. 100,000 volumes of classical texts were burned, 6,618 cultural artifacts were destroyed or damaged, one thousand stelae were smashed, and 5,000 ancient pines were felled. The corpse of the 76th Duke of Qufu was removed from its grave, hung naked from a tree in front of the palace, and later incinerated.
More than 10,000 mature trees give the cemetery a forest-like appearance. A 1,266m road is lined by cypresses and pine trees.
My experience. These three sites are separate complexes with separate admissions. 140¥ combined ticket Free if >60. All the large trees have labels but are only in Mandarin.
The Kong Family Mansion is in the SW corner. It is not very interesting except for some old trees and the eves and large elaborately painted roof beams and rafters.
The Confucius Temple is in the NE corner. Join the hordes of people, many in tour groups. Pass through 3 great stone arches, 3 stone bridges over a small canal, Hongdao Gate, Dazhong Gate from 1500 (the main entrance to the temple), several pavilions holding huge stelae mounted on large turtles, Tongwen Gate, and finally, the Temple of Confucius dating from 1018 with 3 roofs and great deeply incised bas relief carvings on the columns.
Return the same way to exit, turn left, pass through all the stands, and then out to the street. I caught a taxi to the cemetery. 
Confucius Cemetery. Two km north of the other complexes. Walk through a great line of old cypress. Not knowing what to expect, I took one of the electric carts. They follow a curving path through the dense forest. Hundreds of small gravestones 4-8 feet high are randomly scattered through the trees. Stop at two large graves with big stelae, an altar, and one with many stone animals. Finally, arrive at the Tomb of Confucius, pass stone animals, walk through a pavilion, and finally arrive at the large mound where he is buried with the graves of Kong Li (a son) and Zi Long (a disciple).
From the tomb, walk back to the entrance. I took a taxi to the hostel, got my luggage, and continued to Qufe East train station 30¥.
Train. Qufu East to Tai’an @12:21-12:42. US$5

MOUNT TAISHAN WHS. The sacred Mount Tai is the foremost of the “Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism”. It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. The temples on its slopes have been a destination for pilgrims for 3,000 years and where the emperor paid homage to Heaven and Earth. The artistic masterpieces found there are in perfect harmony with the natural landscape.
Settled by humans as early as the Neolithic period, in BCE, the Qin Emperor, Huang Di, paid tribute to the mountain in the Fengshan sacrifices to inform the gods of his success in unifying all of China.
The mountain is a large and impressive rock mass, 1,545 m high and covering 25,000 ha. It is considered one of the most beautiful scenic spots in China. There are 1,800 stone tablets and inscriptions, and 22 temples including the Temple to the God of Taishan that contains the Taoist masterpiece painting of 1,009 CE “The God of Taishan Making a Journey”.
Ancient trees include six cypresses of the Han Dynasty planted 2,100 years ago; Sophora japonica of the Tang Dynasty planted 1,300 years ago, and the Guest-Greeting Pine and the Five-Bureaucrat Pine, both of which were planted 500 years ago.  All are integrated into the landscape. The eleven gates, the fourteen archways, the fourteen kiosks, and the four pavilions are scattered along the 6,660 steps that rise between heaven and earth.
Its tallest peak is Jade Emperor Peak.
Get there. To see sunrise, take the 8 pm train from Beijing (or a 1-hour train from Xuzhou, or a 19-minute train from Qufu) to arrive at Tai’an just after midnight. Take a taxi from the station to the Red Gate, the starting point of the climb.
Get around. Start in the middle of the night hoping to reach the summit of Jade Emperor Peak in time for sunrise. It is exhausting with 6600 steps. The night climb is as popular as any time of day. The route is dotted with many stone inscriptions and temples but only a few are visible in the dark. Pit stops sell drinks and where people are curled up in rented sleeping bags. Near the temples, red ribbons are tied by pilgrims on tree branches. The steps follow a lovely mountain stream with several waterfalls for the entire distance.
Cable cars. There are two cableways. Taohuayuan is about 400 m from the bus terminal and ends at the South Gate to Heaven, almost at the top. The second (Hershewa) is on another slope of the mountain.
Walk down to get a feel for the genuine pilgrim’s experience. Very steep and all the stairs. 75 minutes to get to the bottom at the bus depot. Take the bus back to the base of the mountain at Tai’an.

