19 July 2018, Thursday
After spending three full days at Zhangjiajie, it was time to say goodbye to Toro, the adorable Labrador Retriever at our cosy Wally House guest house at Wulingyuan. And of course, his owner as well. At 9am, we loaded our suitcases onto the van and made our way southwest to Fenghuang Ancient City (凤凰古城).
We arranged the van through our guide Xiaochu and paid CNY 1,800 (S$375.30) for it, which worked out to S$41.70 per person. The distance from Wulingyuan to Fenghuang is about 240km and the journey took over four hours.
The accommodation I had booked was called Fenghuang Dengnilai.Qingcheng Inn (凤凰等你来.倾城轻奢民俗). I booked our four rooms through Ctrip.sg and it amounted to CNY 889 (S$185.36) per room for one night. The room was pretty nice and spacious, with an outdoor balcony overlooking the Tuo River (Tuojiang 沱江) and old town.
After dropping our bags and settling down our stuff, we decided to rest a little longer in our rooms because it was simply too hot outside. At about 3pm, we headed out for a late lunch at a nearby restaurant that also belonged to the owner of our inn. We finished lunch at 4pm and began to explore the area.
The name Fenghuang means “Phoenix”, which is a mythical bird representing good omens and longevity. Phoenixes are able to regenerate and be born again from the ashes. Legend has it that two phoenixes flew over the town and found it so beautiful that they were reluctant to leave.
Fenghuang Ancient City is over 300 years old and it is very well-preserved. The town itself is not very big and it centres around the Tuo River. Set against the mountains, it is a picturesque ancient city and it has been called “the most beautiful town in China”.
We spent our time leisurely walking through the old alleys paved with flagstones. The buildings have generally retained their original appearances, with wooden signboards and red lanterns hanging at the shopfronts.
At 5:10pm, we walked into a random shop to buy some paper fans, and it turned out that the shop owner was a master calligraphy artist named Chen Xiang (陈祥). However, he was not just any ordinary calligraphy master. His real skill was to use his eyeball to control the ink brush to write the words. Yes, you heard that right, he uses his EYEBALL to write calligraphy!
For his eye-popping stunt, Master Chen Xiang had a special device that he could affix to his eye socket. Attached to the end of the device was a large ink brush head. I felt queasy watching him insert the metal contraption under his eyelids. It looked super painful. Indeed, I noticed that his right eye looked bruised from all the times he had to repeat this painful act.
Master Chen Xiang asked dad for his name, and came up with a four-worded phrase based on dad’s name. As his vision was impaired with the ink brush attached to his right eye, he got my dad to assist him by holding the ink pot, so that he could dip the brush in it. He then proceeded to write the four characters on the large yellow scroll. We stood there watching in amazement with our jaws on the floor.
After that, Master Chen Xiang removed the device from his eye and used a normal-sized brush to write some more words, using his hand this time. He said that he writes better with his eye than with his hand. Together with my dad, they affixed the red seal to finish up the masterpiece.
When we entered the shop, we only wanted to buy some paper fans. We didn’t expect to witness such an out-of-this-world display of talent right before our eyes. Master Chen Xiang told us it was fate that brought us together. We thanked him profusely for the demonstration and paid him a token fee for the incredible piece of calligraphy artwork.
You can watch the incredible Master Chen Xiang in action below. CAUTION: Not for the squeamish!
After that, we continued our exploration of Fenghuang. We went to the famous Rainbow Bridge (虹桥), a stone arched bridge with a three-storey building above it. It reminded me a little of the Ponte Vecchio bridge across the Arno River in Florence, Italy, which also had shops and an art gallery on it.
Around the corner of Rainbow Bridge were the distinctive wooden stilt houses called Diaojiaolou (吊脚楼). They were constructed on stilts to keep them safe from the spring floods. These are the most unique and ancient-looking buildings in Fenghuang.
After walking aimlessly for a while longer, we felt lethargic from the hot weather and retreated back to our air-conditioned rooms again. I think we were also feeling quite tired from our exertions at Zhangjiajie during the past three days.
At about 8:00pm, we regrouped and headed out for dinner. As the sun set, the buildings along the Tuo River started to light up and it was quite a pretty sight. The boats plying the river also had their red lanterns lit up, adding to the old-world charm. This is the time when Fenghuang Ancient Town is the most beautiful.
We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner but the food wasn’t so good. What a pity because this was our last meal together. Tomorrow, we will travel to Changsha and all my family members will fly back to Singapore, while I continue the remainder of my trip solo. I will definitely miss their companionship and moments like this, such as having meals together.
After dinner, we walked around the area one last time. However, it was very noisy as music was blaring loudly from all the pubs. It was too touristy and commercialised, and I didn’t really enjoy the atmosphere. We went back to our inn at 10:15pm and called it a night.
I’m glad we stayed only one night at Fenghuang Ancient City, which was definitely enough. I liked the old architecture here as it was a completely different feel from the Old Towns in the European countries that I visited. However, Fenghuang felt overly commercialised and noisy, and the hot weather didn’t help. I think it will be nicer to visit in the spring or autumn, with less crowds and more pleasant weather.