Jianshui (建水)
13 December 2019.
The City of Jianshui only has one Railway Station and once you exit, there will be a lot of drivers as usual asking if you need a ride somewhere. Instead, turning left out of the station brought me to a parking space with public buses bound for the city for 2RMB. I took 919路 with the intention of first going to the local bus terminal to buy tickets to Yuanyang for the next day. Similar to some of the smaller areas, I found out only upon reaching the bus terminal that I can only buy tickets on the day of departure itself. There are two districts in Yuanyang, one is known as the new district Nansha City (南沙) and the other, the old district Xinjie Town (新街镇). Although there are multiple buses heading to Nansha (南沙) throughout the day, you will still have to take another minibus up to Xinjie Town (新街镇) for 10 yuan to begin seeing the rice terraces. Yuanyang is a huge area and most people staying at Yuanyang will book accommodations at Duoyishu (多依树) or Pugao (普高) which are nearer to the rice terraces and are around 20 kilometres from Xinjie Town (新街镇). Xinjie Town (新街镇) serves as the main transportation hub with minivans to Nansha (南沙) and these smaller towns around Yuanyang Scenic area. From Jianshui, there was only one bus to Yuanyang Xinjie at 1134 and I had to come back tomorrow at 1100 as the ticketing lady informed me that its tickets start selling only at 1058.
Arrival at Jianshui. 1317 hr.
Trying to get tickets to Yuanyang Rice Terraces, my next destination. 1334 hr. RIghtmost: En route to the Hostel, 1348 hr.
My youth hostel in Jianshui was situated within the Ancient Town and with Amaps, I managed to take a bus 13路 to the famous Confucious Temple (文庙) for one yuan. THe bus drove on bluestone, the very first I have seen. There are neither marked roads nor pavements within the Ancient Town, vehicles drive down the middle of the street and people walk on the sides, all on bluestone. From there, my hostel was only a short walk away but as I walked, I did not spot and any youth hostels and it wasn’t wrong before Amaps indicated that I had overshot. Backtracking, I decidedly eyed the street number of every shop until I got to 330 which was the hostel’s address. There was no signage and its narrow folded doors were partially closed, no wonder I missed it. “Excuse me, is this..?” I asked, stating the name of the hostel. “Oh yes yes, come in.” The boss of the hostel was washing something and had his back turned towards the doors. His hands were soiled and he called for his friend inside to get me bedsheets. They weren’t so strict about my accommodation options, although I had booked and paid online for a bed in a 6 bed dormitory, they gave me a three bed dormitory on the second floor. There are four rooms on the second floor, two six bed dormitory and two three bed dormitory, the owners lived in one of the six-bed dormitories. The hostel spans three floors and there is a toilet cum shower on every floor of the hostel which was not the cleanest..but bearable for short stays. It was a youth hostel alright but as it was the low season, there was only one other traveller in the hostel who stayed in the three bed dormitory I was ushered to. She was out for the day and I was amazed to see her luggage – all her belongings were in a small knapsack which looked like she was out for a day’s outing rather than travel. I went back down to register, passing many notices that reminded travellers to refrain from smoking though ironically, two friends of the boss himself were enjoying a cigarette when I went down with my passport. The boss mentioned that they were having a special discount where any travellers who booked a night at the hostel gets another night of stay for free but I declined as I planned on heading to Yuanyang the next day.
A short walk from Wen Miao Bus Stop to the Hostel. Spent some time finding the hostel , double checking against the location on Amaps. Alas, the hostel had its doors closed and was without a front signage.
First time I’ve seen platform beds in a dormitory. 1531 hr.
For the rest of the day, I had planned on simply exploring the Ancient Town but happened to see a poster in the hostel about Tuanshan Village (团山村) about 10 kilometres from Jianshui City which sounded extremely enticing. It was nearly 1500 after taking a shower at the hostel and I asked the boss about Tuanshan Village. He replied that it is possible to cycle there with their in house bicycle but I would have to stay another night as it would be too late to visit now. I was tempted, but decided to leave the decision to later that night. In the next few hours, I only had time to explore the Confucius Temple and walk down one street (临安街) within the Ancient Town.
Historically known as Lin’an, Jianshui is one of Yunnan’s ancient cities alongside Dali and Lijiang. Most travellers stop by Jianshui en route to Yuanyang to go back in time with its sprawling complex of old style buildings highly akin to the towns of the Ming Dynasty. Amongst tens of other ancient buildings, Confucuis Temple stood out especially with its 37 main buildings, forming an impressive scale of that cover spacious gardens, ancestral halls and grand archways with details that have been immaculately preserved over seven centuries and over some fifty restoration efforts. It took me an hour and a half for a quick walk through its grounds, the skies darken at 1800 during winter and although the temple doors remain open to the public, there were hardly any street lights within.
