"Xiangfan" Xiangfan by funky_pigeon

We didn't leave Suizhou until the afternoon, which was nice as we caught up with Barry and the other teachers for lunch and then took a stroll to the ttrain station from there. The train was just before 16:00 and it was only about 1 and half hours to Xiangfan.

Xiangfan is a historical and cultural city in the southwest of Hubei province. It has an area of 26.7 thousand square kilometers and a population of 6.75 million

Once we arrived in Xiangfan we were met by Dale and taken to his apartment which is were we would stay for the next couple of days, as tthats the only time we could get the train up to Xi An. On the first night we went out for dinner with Dale and Sandy to a local night street where they set up stalls to eat from. We had lots of good food and the company of the owners daughter for a while as she was practising her english.

The Town walls

The following day, Dale had lectures and we headed out to check out the town. The town is a nice town and as the Kings son used to live here you can still see the city walls that were built to protect him and there are also some lovely old streets that have retained the old chinese architecture and feeling.

We walked along the walls and saw old statues that still remain and others that have been added recently. In the evening we went out with more english teachers that taught in the town and had a great meal finishing up in a small bar for a couple more beers.

• Pros:Good Streets, Old Walls, Relatively untouched
• Cons:Fairly spread out
• In a nutshell:Felt like the first real chinese town we had been to