Fenghuang Ancient Town, China 🇨🇳 | One of the Most Beautiful Places to Visit in China

We've just arrived in Fenghuang ancient town. First impressions are it's absolutely beautiful. It's got so much character and charm. It feels really quaint and I'm just so excited to be here, so excited to see it. We're going to show you a hotel room which has the most insanely beautiful view of the whole place. You have to check it out. I'll put the link for it below. And when you do get here, we arrived by train at the Fenghuang train station and when you get here you have to take a ditty but there is no ditties. They don't pick them up so you basically negotiate with the driver. We paid 30 yuan to get into the actual ancient village and our hotelier came and picked us up and walked us through the hotel because it would have been pretty hard to find it. There's also a 7 yuan shuttle that you can take. It drops you just outside the city and you walk your way in as well. So lots of different options. There's no ticket to pay just to walk around the city. There is a combination ticket for some of the sites. There's nine sites that you pay to get into. Lots to do and see. Let's get into it. Our hotel lady has come to collect us. She's taken my bag and gone and so we're just following behind and I'm a lady of luxury here in China. We've just arrived here in Fenghuang ancient village otherwise known as a Phoenix ancient village and that's how I'll be referring to it from here on in because my pronunciations are terrible. And we've checked into our hotel. It is absolutely amazing. You will not get a better view on this river than this. So we're right in the middle of ancient town. We've got a really nice comfortable room. Two big double beds which are going to be absolutely perfect after a long train ride today. But I really just need to show you the view because our balcony is next level. So let's go. Comfy beds. It's lovely. We appreciate it all but this is what we're here for. I mean it doesn't get any better than this. We literally are going to sit here and having some drinks and really enjoying the music that comes from the little bar below. It stops at 11 so it doesn't bother us and it doesn't get more perfect than this. Mike's outdone himself with his booking this time. And these stepping stones that we've come to now are one of the most famous things to do here. So you've got to walk across and get your picture. There are a couple of people around but it's much busier later in the day. So we're going to go check that out. Don't fork out. All right we've got a traffic jam. Ancient stepping stone bridge. It's how the people used to cross the river before all the other bridges were built. And I saw a lot of people saying it's scary. It's really not that scary. The stones are evenly spaced apart. It's not very difficult. You do get a couple of traffic jams which adds a little bit of excitement but it's really fine. I wasn't too keen last night in the rain and the dark but this morning it's no problem. This is the city wall of Phoenix Ancient Town. It goes for six kilometers long and you can just hop up on and off it as you walk around. You get a great view over the river from here. You get some beautiful views up over the city, the ancient roofs. It's really lovely and it's pretty easy to access right from the city street. So let's go check out more of this town. The whole way along the river there are bridges in this town and there's five in the upper section and five in the south section. You can crisscross your way up and down the river from north to south. It's a really just a nice way to spend a day and a lot of them are ancient. So some built in the Ming dynasty. Obviously some a little bit more rustic like the one we're on here and the stepping stone which was the very first one. So we're going to go keep exploring this cool town. So it's not like we love other details around this town and the Chinese really do things so well. So this is actually cement. It looks like a really barky tree that's been made into a barrier but it's actually not. Like you can see here where it's starting to come away that it is actually cement just made really well to look like a barky tree and there's actual real moss that's starting to grow in it and we love these details because it really adds character to the town, adds to the vibe of the place and it really feels like you are part of the wilderness. We've turned off the river and we are walking uphill. We're through a really cute little quaint street. Lots of little shops. Everyone's kind of is chill and leaves you alone here and we're walking up to what is called on google maps the Phoenix town scenic spot. So, so far it is really scenic. There's beautiful old buildings. There's just locals wandering around. There is one of the paid attractions behind us here. Residence of somebody. We'll go and show you that in a minute but we're heading up to some really old buildings and they look really really charming. Ni hao. Ni hao. Looks so pretty with the phoenix. Ten yuan. This one ten yuan. Do you reckon it's good? This is the big phoenix of Phoenix ancient town. This is another one of the paid attractions here in Phoenix ancient town. It's the museum of the ancient town and it's in a combination ticket that I'll put the link below for. Along with all the paid attractions here, the nine paid attractions, there are also lots of free places you can pop into. This is a temple for a, based on a Taoist lady who rescued fishermen from the sea I believe. So there's a little information board you can read outside even in English. We've left our hotel and we've walked all the way to the other end of the river where we haven't been yet and we've come to another beautiful bridge and it is really such a