The third day of our China Trip we took a train to Fu Rong. But first we had breakfast in our hotel. A nice hotel, friendly staff, but the breakfast was a bit simple. After two times noodles, we had a few equally simple plain pau with a glass of soy milk and an egg.

A taxi took us to the Zhang Jia Jie railway station. A big, modern station, with a McDonald’s, where we had coffee and snacks to supplement the meager hotel breakfast.

There was a large number of massage chairs and we had time enough to try one out. The massage was strong, sometimes almost painful.

The high-speed train (300 km/h) took us in 23 minutes to Fu Rong, a distance of 80 km. You have to book seats in advance.

From the station we took a taxi to Fu Rong Ancient Town. where we had booked our hotel. You have to pay an entrace fee for this town, even when you stay there. A hotel staff took us from the entrance on a short walk to the hotel and showed us our room. A room with a view! Aric had found the only room in town with a spectacular view of the waterfalls that made the town famous.

Imagine, I took this video from our hotel room window. I was stunned and almost got a bit emotional.

Here is Aric enjoying the room with a well-deserved cup of tea.

But we went out soon, because the weather was nice. The waterfalls are the main attraction of the town, but the town itself is also very attractive. It was founded in 202 BC by the Tujia people. Fu Rong Ancient Town has a charcteristic architecture and it would be easy to spend more time than we had..

The left picture shows our hotel. We walked down to the river. No lunch, just bought some snacks here and there. Still relatively quiet, it became more crowded in the afternoon. Visitors like to stay until it gets dark and the lights are on.

A lower view if the waterfalls. We followed a path behind the waterfalls.

I have marked with a red cross the location of our room (top left corner)

Some locations are very popular, especially for tour groups. These two photos are taken from about the same location. One a bit lower, with many people, the other one higher up.

We continued walking the path quite far, before we returned the same way.

Here is the Tujia Shelter Bridge. The lady is not a local, but a tourist dressed in a traditional Tijia costume! Hundreds of them visit Fu Rong and rent a costume. includint make up etc tp parade in the streets. Nice, but also a bit funny.

We didn’t use the bridge but crossed the shallow stream on stepping stones.

Back in our room we relaxed with a drink. Aric with the local wine, I had my fire water.

Watching the village and the waterfalls while the sun was setting and the lights came on..

Later we went out again for dinner. There are numerous eateries in the ancient town, but the hotel reception had warned us that they were touristy and pricey. Better go to the modern town. So that’s what we did.

We found an acceptable restaurant. With different preparations of pork, tofu and a mixed mushroom dish. Not bad.

After dinner we walked around in the old town. The bridge was brightly lit and crowded with visitors. Many of them dressed in local costumes.

My Chinese Zodiac sign is Monkey and I am reading at the moment the Monky King novel, so when I saw Pigsy, my companion on my Journey to the West, I wanted my picture taken with him. He was willing, but asked for a donation, via a QR code 😉

The next morning we went out for breakfast. The streets were now deserted, but one restaurant was already open, serving nice rice tofu, a speciality of Fu Rong.

Back in our hotel we had a last view of our room and the waterfalls, before checking out and going to our next destination.

Another interesting day.