Shanghai to Zhangjiajie

For a day or so I just hung out in Shanghai. It was pretty hot and humid, so I took it easy. Watched films, went out briefly to eat. I relaxed. Not every day of travel needs some grand journey.

I’m not a huge fan of bubble tea, but when it’s hot out, it is a nice cold beverage option.

I’m not sure about the slogan they have. Shaking it up just resulted in me ingesting more of the disgusting balls. I prefer not to waste time chewing on my drinks.

Some pork noodles.

A selection of meats: Duck, Pork, Chicken, and Pork.

And that’s pretty much it for Shanghai. If it weren’t so freaking hot, I would have went out a bit more the last few days.

To Zhangjiajie

Zhangjiajie is a famous karst mountain range in Northwest Hunan Province. It’a actually the name of the whole region, with Zhangjiajie City being the southern base of operations, and Wulingyuan Scenic Area to the north being the famous national park. The town of Wulingyaun is where I would stay for several days. It’s a budding tourist community, far removed from the city and it took about an hour to get there from the airport.

The hotel was extraordinary! But more on that later. First things first – find some food. While right on the eastern edge of the park, the place isn’t very hopping. Maybe it’s just the off-season, or that most tourists prefer to stay in the bigger city.

This place had some kind of stewed meat pot. Very delicious. A mix of animals and vegetables cooked right at the table.

Twice cooked pork…

Spicy fried green beens and fried glutenous rice cakes.

This place … a BBQ joint?

The street my hotel was on. The clock tower was convenient for finding my way back.

This is about as busy as I’ve seen the streets of this town near the park.

Stinky Tofu is everywhere and it is a horrible stench to walk past.

 

Walking around didn’t really yield much. There was a market street near the park where vendors sell raincoats and supplies for heading into the park. There was a nice coffee shop near there. A lot of restaurants and businesses that have no English.

Some comforts of home… sort of.

 

And that’s it. Nothing much to see.