beautiful peaceful town. I can't even explain to you. It's so serene and I thought there'd be thousands of visitors. There's not. On this bridge there is a banquet upstairs that you can go and have a beautiful meal overlooking the river and take in the view here. We've come to the end of the river and or as far as we can go and this is where you see the shows that are on in Huanghang ancient town. It's a massive area. It's a phoenix and dragon show. It looks like it's going to be pretty impressive and all the reviews are really good so if you're going to do it this is where you'll come. I'll put the link to the tickets below so you can check it out yourself. We're just standing at the bottom of cloud bridge where we were upstairs having a look through the views before and we're having a stroll by the river and it's really cute because China really promotes a lot of healthy living aspects of life. So on every signboard there's signs like this saying mental health is very important. Up here it says keep your blood healthy by walking, keep your diet healthy and it's a really nice little reminder from China. Before we came here to Phoenix ancient town we were not sure if it was going to be really really busy so and in the center area yet there are a lot of people wandering around but if you walk just a little bit outside of that either up or down the river you get to these really quiet beautiful tranquil parts where it's kind of just you and a couple of people selling things. It's peaceful, it's serene and it is just so perfect. I'm so glad we came and spending two nights here was perfect. So we got here got that little bit of afternoon taste test and then the next day today we've just been wandering the whole river and loving it. So highly recommend that our hotel is amazing and I will link it below so you can check it out and finding all these different bridges and different styles like I'm just loving it here really glad we came. All right lunchtime here in Phoenix ancient town and I've been having a couple of really strong flavored Chinese dishes lately so I'm just going for something nice and simple just a egg fried noodle and looks great smells great we've got awesome little spot here on the water very good. One thing the Chinese know how to do is even like a simple simple meal very very flavorsome heaps of flavors super tasty and yeah all good. It's a winner. Let's check out this view oh look at that it's a really cute little restaurant too. And through the windows of the restaurant there are the famous stilted houses that you can see while you're eating your dinner it's really pretty and it's such a peaceful calm day today we are loving it. These guys were really kind and they are have done a stir-fried rice noodle with no soy sauce and there is no wheat in the rice noodle we've got some egg works carrot and if they can make this taste good then they can do anything. It's so good little bits of chili it's so good and it's so simple but it's so flavorful and eating gluten-free in China isn't as hard as you think it'd be. Mike's got a meal he's happy I'm happy got a great view got to come here. This is the view back to where we've been staying our hotel is right here with the dark wood you can see our egg calling our name on our balcony we're going to go head back there and spend a little bit of time there checking out this view from that side because it's so good we don't want to leave but we are we had to take ourselves out for some lunch and wander around as well so if you're looking for our hotel this is what it looks like from this way and we'll show you the view out and again in a minute. I've been wanting to come across the river here from our hotel to check out this pagoda because I keep seeing it at night it gets all brightly lit up and it's really pretty and it's sitting here right on the water's edge and you can actually go down and walk through it so I'm going to go down. Oh we get a bit rocky here watch your step. Another thing about China is that it is so clean there are always people here sweeping the streets picking up garbage emptying bins it's honestly sometimes two or three people sweeping the streets in the one spot and you can really tell because you walk around there is not a scrap of rubbish anywhere. If you're craving a western food hit and you're here in Phoenix ancient town then you can come over here there is a pizza hut and a KFC to really get that fries and burger or pizza whatever you're looking for you can get it here too. This is our favorite place to get a cold drink here in pretty much anywhere in China it's called Mix Sway and they've got everything the lemon water is absolutely my favorite they've got 2 yuan ice cream and a really good strawberry sundae for 6 yuan. Basically Mike takes a photo of the screen or the girls come out and check what good they're getting a nail check I got the lemon water Mike's got the sundae or this is ice cream cone 2 yuan and the girls are so nice yeah it's like maybe about 40 cents a tray exactly and the cone it's got some little seeds in it but super nice sweet good ice cream always love Mix Sway. Now we're gonna go chill in our room because we've got this incredible balcony view we feel wasteful not using it and I'm gonna have my drink Mike's gonna have his ice cream we're gonna go chill then we're gonna come out again at night. We wandered around looking for food and found this food court we stumbled on these guys grooving out we grabbed some dinner here it was a vibe We've come to one of the best viewpoints here in Phoenix Ancient Town it's one of the top bridges looking down along the whole river everything's lit up every building every bridge everything that can be lit up is lit up there's a whole crowd here taking photos and enjoying the scene