Asian Adventure - Changsha to Zhangjiajie (Yuanjiajie/Jangjiajie)

As the day dawned it was raining, but when even it stopped the pollution was still suspended in the atmosphere - how disappointing! 

Well, if yesterday's breakfast was tolerable, the breakfast today was pitiful. The whole thing was cold, 2 very small sausages, 1 hard-boiled egg, 4 slices of bread and no butter or topping. I was not happy at all! 

Our guide arrived at 9:30 to take us to the train station. On the way, we wondered why there was some sort of hold-up and it turned out that the motorway was flooded on one side. It was pretty weird seeing a motorway high up in the air with floodwaters on it, but it was shallow enough on one side for the van to go through. There was one man directing traffic and another was using a stick to try and clear the drain to get rid of the water. 

All our drivers seemed to have these 'good-luck' charms on their dashboards

The train station was very modern and clean, with plenty of seating and we were able to relax before we boarded the bullet train to Changsha. 

The smog was still around after the rain had stopped

This time we got up to 300km/hr

 

There were lots of rice paddies interspersed with lotus farms, water buffalo and cities. There were also some quite interesting quarries. At Changsha we were met by our guide, Lilly and driver, Mr Du, and driven for about 5 hours to Yuanjiajie/Zhangjiajie. 

Nearly every highway is a toll road

This one had it own chickens

At one point I needed a toilet break and when I just got back in the car, one of Mr Du's friends was pointing excitedly to the back of the car, and we had a flat tyre, so it was pretty lucky we were stopped in a safe place. This area is very picturesque, with lots of mountains covered in pines, bamboo and other plants. We settled into the Hotel, which seemed quite nice, after delivering our laundry to be done (the first time we have found one).