Today was a travel day to a town called Wangxian Valley Town, a place I had seen on an Instagram reel once and apparently this was enough for me to book accommodation here. Zach was somehow on board with this at the time (he was still working while I was doing ‘the planning’), but was now becoming increasing apprehensive about my adventures in social media leading us to the arse end of nowhere.
It was also our first experience of the absolute heckin’ joy that is the Chinese railway system. We’d heard horror stories of confusing signage and last-minute platform changes but this wasn’t our experience at all.
After arriving via Metro at Shanghai Hongqiao Station, and a bit of an aimless wander, we engaged in the age old tradition of just ‘asking someone’, who directed us to departures. Basically, don’t be afraid to ask/point at your train number and help will come. We also realised that Chinese train stations are a) huge and b) much like airports – there’s security belts for your bags, passport scanning and most importantly – no need for a physical ticket! You just scan your passport at the correct electronic gate and Bob’s your Uncle – you’re through! Greta Thunberg would surely be chuffed at such paperlessness…
We seemed to be the only non-Chinese people travelling on the train – much to the entertainment of the smiley chap sat next to us – which was pretty cool. Zach was once again lauding his ‘app of the century’, Alipay, for everything it could do for you whilst in transit.
“You can even order takeout to your seat in advance of your journey!” – Zach Ward, 2024
Comfy, clean, buckets of legroom and didn’t break the bank… the UK could never!
On arrival at Shangrao – the city nearest Wangxian – we opted to travel the rest of the way via Didi (China’s equivalent to Uber). There is a bus apparently, but we were still residents of struggleville with the old sleep deprivation, so went for the ‘possible-fuck-up-free’ option. It was also £13 for an hour-long journey with air con and a lovely woman who was desperately trying to communicate with us to organise our return transport.
In the end I think she just found us, and the confusion, very funny. People here continue to be a joy.
DAY 1
We arrived at the very luxe reception of Xiansu hotel (Zach now accuses me of being too flash for backpacking) and were taken down a tonne of stairs and a massive hill to the main town, nestled in a beautiful valley that’s filled with traditional-style Chinese architecture, swinging lanterns and incredible views of the buildings springing from the cliff face. Pictures nor words will truly do it justice!
Again, in total contrast, our hotel room was modern (dare I say boujee), with all the amenities you could think of, including a relationship preserving separate toilet. According to the porter we were staying in the ‘fun zone’. We didn’t know what he meant… but you can’t spell disfunction without fun, so naturally we were up for some chaos.
A shower and change of clothes later and he was immediately proven right as darkness had fallen and the valley had totally transformed.
We are rarely lost for words – ask our families – but stepping out onto the walkway outside of our room was a true moment of speechlessness. Brownie points for me I feel – this place was FIT!
Everywhere you turned there were colourful lanterns in every shape and form, from the traditional style to massive sweeping dragons. Every walkway and shopfront was an opportunity for more light, every corner posed in front of by a beautifully-dressed Chinese woman having a gram-worthy photoshoot. The buildings in the cliffs were also glittering in front of giant moon (I first thought this was real… it was not, but still beaut none-the-less).
There were lots of restaurants and snack spots to choose from, we opted for one with some vegetable dishes. I tried my first ‘Stinky Tofu’, which was actually delicious and tasted like a strong blue cheese. You don’t need much of it to pack a punch and it brings real flavour to rice/noodles/potato shreds etc. Cheesy pasta sauce vibes.
We heard some loud music and chanting in the background – we were missing a show! It felt familiar – call and response-type shouting and singing (oggy oggy oggy)… were we in… Chinese Butlins?
We resolved to catch whatever madness this was the following day as we seemed to have missed the bants by the time we’d scoffed our dinner.
To pack a bit of music in to end the night, we headed to bar street, where we stopped and listened to a guitar/drum duo play whilst supping cocktails. We felt the same frustration as the singer, as we tried to communicate in mismatching languages – but all was well when he bashed out a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody for us English. We later found out he was from Hong Kong via translator app chat. There was also a female singer with a gorgeous voice.
Everyone is welcoming and friendly here, even if we can’t properly speak to each other – a bit of patience and willing on both sides and you can make it work. Laughing at awkward interactions seems to be universal… praise be.
