Beijing to Xixinan

After a fabulous morning buffet at the hotel in Beijing I met up with Ying and Wade and we walked to the train station where we took the subway about 10 stops to catch the train to go to Huangshan.

The subway and train system is really An efficient way to get around. They are clean and on time, and pretty easy to use, even if you don't speak Chinese.
The train to Huangshan took about 5 hours, mostly at high speed - on the monitor it said we were going 307 kilometers per hour.

We were picked up by a car from the hotel Villa Lotus, where I'm staying while in the village of Xixinan. Ying arranged for us to be dropped off outside the village, so we could walk in the scenic way along the river. Our suitcases were unloaded onto a little scooter van, since the old part of the village is inaccessible by car - the streets are too narrow.

It was a beautiful walk and when we arrived at Villa Lotus we were warmly greeted by the staff. It's a beautiful place, and my room is exquisite. Minimalistic decor, but very tastefully done, and the bed is so comfortable! I was espescially impressed, because I had read that beds in China generally are extremely hard compared to Western standards.

My hotel bed in Beijing was pretty hard, but I was so tired it didn't matter! The food at Villa Lotus is amazing! Freshly prepared from local ingredients and they serve about 6 our 7 dishes for each meal.