See. The views from the top are great to the city and in all directions. The usual temples on the summit are a bit more of the same – most have been rebuilt. Most of the mountain is like a bazaar with tourists and hawkers.
Rock of Taishan. The four characters carved on it say: “The Most Gorgeous of Five Mounts” and probably the most beautiful piece of calligraphy ever carved in rock (it’s on the 5 yuan bill).
Azure Clouds Temple (11th century) is a Taoist temple with yellow glazed tiles.
Cost: minibus to Swiss-made funicular 70 RMB return, 34 if >60; access to mountain 114 RMB, free if >60; cable car 200 RMB return, 100 if >60. Total 387 RMB (US$55).
My experience. It started to rain just as I entered the bus at the bottom and was a full-blown storm when I got off with continuous thunder, lightning and very heavy rain. The cable car stops with lightning. I decided to wait around, and 5 minutes after the rain stopped, the cable car was running. The crowds waiting to go down at the top who had been stuck were huge. It turned into a very nice late afternoon. I walked to the highest temple and then all the way to the bottom. Cost 135¥
ON Tai’an Holiday Inn Express City Center 317¥ including breakfast and tax. I had gone to another hotel first but they refused foreigners.

CHINA – SHANXI NORTH (Datong, Xinzhou, Shuozhou)

ON Al Qaeda Hotel, Shahe. I had booked the EDIO Hotel but the taxi driver didn’t know where it was. Google Maps had it marked where this hotel was, just one km from the train station. Surprisingly they took foreigners. 100¥ for a perfectly adequate room, but lost the payment for the EDIO.