DAY 2
Breakfast finished at 9.30am, so up we hiked to the buffet hall. We’ve developed a new game called ‘what’s in the bun?’, where we select a range of bao for brekkie, guess their contents and reveal through a swift and brave chomp. So far, so good, with date and walnut being a clear favourite. I will pitch it to the BBC as a format immediately.
I had a truly horrible nights sleep and looked/felt like a dropped lasagne, so we made the very adult decision to have a post-breakfast nap (yes, it’s a hard life). The rain was also back with a vengeance, so we didn’t feel too guilty and we woke up feeling revived and raring to go.
The valley is very different by day. It’s clear that it is a resort and recently built for tourism purposes, rather than the buildings having any long-standing history. An information board told us that the valley had been plagued by flooding – buildings were destroyed, roads washed away and a town and it’s people found themselves submerged in water. Hope was lost until a celestial boat appeared, floating through the floodwater to save them, while white cranes transformed into bridges to help them cross from side to side. A Taoist temple now sits above the valley, telling this tale and offering both a place of peaceful reflection and incredible views.
We completed a big hike around the valley’s walkways and many, many stairs in the first sunshine of the trip… and boy was it hawt! Like the idiots abroad we are, we didn’t bring any water on this particular excursion and quickly became incredibly dehydrated. Alipay finally let Zach down, as it rejected him from using the vending machine – we could taste the bīng shuǐ (iced water) on the other side of the glass. This was when sticking out like a sore, British thumb became incredibly helpful. Two kind girls bought us a bottle of water each and wouldn’t take any money from us – instead, a photo opportunity was the preferred payment. I hope we are on Chinese social media somewhere under a snappy caption… ‘saved these two absolute wellies from imminent husk death’… something like that.
A slightly earlier dinner – this time mega bowls of tofu, chicken for Zach and veg – meant we could catch the full experience of the nightly show. And by the power of Grayskull, what a show it was!
There was fire, there was traditional dancing… and then there was crowd participation. We obviously looked like a couple of awkward bookends, because a friendly couple dragged us into the group dancing portion (their version of the Conga/YMCA/Flying Purple People Eater/Agadoo/insert campsite song of choice here). We were flung about like an Orca’s lunch and it was SO FUN.
(Please refer to our reels for proof of said fun.)
Naturally, the whole thing was capped off with a massive rave and stuffed toys being thrown from the stage by the MC. It was a gloriously odd experience backed by the quaint, cliffside lighting and the whole thing now lives rent free in our minds.
Watch-outs…
(we said we were going to be honest!)
- Accessibility may be an issue for many. There are a shite-load of stairs and hiking about really is part of the package. It is a resort town built into the cliffs of a valley after all, impressive views some at a cost – so don’t skip leg day before travelling here!
- Construction is happening at the moment. This seems to be the case for everywhere we’ve been so far, but is quite noticeable in Wangxian as it’s clearly growing at a rapid rate. For us, this wasn’t the end of the world – it was actually impressive to see new structures pop up overnight, but it can be especially noisy in the morning before the day tourists arrive. I had my trusty Loop ear plugs and Zach can sleep on top of the speaker at a Slipknot gig, so we got some kip, but if you are sensitive to this sort of thing I’d say give it a year – or a week, they’ll probably be finished by then!
- No-one speaks any English – and frankly why should they? This is a tourist attraction run by Chinese people, for the Chinese people, IN CHINA. We saw some online complaints about this (our new fave hobby is reading bad reviews of amazing places), which is just dumb tbh. Google translate is your friend – download Chinese before you go to be able to communicate! Pre-downloaded languages work when turning off wifi & data.
- You probably only need a day or two here. We did a half day of orientation and then a full day explore and felt we’d pretty much done everything. If you like to just chill in a resort and try the different eateries, bars and shopping then you do you boo. Things we didn’t do for cost/time control reasons were; the inflatable boat rapid ride through the centre of the valley, crafting activities and photography session (we were concerned about British people seemingly playing ‘dress up’ in traditional Chinese outfits for the sake of photos – felt a bit eggy!)
If all of the above works for you, this place is really worth the visit!
Check out our instagram for more photos and reels.
H&Z x
Links:
Our costs: £176.87 (2 ppl, 2 nights, buffet breakfast, Wangxian entry tickets, entertainment, photography package – we didn’t use this as I said.)
The Awkward Travellers 
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