fri 16th: got into zhangjiajie at 9:45am. went to the bus station, loads of buses but everything in chinese. with a few 'cherades' i managed to find out there was no bus that went to the village. i then had to figure out which bus went to the station in the city. saw a westerner jump on a bus so followed him. he was heading the same place as me. a girl with basic english said she'll tell us where to get off and what bus to get on. got to the village, but its huge, like a large town. walked into a couple of international hotels for some info but no one spoke english. the map in the book was completely different. in the end i referred to pointing to the chinese name of the hotel in the book and saw from peoples reaction i couldnt walk it. then a girl rang someone. 2mins later another girl appeared, who luckily spoke english numbers. she told me what number bus and kindly walked me to the correct bus. this is where i lost the other guy-he said he wanted some food in the shop but when i went in he wasnt there, oh well. the 'village' was in a completely different place, the other side of the mountains. check into an expensive hotel (they're all expensive) but it had a girl who spoke basic english, so with the info i could get i didnt mind spending a bit extra. walked around the village and up to the park entrance, grabbed some food - sweet and sour pork but the sweet bit was just blocks of suger. urgh. had an early night as theres nothing here in the village.
sat: up at 6:30, breakfastin hotel for 7:30. got into park at 8:45. did a 2hr hike up to the to of the peaks. absolutely stunning views, walked around the top and then an hr hike back down. never climbed so many steps!! then went on a 5 1/2 hr hike along the bottom of the valley and up to the top of the other sideof anotrher valley. people very friendly. had quite a few photos with people. never been stared at so much in my life. didnt see 1 westerner today but thousands of chinese. people singing and shouting at top of peaks even tho theres a million signs that says keep quiet. saw quite a few wild monkeys. left park at 5:30. no hot water in hotel till 8 and i smell. i believe this place is where they filmed the landscape for avartar.
sun: up earlier today to catch bus into town. then caught taxi to train station. didnt have problem buying ticket although only a hard bed left. started feeling unwell on train. got off train 5hrs later, at yichang, feeling pretty rough. food poisoning?? booked into railway hotel. went for walk around city, its quite small, about 3 miles to yangzi river. tried to book a tour for the gorges and dam. but gorges tour was a min of 3 days and the dam was 300y for 1/2 day. saw the yangzi, 3rd biggest in world but so misty could only see 80m each direction. so decided that seeing that nothing else to do here, booked a ticket to shanghai for 2moro. had to walk out of travel agaents to be sick. threw up 3 times walking home, all in the street. got back to hotel and immediately threw up again. tried to eat but threw that up. had an early night and fell asleep about 7:30, sick throughout night.
mon: woke up feeling better but no where near 100%. went for a walk and to get food for the 24hr train journey today. everywhere very misty, could only see a few metres of yangzi river. decided to have a mc'ds day today to get some stodge in me and gain some weight. so mc'ds for breakfast, lunch and tea. yichang hasnt got much to offerat all. it has a nice centre, all kitted out with loads of shops, prob the only highlight. problems with the chinese is they hurl and spit everywhere, incl the women. its really bad. something like every 2 mins theres someone flemming up and spitting it out wherever they are; train, supermarket, high st etc.