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On the way to Yunhe Rice Terraces
Nancy, my neighbor, told me that she wanted to visit Yunhe Rice Terraces in Zhejiang Province. As soon as I saw the pictures on the internet, I was like “Let’s go now, right now” …I loved it…The idea of seeing this place, one of the five most beautiful rice fields in China, was making me so excited that I wanted to go there immediately. Two weeks later, we were on the road to explore Yunhe Rice Terraces…The journey to Yunhe Rice Terraces was so remarkable that I had to write it as a separate article because I believe that:
“The best way to get in touch with the culture and to learn more about the local life while travelling is to use the public transportation.”
Here are the things you’re gonna find in this article:
* The amazing journey to Yunhe Rice Terraces with a night train, bus rides and a car(taxi) ride. The local life on the way to Yunhe Rice Terraces.
* The information(the time, cost, map) you need to know to go to Yunhe Rice Terraces.
Let’s keep going…
EXPERIENCING THE LOCAL LIFE WHILE TRAVELLING
Ready to hit the roads
It was time to leave my apartment to meet up with my friends to go to Shanghai Railway Station where we were gonna catch the night train to Yunhe Rice Terraces in Zhejiang Province…
Shanghai Railway Station
Here is the famous Shanghai Railway Station…We were lucky that it wasn’t a Chinese holiday cause normally in Chinese holidays this place can be packed, I mean literally! It is huge as you can see:
We arrived Shanghai Railway Station one hour earlier and we were hungry! So it was the sushi time…The delicious sushies made by Nancy. Here you go, meet my travelling buddies while I am busy with the sushies…
As we were waiting, I noticed a sweet Chinese kid. We tried to make her laugh…Well, it wasn’t easy but we made it…Isn’t she so sweet?
Night-Life in a slow train…
This was going to be my first longest night train ride while seated for the whole night…I wasn’t quite sure whether to get excited or not, but I was definitely looking for this experience…
As soon as we got on the train, we found our seats. Unfortunately, we were sitting separately at the beginning…
It was obvious that this was going to be completely a different journey…At some point, when everyone started to stare at me, I didn’t wanna stare back at them that much…So sleeping would save you at those times too..If only the lovely lady sitting next to me could let me do that as she kept moving and pushing me to the otherside a little bit more everytime…I wanted to take a nap so much as you can read it from my face…
When you need to have a rest and someone doesn’t let you do it, it can be really annoying…After a while, I noticed that the lovely lady was asleep..I was suprised cause with the energy level she had, I thought that she was gonna keep doing this for the whole night…Luckily, she was asleep!!! So, it was the perfect time to have a selfie with her…
But it was too late for me, as I was unable to get to sleep…Books always help, right? Well, here I couldn’t concentrate on my book either…I was keep looking at someone that constantly changing positions…
This couple was distracted too…
The Sleeping Prince Of Our Train
What do you think we were looking at? A cute baby with his dad…
We were distracted by this baby whose father made him to sleep in different positions..Although it was written “Black Bear” at the back of his little trousers, he was “The Sleeping Prince” of our train…
Have you noticed something different on his trousers other than “Black Bear”? If not, here is a more obvious one for you below…
Dude you have a hole in your pants!
Here, at the back of kids’ trousers, you generally see a big hole…It is easier to get the diaper out and it saves time when they are in the toilet…As you can imagine, it can also smell so good!!! that you may wanna run away immediately…This kid insisted on staying right beside me and thanks to her diaper, we had a great atmosphere around us…
Movie Night On The Train
I love seeing people creating their own entertainment…After having stared at me, these guys started to have a movie night on the train…
I was a little bit uncomfortable to fall asleep while sitting straight, so I decided to take a walk and see how the night life was going on in the train…
The man sleeping like a baby…
The man who had been distracted by “The Sleeping Prince” of our train, was sleeping like a baby in his lover’s arms.
My travelling buddies and neighbours were asleep too..
Ok, let’s take a walk to the other part of the train…
People Sleep like the dead
This was getting a interesting…The train was dead silent…After a while, I found myself staring at the old couple to see a sign of breathing…At some point, you couldn’t go any further as you had to jump over the people. As I didn’t wanna face with a kung fu move from anyone I might disturb unintentionally, it was better to go back to my seat…
How many falling heads are there?
