Travelling to Changsha

Bullet train to Changsha

Today we move on to Changsha by bullet train at 1126. With the station far away, we started around 0800 with breakfast at last night’s wonton shop. We had specially made an arrangement for them to open somewhat earlier for us.

We took two separate cars to Wuhan station where everything worked well. Unlike my previous trips, all our bookings could be automatically validated at the manually-staffed turnstile using our passports without human intervention.

The train ride was only 1h20 to Changsha South station but we reached a maximum speed of 307 km/h.

Upon arrival, we took a metro to our hotel. The exit of the metro was in a very disorienting location with an underpass and roadworks. Once we got past that initial confusion, it was a very short walk to the Luxi Hotel, located at the near end of the pedestrian mall.

The location couldn’t have been better as we had the convenience of the pedestrian mall without having to lug our bags a long way.

We were offered sunny rooms overlooking the pedestrian mall which were described as potentially noisy or larger ones with no windows on the other side. I chose the former as the windows were double-glazed and it turned out to be a good choice.

Changsha’s street food scene

Immediately after checking in, we went across the road to a green signboarded restaurant that specialised in the pork of black pigs.

We spent the day exploring the pedestrian streets and back alleys. While lively during the day, it got even busier at night. Some of the shops had been joined up to create large food halls to supplement the street-front and on-street eating options.

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