Day 38 Fri July 28

MOUNT WUTAI WHS (Wutaishan or Mount Qingliang) is a sacred Buddhist site at the headwaters of the Qingshui. Five flat-topped peaks roughly correspond to the cardinal directions (North, South, East, West, Central). The north peak (Beitai Ding or Yedou Feng) is the highest (3,061 m or 10,043 ft) and is also the highest point in northern China.
With 53 sacred monasteries, it is one of the Four Sacred Mountains in Chinese Buddhism. Each of the mountains is viewed as the bodhimaṇḍa of one of the four great bodhisattvas. Wǔtái is the home of the Bodhisattva of wisdom. Mount Wutai has an enduring relationship with Tibetan Buddhism and was historically sacred to Taoist pilgrims on the Silk Road in the 10th century.
Mount Wutai is home to some of the oldest wooden buildings in China that have survived since the era of the Tang dynasty (618–907).
Mount Wutai has a subarctic climate – the average annual temperature is 2.1 °C – the highest is 15.2 °C and the lowest is in January, at −12.1 °C.
Get there. Train Beijing to Wutaishan – slow train about 6 hours, arrives at Wutaishan Railway Station in Shahe. Bus Taiyuan to Wutai for four hours through many farmlands and mountain valleys.
Bus Wutaishan Railway station to Taihuai 25¥ 2 hours, infrequent. Taxi 150-200¥. Taihuai town has many restaurants, hotels, toilets, and souvenir shops.
Get around. Trips to the five mountain peaks each 1.5 to 2 hours one-way. Get ~ 40 minutes to visit each. South Peak has the best scenery. Each temple requires a ticket. Ski lift to Dailuoding temple.
See. Taihuai Buddhist architecture. Wutai Shan was the abode of god. It is like a Chinese Buddhist Vatican. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, many emperors as well as pilgrims throughout East Asia and Vietnam came to worship Lord Buddha and Bodhisattva of Wisdom.
Zushi Pagoda. 6th-century, two Tang funerary pillars with chronological records. A gigantic, simple white Nepalese-style pagoda, the symbol of Wutai Shan.
Shuxiang Si, is a ten-minute walk from Taihuai. The famous suspension Buddha is a large 3D wooden screen wall surrounding the six-meter-high golden Manjusri statue depicting the story of Chinese Buddhism heaven with many monks and angles.
Fuguang Temple with the Great East Hall, the third oldest timber structure in China and the finest of its kind. Dates to 857 AD, an imposing hipped roof and huge columns with Douogong (interlocking wooden brackets). Has 36 Buddhist sculptures and numerous wall paintings from the Tang Dynasty.
Nanchan Temple is a large temple first built in 782. The whole temple comprises seven terraces, divided into three parts.
Manjusri Hall, one of the oldest brick buildings in China, was built in the 12th century.
Xiantong Si one of the five Zen temples, is very large with many buildings, and a fantastic gilded bronze pavilion.
Luohou Si – famous Lotus Buddha covered by large folded wooden lotus petals that open like a lotus blossoming showing Buddha statues inside.
Dailuoding temple. Chair lift that wasn’t running the day I was there. Great views. Stupa of Tayuan Temple. Walk down or pay for the return cable car.
Zhenhai Temple
Xiantong Temple. One of the five Zen temples. Manjusri Hall was considered to be one of the oldest brick buildings in China.
Hike the hills around Taihuai town.
Cost 220¥, free if >60. Bus 60-80¥, depending on which of the five peaks one wishes to visit. The south peak has the best scenery. Take 1.5 to 2 hours (one-way) with 40 minutes to one hour to visit. Each temple in Wutai Shan had a separate ticket.
My experience. I lazed around until 10 and walked down to the train station to get a bus to Wutaishan expecting that they would be frequent. But the next one was at 12:30, so I took a taxi 50 km to the North gate, the high point of the drive. The first two quoted 200 and the third 150¥. It was about an hour’s drive and raining and cool. The ticket was 140¥ but free if over 60. I was directed down to the green/white buses below and to the left, which shuttles you down to the Taihuai town and temples.
It is a long street with many restaurants, knick-knack shops, and food vendors. I saw two temples down below but nothing on the mountains. The cable car wasn’t operating.
I returned to the high entrance gate and tried to hitchhike down from the gate but no one stopped. The bus was later in the afternoon. One taxi wanted 200. A fellow said that he would drive me down for 150 and took me to my hotel.
I sat around playing bridge and working on my many projects until 6. With no food at the Wutaishan Railway Station, I ate at a Chinese restaurant, always an adventure.

Train. Wutaishan to Taijuan @19:55-23:03, 3’6″, hard seat.
This was the first time I had to have a paper ticket. I don’t think they see foreigners here. The lady in the ticket window could not figure out how to get a paper ticket. I lost it at the entrance and he finally let me through. Although I supposedly had a hard seat in carriage 3, this car only had hard sleepers (or maybe a hard sleeper is a bed with no bedding?). So I upgraded for free” The train was virtually empty.

Day 39 Sat July 29
Train. Taijuan to Beijing West @03:59-08:28. 4’29”. Soft sleeper. I had a great sleep.
I then had 3 hours to get to Beijing Chaoyang Train Station with no idea how to get there. It is not on Google Maps and Google search was no help. 
Metro Line 9 lime green 3 stops to Baishiquiaman. Change to Line 6 gold, east about 11 stops to Qingnian Lu (at the Joy City Shopping Center). Go around the mall turn right (north) onto Quingnian Road, and walk 2 blocks to a bus stop. Take bus 194 (all stops are only in Chinese) to its end. You can’t miss the station, a huge new station. This took 2 hours. I ate at Micky’s.
The signage in the station is very confusing. Take the escalator down to the bottom. All the entrances along the long corridor (where McDonald’s is) are locked and all the signs point to exits. I went back upstairs and learned that the entrance is down at the bottom but at the far end of the very long corridor. I made the train with only a few minutes to spare, so used all my 3 hours. 
Train. Chaoyang Train Station to Chengdenan @11:25-12:24. 59″. A high-speed train.
There are no metros or buses north of my hotel. Taxi 35¥, registered, and left my luggage in my room.
The walk to the Mountain Resort entrance was only 15 minutes.