This was my view from my seat…I tried to count and found 12 falling heads…You tell me, how many can you see? This is a tricky question, look carefully…
As the night life on the train rocks! as you can see, it was time to have my seat and try to sleep without disturbing the lovely lady next to me…As I shared many sleeping people pictures, I should put my picture too, right?
View from my window in the train
When I woke up, this was the view from the window on the left…
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And this was the view from the window on the right…
Not everyone was interested in the view…
The interesting thing was the lights in the train was on for the whole night, so not like the buses…Is this the way it is in every night train? We’ll see in time…Besides, there was a music broadcast in the train started from early in the morning like 4 am…I was like “Am I really hearing this?”…We were lucky that the music wasn’t too bad…
Arriving Lishui Train Station
After 8 hours, we arrived “Lishui Train Station“…Here is the view of our train and the station…In order to leave the station, we had to show our ticket to the person in charge at the gate…
Drivers of many TukTuks (three wheeled cars) and taxis waiting for the passengers outside the station…
First Bus to Yunhe County…What do you mean by”first”?
We got on our bus, K3, from Lishui West Bus Station to Yunhe County…You can see that also here handles are used as an advertisement tool….Cute baby looking at a foreigner, me, while sitting on her grandma’s lap…
This was the view from my window in the bus…
The second bus to Chongtou Town…Will there be a third one?
At the end of a 30 minute of bus ride, we got off at Yunhe County, we learnt that we had to take another bus to Chongtou Town…
Here is the view from the bus window…
After 45 minutes, we arrived to Chongtou Town and saw the TukTuks waiting for us…
Not a third bus but a Taxi…Sorry, how long it will take?
We needed to take a taxi to Yunhe Terrace Rice Terraces rather than TukTuks…Nancy as a Chinese girl bargained with the driver while we were waiting for her inside the bus station…Cause when they see foreigners, they charge double or triple…Finally they agreed on 120RMB(in our case 40RMB per person) in total and we were on our way to Yunhe Terrace…We were told that it was gonna take another 1 hour…Gosh!
Let’s have a look at what I captured on the way to Yunhe Rice Terraces
In a car, the front seat is the best place when you need to keep taking pictures…But I wish that I could have sat on top of the car like the ones in India…You’ll understand why I thought like that in the following pictures…
Seeing the fog around the peaks further away was making me so excited that I was taking about 20 pictures in a minute…
I love to see this color of green and the old tuktuks…
Yeahhh, it was high time getting through the fog…So magical…
It made me feel like I wanted to jump into the fog between the valleys if only I knew that I could bounce like the ones in cartoons…You already knew thet I feel like a kid when I am in the nature…
HOW TO GO TO YUNHE RICE TERRACES FROM SHANGHAI?
Let’s summarize the transportation info to Yunhe Rice Terraces…
Address: Chongtou Town, Yunhe County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province
Transportation: As you can see by car, of course, it takes less than the time we spent on the way…
1- The direct train: You can buy your train ticket at least 2 hours earlier from one of the travel agencies. Get the direct train from Shanghai to Lishui at 23.40 from Shanghai Railway Station. This is about an 8 hour train ride. The train arrives Lishui around 7.30 am. It costs 70RMB.
2-The first bus: Lishui West Bus Station is right across Lishui Train Station. Get the bus “K3”. Get off at Yunhe County. It takes 30 minutes to arrive Yunhe County. It costs around 3RMB.
3-The second bus: From Yunhe County bus stop you2re gonna see another bus terminal where you’re gonna take another bus to Chongtou Town. It takes 45 minutes to arrive Chongtou Town. It costs 20RMB.
4-The Taxi: Outside the bus station in Chongtou Town, you’ll find taxis and tuktuks that can take you to Yunhe Rice Terrace. You should take a taxi instead of a tuktuk as the road is full of curves which make the road a little bit dangerous and you’ll be climbing up so better not to take tuktuks if you don’t wanna be flown away by the wind. It takes 1 hour to arrive Yunhe Rice Terraces by taxi. The cost depends whether you have a Chinese friend with you or not and his/her and your bargaining skils. In our case, It cost 120RMB altogether, 40 RMB per person.
The total transportation cost
Per person: It was 133RMB ( 22,17US, 44,33TL) which was really economic.
The total time spent on the road
More than 10 hours…It was a long journey for a weekend getaway trip but totally worth it!
Get ready to see Yunhe Rice Terrace, one of the five most beautiful Rice Terraces in China, in our next post…