Dehang (8-19)

When I arrived at the train station in Jishou, I needed to purchase my tickets back to Chengdu. Sunny had written instructions in Chinese for me. I went to the reception desk to ask where to purchase the tickets, and I met Sue. She is a university student who is majoring in Chinese and wants to be a Chinese language teacher. She will graduate next year. Sue went to the ticket window with me and ordered my tickets. There are two trains that will take a total of 16 hours. Since there were not sleepers available, I had to purchase a seat. It will be like sitting on a plane.

After purchasing my tickets and hers, she decided to take me to the minibus to Dehang. I’d read that these were outside the train station, but they have moved to a new location. It would have been challenging for me to find it on my own; so I appreciated her assistance.

Dehang is a small Miao, ethnic group, village along a river that is surrounded by mountains. Along the river there are many rice fields. The area is lush with green. Since it’s not a major tourist destination, it sounded like a lovely place to relax for a couple days after the hiking in Zhongjiajie. And it was. During the day, small groups of Chinese tourists came to the village for a few hours. The main part of the village has many shops selling goods to them. Before the tourists arrive and after they leave, the village is quiet. The setting, with all the green fields and the mountains, is beautiful, calm and relaxing. It was a good choice.

I’d woken up with a bit of a cold Saturday morning. By the time I arrived at the guesthouse in Dehang, it had become a full-blown drippy nose cold. I slept all afternoon. Fortunately, my room had a nice view of a mountain. In the evening, I went out for a short time and then returned to sleep some more.

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:00 when I heard fire crackers going off. I looked out the window, and after a few minutes what looked like a funeral went down the sidewalk beneath the window. After resting for a few more hours, I decided that I could go for a short walk and headed down the canyon. I didn’t have much energy, but I could walk slowly and the path was flat and easy to walk on. It follows along the river, which is mostly dry due to the drought in the region. Sad to see.

I went to what looked like the end of the path and sat on a rock for a while. After a few minutes, I thought I heard water and looked up. There was a waterfall across the pond, but it was just a trickle due to the drought. 

A man and two boys were collecting something from the pond. I realized that the path continues around a corner and up a mountain. Since I was not up for that, I turned around.

On the way back I took a brief detour along a path that was advertised to have many beautiful waterfalls. It went uphill, but that was OK by this time. After the first waterfall, it came to a rock covered with moss with only room for one foot and nothing to hold onto. I decided that was not for me and turned around. By the time I got back to my room, I had had more than enough, having been out for 3.5 hours, and slept for the rest of the afternoon. I had planned to rest and relax in Dehang, but not like that. I guess my body was making sure I followed through and rested a lot.

In the evening I decided that I had enough energy to attend the cultural program. After I selected a seat, two men sat next to me. The one indicated that he was asking me about his smoking. Then he put his cigarette out and told his friend to do the same. I thought that was very considerate. Then a woman sat next to me and chatted for a bit. She had been a visiting scholar at a university in Alabama. Now she teaches nursing at a university in Hunan and was in Dehang for a medical conference. Then another young woman joined us and stayed with me. She is studying nursing and will graduate next year. Her English was also excellent. She told me what the various shows were. 

The program was well worth the cost of admission (60 yuan/$10). It featured several dances, including a dragon dance, a man who swallowed fire and walked on fire, 

and men who climbed a pole of knives.

Monday morning I went for another short—3-hour—walk through a river canyon. This river was also mostly dry. The path is flat stones; so it was easy to walk on. There are rice fields and other crops growing at the bottom of the canyon most of the way. 

The views with the green fields and the mountains in the background are stunning. It was a lovely way to spend the morning and finish my time in Dehang.

When I returned to the guesthouse, it was the first time I’d walked through the village during the day. Two of the shops had women weaving the cloth that is used to make shirts I liked. I ended out buying a shirt from one of them.

The guesthouse was an interesting experience. I had made the reservation by text messaging. I had tried to call but got cut off. Then there was a phone call to me and then I received a message asking how many nights I wanted. I asked the price and reserved the room. When I needed to change my arrival day, I did that by text message, too. So someone connected with the guesthouse can communicate in English. But I never encountered that person when I was there. After such friendly communication by texting, I was disappointed to find that the people actually there were the least friendly I have encountered.