An ancient city

What bliss it is to wake naturally without an alarm. Even better that I had a good night sleep without altitude complications. After a very leisurely breakfast and prep, I checked out around 1000 and taxied to Beimen bus station (which was new to me).

I managed to get myself on the 1100 bus to the ancient city of Langzhong. That meant around 30 mins of waiting which I put to good use reading, thinking and planning. The ride took 4h and was uneventful.

Arrival into Lanzhong was very cloudy with wet patches on the ground, so there must have been rain. The station was a bit of a mess with scaffolding and boards while work was being done. I went in to buy my return ticket to Chengdu before taking a motorbike to the guesthouse in the old town.

Unfortunately, the motorbike couldn’t enter the old town and the driver didn’t know the best area to drop me off. Eventually, he dropped me off somewhere and it wasn’t far to walk.

I had a tiny room in a four-room two-storey guesthouse. There were two rooms on each level overlooking the courtyard. It was nice enough but was equipped with a squat toilet. OK for CNY100 per night.

I went out for a walk around the old town and exited into the new town where I found Walmart! A lot of stuff in there wasn’t different from those found on the street markets. They’re not well-known or house brands. That doesn’t mean the quality is no good as I have lots of good stuff from street markets.

Having skipped lunch and only snacked on the bus, I grabbed an early dinner before resting briefly in the room. After dark, I explored the old town again to appreciate it better lit up by lanterns (and spotlights lights and what not).