Finally we Arrive at our Destination

Ali picked up our wake up call at 8:30. We never ordered one. The reception just wanted to let us know that if we wanted a tour guide for the day they could arrange one. Ali said thank you very much and put the phone down. No hot water again. Obviously a common policy in the southern parts of China! I sat at the window in our room drinking green tea. It's always interesting waking up in a city not really knowing what it looks like. We arrived during darkness last night so when I looked out of the window everything was unfamiliar. Some large four storey hotel buildings with supermarkets below and a continuous rolling mountain immediately sat behind. It was very foggy. After studying the map and speaking to locals with confused looks on their faces, we realise that Wulingyuan is an area/region not a city. We walked around Zhang Jia Jie and stopped for a while to take a closer look at the stalls selling frogs, snakes, rabbits, turtles and giant rats along with other unidentifiable animal parts. Two shaky rides later in rickety old buses, we arrived at the village which is at the foot of the mountain range. We bargained (a painful process) for a standard room at Minzu Shanzhuang - a thatched, Tujia-run establishment. Our room is quite large and covered in a decorative Tujia-style wood with a balcony. I can't believe we're thinking about hiking mountains again when our legs haven't even recovered from Huangshan. I contemplated visiting Hong Kong on my own for a week. I read about Hong Kong on the bus to village. I'm very excited!!!