CHINA – HEBEI NORTH (Tangshan, Chengde, Zhangjiakou)
MOUNTAIN RESORT and its OUTLYING TEMPLES, CHENGDE WHS. The Mountain Resort (the Qing dynasty’s summer palace), in Hebei Province, was built between 1703 and 1792. It is a vast complex of palaces, and administrative and ceremonial buildings. Temples of various architectural styles and imperial gardens blend harmoniously into a landscape of lakes, pastureland, and forests. It is also a rare historic vestige of the final development of feudal society in China.
Outside the palace walls, the “Outlying Temples” were 11 Tibetan Buddhist temples – 8 of which remain. These included “reproductions” of the Dalai Lama’s residence, the Potala, and the Panchen Lama’s residence at Shigatse. The main gates of these buildings pointed towards the palace, symbolizing the unity of China’s various ethnic groups under the central rule of the Qing emperors.
Get there. High-speed train from Beijing Chaoyang station one hour to Chengdenan train station (south). A 15-minute walk from my hotel.
Get around. Most Chinese ride around the large area on electric carts. To get to the outlying temples walking would mean huge distances or multiple taxis. A rental scooter would be ideal but preventing it from being used by someone else while you saw the temples would be very difficult.
My experience. I entered at the Mountain Resort entrance at 145¥ regular, free if >60. These imperial gardens are in three sections: the NW mountain area with a big loop trail, the SE lake area (paddle boats, large sightseeing boats being poled, an island with pavillions) and the NE plains. After the entrance, pass 2 halls, and a residential area, walk along the lake shore, visit the island, and continue next to the bottom of the hills along canals and lily ponds to Youguou Temple (built in 1751, three stelae on turtle backs with ogre faces, and a 10-story brick stupa). Exit the resort area with its high stone/brick wall, onto an urban street to see the
Outlying temples. These are spread out over a huge area. I only went to the Puning Temple, a 3.5 km taxi ride from the gate.
Puning Temple (Big Buddha Temple). After 2 halls, climb the stairs to the Mahayana Pavilion, an imposing 39 m high, 6-gabled roofed building. Inside is the Avatokitasvana Bothesetiva, the world’s largest lacquer wood Buddha. Carved from 1745-59, it is 23.5 m tall, waistline 15 m, weighs 110 tons. The 120 cubic metres of wood consist of 5 kinds of wood (pine, cypress, elm, tilia and fir). It is a rich brown/red colour. There are many elaborate embellishments including a necklace of jade and pearls. The head weighs 5 tons and has a 1.53 m high Amitakho Buddha standing on its crown.  It has 42 arms, with all but the two central hands held in the prayer position, having an eye in the palm. Each arm represents 25 kama or attributions for sin giving the name 1000-hand and 1000-eye Kwan-yin.
It is flanked by two 15.6 m high figures. regular 60¥, >60 free.
There is an amazing rock formation close on the NE horizon – a rock column 60 m high with a “thick” upper bit narrowing down at its base – described as a hammer-like Danxia stone.
After the Puning Temple, I took a taxi to the resort entrance and walked back to my hotel.
ON Shenghua Hotel, Chengde. US$68. A nice big room with a round facade.

Day 40 Sun July 30
Train Chengdenan to Beijing Chaoyang Train Station @09:39-10:30.
Metro to the hostel. Drop my luggage and bike about to see some NM sites.

ON Peking International Youth Hostel was booked and its privates were extremely expensive (almost 3 times the price of most hotels I had been staying in but this is Beijing).
P Loft Youth Hostel, 148¥/night for 2 nights. I found this on Booking.com. Reviews 6.9 but most of the bitches were about having to make one’s bed.

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