An hour and a half away, and almost nobody goes

People fly to Zhangjiajie for the sandstone pillars, spend two or three days queuing for cable cars, and fly out. Somewhere to the southwest, along a river, is Fenghuang, an old town of wooden houses built on stilts over the water. It is a few hours by road or a short high-speed train ride away, and the majority of Zhangjiajie itineraries never mention it.

That is partly logistics and partly reputation. Fenghuang has been heavily commercialised, and yes, in July you will queue for a boat. But stay the night, walk out at seven in the morning, and you get the town most people never see.

What it is

Fenghuang sits on the Tuo River in western Hunan, close to the Guizhou border. The old town is a maze of stone lanes, wooden stilt houses on the riverbank, and a handful of surviving city gates and bridges from the Ming and Qing periods. It is home to Miao and Tujia communities, and the surrounding hills are full of minority villages.

The classic view is from the Hong Bridge, looking upriver at the row of stilt houses hanging over the water. Go at dusk, when the lanterns come on and the river goes dark blue.

Getting there from Zhangjiajie

• High-speed train from Zhangjiajie West to Fenghuang Ancient Town station: roughly an hour, then a short bus or taxi into the old town
• By road: two and a half to three hours depending on traffic
• Direct buses run from Zhangjiajie bus station in the morning
• Coming from Changsha is also easy by train, and Fenghuang makes a good stop between Zhangjiajie and the provincial capital

Do not try to do Fenghuang as a day trip from Zhangjiajie. You will spend six hours in transit and see the busiest two hours of the day. Stay one night, minimum.

What to do with a night and a morning

Arrive by mid-afternoon, drop your bag, and walk the river both ways before dinner. Eat early, then go back out around eight when the lights are at their best and the day-trippers have gone. Sit somewhere on the water with a beer and watch the boats.

Then, and this is the important part, get up at six thirty. The old town at dawn is a different place: shop shutters down, mist on the river, old men carrying vegetables across the stone bridge, women washing in the shallows. Two hours of that is worth the whole trip.

• Boat trips on the Tuo River: short, cheap, best in the early morning
• The climb to the East Gate Tower for the rooftop view over the roofs
• Nanhua Mountain behind the town, half a day if you want the panorama
• Miao villages nearby, reachable by local bus, if you want something less staged

Food worth trying

Western Hunan cooking is sour, smoky and much less sweet than the Chinese food you probably know. Look for:

• Blood duck, a dark braised duck dish from the region. Strong flavoured and not for everyone.
• Sour fish soup with pickled vegetables
• Smoked pork with dried radish
• Rice noodles for breakfast, which is what everyone actually eats at 7am

Prices inside the old town are inflated. Walk ten minutes out past the gates and the same dishes cost half.

Where to sleep

Riverside guesthouses with a balcony over the water are the reason to stay, and they cost more. The trade-off is noise: the bars along the river run until midnight and the sound carries. If you want quiet, book slightly back from the water or on the quieter south bank, and accept a five-minute walk to the view.

Combining it with the mountains

My preferred shape for a Hunan trip: two full days in Zhangjiajie for the national park and Tianmen Mountain, one night in Fenghuang, then out by train toward Changsha or back to Zhangjiajie for a flight. It adds a day to the itinerary and it is the day people remember. The mountains are spectacular, but they are a spectacle. Fenghuang is a place.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.