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After spending a few days killing time back in Kunming I finally decided on my plan for my final couple of weeks in China with the help of a very nice Chinese guy called Steven whom I met at the hostel who booked a couple of train tickets for me. My first stop - Anshun.
Anshun isn't exactly on any sort of backpacker trail and lots of people said "where?", in fact when I looked for accomodation online I couldn't find very much at all. Anshun is in the Guizhou province and my reasons for going there was to visit the Huangguoshu Waterfall and Longman Caves. Considering that I couldn't find any accomodation online I decided to hope for the best and find something when I arrived. The train journey was pretty uneventful seeing as I was on a sleeper train however when I disembarked I noticed two other westerners in my carriage who happened to get off at Anshun too. I got chatting to them, two lovely guys from France, Emilion and Benoit, and we spent the next couple of days together in Anshun.
Talking about accomodation in Anshun, it's pretty difficult to find decent cheap accomodation, or so we thought at first (we were all pretty tired from the train journey). The first night we found some "lodgings" (and I use that term very loosely!) next to the bus station (tip for you if you ever get stuck looking for accomodation in China then there is always something next to or above the bus station) and I have to say it was bloody awful! (well my room was anyway). It was damp, dingy and just look at the "ensuite pictures". All I can say is that the three of us were tired and all else that we could find were really expensive hotels.
On our first day we went for a wander around Anshun, we were the only westerners I think, the locals were friendly and welcoming and we were even invited to watch a local Mahjong game I would have pictures but diaster struck as my camera decided to stop working! Typical! The three of us then set off to try and either get my camera fixed or to buy a new one. Now Anshun is quite a small town and unlike other Chinese towns there are no major department stores or lots of shops to choose from, however a nice lady at a Kodak shop gave us directions for the local computer and camera shopping centre. So off the three of us went in search of a camera store and eventually found one. I did't know this but camera's in China, even though most of them are made here, are not any cheaper than back at home, in fact they are the same price as the manufacturers set one worldwide price (apparently). Whilst I went in search of prices to compare, Benoit and Emilion cut a deal for me, or rather one of the camera sellers let them look online at prices of cameras in China to check that I wouldn't get swindled, all in all I ended up buying a Nikon Coolpix plus spare battery and camera case (memory cards are very expensive here and the shop owner wouldn't do a deal on those) for 1300 RMB (I have since seen the same camera in other shops selling for the same price so at least I don't feel hard done by even if I could have got more money off!). Something else about China that I may have neglected to mention previously, in smaller non touristy places there appears to be a lack of bars (or rather they are just really really hard to find!), which when you decide you want to go out for a drink you can't really, unless you can manage to persuade a resturant to sell you beer without buying any food.
The next day we all checked out of the lodging from hell (well my room was far worse than Emilion and Benioit's room) and I checked in to a very nice budget hotel near the train station that we happened accross the previous afternon (typical! if anyone reading this is interested the hostel is about 200m from the train station and is on the left and side of the road facing Anshun town centre - Benoit and Emilion were planning on catching a bus that evening and I had a train to catch the following afternoon). We then made our way to the Huangguoshu Waterfall.
According to the Lonely Planet guide book you can do both the Waterfall and the caves in one day, what it fails to mention is that the After spending a few days killing time back in Kunming I finally decided on my plan for my final couple of weeks in China with the help of a very nice Chinese guy called Steven whom I met at the hostel who booked a couple of train tickets for me. My first stop - Anshun.
Anshun isn't exactly on any sort of backpacker trail and lots of people said "where?", in fact when I looked for accomodation online I couldn't find very much at all. Anshun is in the Guizhou province and my reasons for going there was to visit the Huangguoshu Waterfall and Longman Caves. Considering that I couldn't find any accomodation online I decided to hope for the best and find something when I arrived. The train journey was pretty uneventful seeing as I was on a sleeper train however when I disembarked I noticed two other westerners in my carriage who happened to get off at Anshun too. I got chatting to them, two lovely guys from France, Emilion and Benoit, and we spent the next couple of days together in Anshun.
