zhondian to xiangcheng
Took the bus yesterday to xiangcheng, a 9 hour drive thru the mountains. Road good ( all things being relative ) with only one delay when the road had to be cleared for a landslide. Bus small and cramped but did its job. Up to the Sichuan border more developed and some nice little villages. Once into Sichuan the mountains became more rugged, little in the way of villages but raw and wonderful on a beautiful summers day. The road winds its way along the edges of mountains, here not even a hint of the concrete blocks to stop you going over the edge into the river below. And just to make sure we fully appreciated it the driver put his foot down for a gut wrenching couple of hours. Admittedly my fellow passengers just didn’t seem to appreciate it and slept.
The highlight was going over the top of the mountain and then the 26 km descent into Xiangcheng, twisting and turning into the town below.
After such a wonderful journey Xiancheng itself nothing to rave about. A small, characterless new town, but at least food and hotels ok and eventually found an internet cafe with what seems some pretty tough filters. I think China are playing Japan tonight here at football , never seen so many police for such a small place and none of the places I’ve been to so far have been exactly lacking in that department.
And now for the bad news. What should have been only an overnight stop is taking a bit longer. At one of the worlds worst bus stations, the equally unhelpful ticket office, in between laying bets in a card game, half explained there was no buses today. Went back today and for the few minutes it opened this morning said there was still no bus for the next day but come back at 2pm. No idea what is happening but I know they were having “problems” in Litang before I came out so can only wonder.
Tags: Travel
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