as well and you can see the whole way down the river all the different bridges they sort of intersect each other one behind the other and it's a really perfect viewpoint best views in Phoenix Ancient Town. We've come down to the water level here at the river and down from the bridge above before and the same bridge is behind me now it's beautiful there's a full buzz and vibe going on around here lots of girls are dressing up and guys are dressing up in the traditional outfits of the ethnic people in the area of Mao people I believe and it's really cool it adds to the atmosphere adds the vibe and makes for some great viewing behind me here. In the evening there are street performers but they're on the water and the lady behind me in the red dress has been singing here for the last two nights and dancing and down near where we're staying there's a couple of dancers on the water as well and it's an added benefit if you're taking the night cruise you get to see them performing as you're going around it's really beautiful. Just like in Japan there are these stamps that you can stamp for free and they do beautiful designs and you just bring your own stamp book or you can buy a stamp book from one of the souvenir stores and collect all the stamps around China. It's evening here at our hotel and it's a really vibrant buzzing atmosphere we have got a bar down below us with the live music and we're just sitting out here having a couple of drinks enjoying it you've got the beautiful view of the river boats coming past we've got dancers down this way we've got lights all around people wandering past saying hello and it's really cute like what a way to spend an evening right from your room it is honestly the place to be. Well now last morning the sun came out and it was absolutely perfect day we spent it walking around to our favorite spots soaking up the beautiful town. Today there's blue sky out and there are so many people about there's a really fun atmosphere everyone's getting photos and lots of tour guides explaining what's happening around the place it's really cool they knew the weather but hey we're still lucky we got the blue sky. These are the stepping stones which are right in front of the iconic bridge here in phoenix ancient town normally you get a bit of a crowd here but we've captured a really quiet moment just after eight o'clock so if you want to get up early and come out we've got the sun streaming here we've got blue sky it's a really perfect perfect morning okay thank you all right we just grabbed a tasty treat from this lovely lady here it's a potato and egg concoction and it looks so delicious it's warm and uh looks so good it's uh it's warm and toasty and it's slight chill in the air so it sounds good to me it's so good it's like an eggy hash brown and it's so crispy and it's so delicious and it's exactly what i want and i don't know if i'm sharing with mike because i want to order myself Phuong Hang is so scenic truly beautiful and worth visiting we loved being out and about before everyone else and having it all to ourselves there's a big bend in the river and south of it we've come down two days and it's always the quietest area it's so picturesque honestly i think this is some of my favorite part of this city you just get so many beautiful bridges and there's so few people here if you go north of the bend it's a lot busier it's also really beautiful but there's a lot more people around so don't forget about coming south and also make sure that you walk on both sides of the river because both vantage points offer something different and equally beautiful and you're stopping every five minutes to take a photo it's our last day here in phoenix ancient town and we are about to leave in one hour to go to the train station and head off to farong village um we've really enjoyed our time here i wasn't exactly sure what to expect before we came but it is so worth adding to your china itinerary it's just full of quaint charm and even when it does get a little bit busy everyone's having such a good time it just adds the atmosphere and the vibe and there's a lot of local tourists here which really makes you feel like you're just a part of everyone enjoying it and i thoroughly enjoyed it two nights was the perfect amount of time to stay here i'm going to put all the detailed information in my travel blog and i'll link it below so you can go check that out for all the things you need to book and how to get here how to get away as we were leaving the ancient village as i said before didi doesn't really work here it does work but no one picks it up and we were approached by this lovely lady and she offered us a fee of 31 which is very fair it's what we paid to come from the train station here same location so we've grabbed that and we're going to get a ride to the train station all right we've arrived at the train station our driver was so lovely so we're going to go check in for our train and we will be in farong town very soon we've come through security mike sitting here chilling the train station is huge pretty much every train station in china is big and comfortable lots of seating free charging and you will find mcdonald's in pretty much every single one of them and it's just such a nice little treat before you jump on a train gates have just opened so we're about to go through to our train you've got to have your passport with you because every ticket every attraction every train and plane they're all linked to your passport you just show this and you're on we really hope this vlog has been helpful for you to plan your trip to china and your trip here in phoenix ancient town which we highly recommend and if it has like and subscribe it really helps to support our channel and we'll see you in farong ancient town