Talking about accomodation in Anshun, it's pretty difficult to find decent cheap accomodation, or so we thought at first (we were all pretty tired from the train journey). The first night we found some "lodgings" (and I use that term very loosely!) next to the bus station (tip for you if you ever get stuck looking for accomodation in China then there is always something next to or above the bus station) and I have to say it was bloody awful! (well my room was anyway). It was damp, dingy and just look at the "ensuite pictures". All I can say is that the three of us were tired and all else that we could find were really expensive hotels.
On our first day we went for a wander around Anshun, we were the only westerners I think, the locals were friendly and welcoming and we were even invited to watch a local Mahjong game I would have pictures but diaster struck as my camera decided to stop working! Typical! The three of us then set off to try and either get my camera fixed or to buy a new one. Now Anshun is quite a small town and unlike other Chinese towns there are no major department stores or lots of shops to choose from, however a nice lady at a Kodak shop gave us directions for the local computer and camera shopping centre. So off the three of us went in search of a camera store and eventually found one. I did't know this but camera's in China, even though most of them are made here, are not any cheaper than back at home, in fact they are the same price as the manufacturers set one worldwide price (apparently). Whilst I went in search of prices to compare, Benoit and Emilion cut a deal for me, or rather one of the camera sellers let them look online at prices of cameras in China to check that I wouldn't get swindled, all in all I ended up buying a Nikon Coolpix plus spare battery and camera case (memory cards are very expensive here and the shop owner wouldn't do a deal on those) for 1300 RMB (I have since seen the same camera in other shops selling for the same price so at least I don't feel hard done by even if I could have got more money off!). Something else about China that I may have neglected to mention previously, in smaller non touristy places there appears to be a lack of bars (or rather they are just really really hard to find!), which when you decide you want to go out for a drink you can't really, unless you can manage to persuade a resturant to sell you beer without buying any food.
The next day we all checked out of the lodging from hell (well my room was far worse than Emilion and Benioit's room) and I checked in to a very nice budget hotel near the train station that we happened accross the previous afternon (typical! if anyone reading this is interested the hostel is about 200m from the train station and is on the left and side of the road facing Anshun town centre - Benoit and Emilion were planning on catching a bus that evening and I had a train to catch the following afternoon). We then made our way to the Huangguoshu Waterfall.
According to the Lonely Planet guide book you can do both the Waterfall and the caves in one day, what it fails to mention is that the Huangguoshu Waterfall area is a large scenic area with other places to visit apart from the main attraction, the waterfall. The whole area is very scenic, filled with the usual chinese tourists and expensive to get around because if you want to visit all the places of interest you need to pay for the coach transfer service on top of the entrance fees. The waterfall itself is lovely and there are numerous viewing platforms aswell as the chance to walk behind the waterfall. Afterwards we struck a deal with a taxi driver that was cheaper than the tourist bus so that we could visit the Tuaixi Bridge area. In my humble opinion this was far nicer and more picturesque than Huangguoshu with lakes, stone forest and there was also the added bonus of an amazing cave that we all thought, wow!
Needless to say we were there for so long that the boys missed their coach to Guiyang so had to stay another night in Anshun.
If I had more time in Anshun it would have been worth staying on another day or two and exploring the surrounding area, its got kharst scenery, caves, a waterfall and very friendly people.area is a large scenic area with other places to visit apart from the main attraction, the waterfall. The whole area is very scenic, filled with the usual chinese tourists and expensive to get around because if you want to visit all the places of interest you need to pay for the coach transfer service on top of the entrance fees. The waterfall itself is lovely and there are numerous viewing platforms aswell as the chance to walk behind the waterfall. Afterwards we struck a deal with a taxi driver that was cheaper than the tourist bus so that we could visit the Tuaixi Bridge area. In my humble opinion this was far nicer and more picturesque than Huangguoshu with lakes, stone forest and there was also the added bonus of an amazing cave that we all thought, wow!
Needless to say we were there for so long that the boys missed their coach to Guiyang so had to stay another night in Anshun.
If I had more time in Anshun it would have been worth staying on another day or two and exploring the surrounding area, its got kharst scenery, caves, a waterfall and very friendly people.
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