Zhang Fei Ancient Road Adventure

The ancient food of Jiangfei. Okay cool. Okay well we've kind of found the hot springs. Yeah these are the insects in the Chinese medicine aren't they? If this is the last time you see us alive it'd be nice knowing you. So here we are. The ancient food of Jiangfei. So in the times of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms it is said that Jiangfei walked this pathway on his way from Lanzhong down to Chongqing. So he came here once when he was alive but later in his life he was assassinated and it is said that his head was cut off and the people who killed him took his head back down this road. So unexpectedly there's some building work going on on the path here but we should still be able to get by. Let's go. Yingguo. It'll be easier to go this way. It's so muddy. Yeah maybe wearing white shoes wasn't the best idea either. So as you can see Natalie made the mistake of wearing flip-flops. Oh you really love traveling like this? So here's a local fisherman. So one of the reasons it's so muddy here today is that throughout this month of July it's just been raining constantly almost every day really heavily and even though it's been okay in the main city of Chongqing there've been a lot of severe floods in the counties and the district and that's also why I'm not quite so sure if the spring is going to be there when we actually reach the place because the water levels have risen so much on the Jialing River. I love the temperature. Yeah it's beautiful and cool isn't it? This place looks really cool. So there's a Jiangfeigudao hotel up ahead. So it's not only a guest house but looks like they've got bonfires so you can stay here for night, you can do food picking and there's also a campsite as well so you can bring your own tent. Bats. We've got a beacon here by the side of the Jialing River so I suppose if any boats, ships come through here during the night they'll know where the banks are. Right so I'm just checking our bearings at the moment so according to this the hot spring is only about one or two hundred meters ahead so we're going to keep an eye on the banks and see if we can spot... Well there's the hot spring down there. Okay well we've kind of found the hot springs but unfortunately yeah well we found the rock here so oh yeah wouldn't you and so this is the hot spring but as you can see it's underwater. Okay I've got a rest area here do you want to... Again some stunning views from here. Yeah so just spotted this fungus here this is kind of a bit random there aren't any others around here. Yeah we've just been saying that even though it's a really hot day today if you go out in the sun like we did at the hot spring about a kilometre back then yeah it's really hot but actually we're very well shaded here on the Jiangfei pathway so yeah even if you come here in the in the summer yeah it's the the temperature down here is actually quite bearable. There's more steps. Cool. So Natalie have you tried Douhua Fan before? Yeah. Good to try it? Yeah okay let's go I'm ready for a rest. Gotta be careful. Okay the moment of truth have we made a yeah a research trip or not but I think not. I can see a sign for Douhua Fan. This is a steep climb but this is tougher than the walkway. Do you think Jiangfei came here? Maybe not. Too tough. These are oranges. Lemons maybe? Yeah you could be you could yeah maybe you're right but uh not for right yet anyway. Well Douhua Fan really make you work hard to find it don't they? Just hope they don't want any snakes in here. Just a stamp on the ground a moment. Give them a warning. Oh nice view. Do you think it's open? Oh god what are they? These? Yeah these are the insects in the Chinese medicine aren't they? You can boil these up you know if you go to one of the Chinese doctors they give you these. And then you can boil them and then if you drink it it's supposed to be really good for you. So they say. Yeah these are a bit more palatable. Well that's a look. That's a look. You don't know how good this feels. So that was uh Sister Wu. Yeah who's cooking something up for us. Oh well so we asked they don't have any of the tofu which is the specialty here but I can understand when we're the only two here aren't we? And I didn't know we were coming. Yeah so uh we can go for a second best it's okay. Here's our snack and even though technically it meant to be working the temptation was too much to resist. But uh it's only one bottle. Okay so we've just finished our afternoon snack. I can see the menu here they've got all of the citronese classics. Sister Wu has also reiterated that we can go down the main road down to the little port where we can get the ferry across the river. But uh for this show uh I've said no. So we're going to go back down the way we came through that slippery path. Then we'll continue our way along the Jiangfei walkway. Sister Wu said it's about another hour's walk and then we'll be at the ferry port. We've got some wild berries here as well but do you think we can eat these? No I don't think so. Yeah probably best we don't try. Okay so we've got a block road block over here. So it says that there's danger of rock falls and we're not allowed to pass. Okay so it says we're not allowed to pass but uh we're going to go through it anyway because uh the weather's okay and it looks fairly stable. But uh if it's the last time you see us alive it'd be nice knowing you. Yeah I think so it's kind of interesting. Yeah they're like people following the rules don't they? We've also got some Chinese writing carved into the rock face here. These are kind of a bit difficult to read because these are kind of just like the uh modern style. This is really the end of the difficult part of the route. Just told us to follow the path down here and it should lead us down to the ferry port where we can cross the river. So we're just walking through Baiyangbei village. So it's this village here that's quite famous for the tofu. Yeah the douhua fan. So if you look on a lot of the Chinese reviews for the Jiangfei Goudao then they'll always recommend this place. Maybe it has someone. Oh maybe. But the environment whole environment in this area I mean the nature. It's lovely. But the house maybe. Just I think it's dangerous. Old house too old. There's so many paths we can go. It's probably not that way. It's either that way or I think it's probably this way. I can see our ferry. Can you see it over the other side? The guys behind us have just told us the boat goes once every hour. Is that right? So we should have about 20 minutes but it's okay. Well I'm going to dip my feet in the river. I just hope that dog doesn't run away with my shoe. Actually it's not too bad. They say it's not that cold. Yeah but the the water current is pretty strong. So the trip isn't really over yet. We've got to cross over the river and then we've got to find our way back into Beybey as well. So I haven't a clue really what public bus we're going to take. But anyway we'll figure it out as we get over. But just to give a general overview of my experience today. I mean this has been one of my favorite trips out in Chongqing today. Because I'm definitely one of those guys who really likes getting close to nature. So you know we've been out in the middle of nowhere. Very few people. This kind of felt like a jungle at times especially with the the insects as well. You know the people out here are really friendly as well. We've asked loads of people the way. We also stayed with sister Ru for an afternoon snack as well. I really enjoyed that. So yeah if you're here in Chongqing for me I definitely recommend you know coming here. And the only thing I'm slightly disappointed about today is the fact that the natural spring was submerged. And in a way it's kind of like a catch-22. Because apparently even though it's called a hot spring the water's actually quite cold. So the best time to actually go in the spring is during the summer months. But then also in the summer months you kind of risk the river levels rising as well. Especially because we've had lots of rains of late. But in any case I've really enjoyed it today. How have you enjoyed the trip today? Yeah everything is just fresh for me. But the road is the hardest road I ever have walked. But it's okay I love this trip. It's just so cool for me. Okay so just three yuan for two people. It's a bargain. Looks like we're out of range for the taxis. Right so we're going through a village somewhere. I don't know the name of this place. I haven't got any plans actually on how to go back. I mean I was thinking of taking a bus but it's telling me here. We've got like walking another 1.5 kilometers which I'm hoping to be tired. How about you? Okay we're kind of in the middle of nowhere. So just waiting to see if the driver's willing to come here and pick us up. Okay so we waited about 30 or 40 minutes for a bus in vain as well. It didn't turn up did it? So apparently there's a bridge down the road that's completely blocked. So nothing was coming our way. But anyway a funny local who just parked up by the side of us and asked if we could go to Beibei. So for the bargain basement price of 20 yuan each is dropping us back in Beibei. So anyway I hope you've enjoyed the show today. I've had a really good time. So stay tuned and let's see where we go next. So catch you later and also don't forget...