Jianshui Tofu. Said to be made from the waters of the ancient well. 1602 hr.
1648 hr.
Confucius Park. 1830 hr.
Shopping for winter wear in Jianshui is a temptation I can’t give into. It is easy to find decent winter jackets for 69 yuan and I would love to buy some if only I was not going to lug it around to Vietnam with me in the following days.
Barbecue Dinner at a street side stall, 1932 hr.
Hostel’s Transport Service
With a cooling temperature of 15 degrees, I returned back to the youth hostel. My roommate had already returned, she was a Yunnan native from Wenshan and had been travelling around for a week. She was in Mile before coming to Jianshui and had only brought along two changes of clothes, one thick to block out the cold and one daily wear. That was indeed formidable. She spoke about the mini train she took earlier that took them around Jianshui Ancient City and stops at every major tourist destination along the way to Tuanshan Village for 95RMB each. That sounded like a more wholesome way to tour Jianshui which I was again tempted to stay another night for, however I decided to proceed on to Yuanyang instead where I had originally intended to spend more time at. Moreover, she mentioned that she intended to return home tomorrow and I wasn’t so sure about staying in this youth hostel alone although Iknew it was technically safe. She had stayed the previous night at this youth hostel and I asked if her second night stay that day was free. Strangely, she had heard nothing about the offer and had paid for her second night.
14 December 2019.
The next day, I woke up at 0820, leaving the youth hostel at 0930 to get to the local bus terminal in time to buy the ticket to Yuanyang. I also had to withdraw some cash, after reading up more information online that solo travellers to Yuanyang will need to hire drivers to take them around or form and travel in impromptu groups. ATMs are common inJianshui but I wasn’t so sure about Yuanyang. As I left, my Yunnan roommate announced that she will be staying one more night as she was not able to get tickets home for the day. I would have stayed on if Yuanyang wasn’t already on my mind.
Walking down the streets of Jianshui in 7 degree weather is an experience by itself. 0936 hr.
There was also one worry lingering in my mind when I walked the streets of the Ancient Town yesterday, I had noticed the two buses, 13路 and 15路 rolling into the Ancient Town on a one way route but not out of it. I wasn’t sure how I should get out of the Ancient Town to the bus station, my reliable Amaps showed that I ought to wait for either of these two buses at the opposite side of the street which I did for a good 20 minutes. Four buses drove past me in the opposite direction. With only a little more than an hour left to get to the bus station on time to purchase the ticket, I decided to cross to the opposite side and hop on the next bus, wherever it was going. 15路 came and the driver confirmed my fears. “Buses here only go one way. If you want to get to the bus station, you need go one big loop on this bus.” Without asking how long one big loop on the bus would take, I boarded at 1006, hoping that I would soon reach the bus terminal. Amaps also does not display the total number of bus stops the bus made, which made it impossible to calculate my estimated time of arrival at the bus station. I watched the scenery run past, realizing that Jianshui was much more than its Ancient Town. Beyond the Ancient City gates is a modern city area where sheltered bus stops, shopping malls and apartment blocks littered the landscape. It was as if a city tour in that bus itself though by 1030, I was frantically trying to read the names of each bus stop we stopped at and comparing that with the route pasted on the bus window. Many times, I was tempted to simply alight and hail a cab but there were no cabs to be seen and I had to take confidence that everything will be alright when I finally counted ourselves 10 stops away from the bus terminal. We were reaching and I was lucky to reach the bus terminal at 1052, a few minutes shy of 1058, the supposed timing for the sale of tickets to Yuanyang.
Lamp post Bus Stops. If there is no queue at these lamp post bus stop, how do bus drivers recognize the exact lamp post to stop by hmm. Found it rather misleading to have these lamp post bus stops on both sides of the road when the buses here only go one way. 0950 hr.
I was anxiously tracing the location of the bus on Amaps, heart stopping every moment it turned further away from the bus terminal. Growing quite anxious as by 1030, the bus was nowhere near the station.
Purchasing tickets to Xinizhen, 1100 hr.
Purchasing a ticket was easy here, those queuing in front of me got their tickets in a matter of seconds and I got a first class ticket to Xinzhen, from there I’ll proceed towards Yuanyang.
There is Left Baggage service at the bus terminal outside the departure hall (5RMB per bag) which I gladly took advantage off for a washroom visit without my backpack. There is free entry to toilets within the departure hall meant for travellers however I would have to collect all my bags first and that would mean navigating small, dark spaces with bulky bags. Public washrooms outside the bus terminal typically require 1 yuan entrance fee which I’d gladly pay in addition to a 5RMB left baggage fee just for the convenience of going to the washroom without lesser bulk.
Trying the fried potato and tofu -. Tofu is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.
Given a luggage tag after depositing my backpack in this room at the station. Headed off to try fried Jianshui Tofu outside the Bus Station.