Chetian

We were met by Ed, Selina and Snowy at the train station. The time had finally come for our worldpackers mapping gig and we had no idea what to expect. As soon as we met the two of them they were welcoming, friendly, helpful and a font of knowledge for all things China from both a Chinese and foreigner's point of view. Ed we knew before was from the UK but surprisingly was from beaconsfield, a stone's throw away from Watford, and was familiar with our neck of the woods and immediately had a home connection which we later found out he was really happy to have had. Selina was his wife who was from another village in Wuyuan and they'd met in Shanghai, fallen in love, bought Skywells and after 2 years and a lot of hard work hosted a couple of travellers with a knack for maps.

On our way to Skywells I learnt that Wuyuan was actually a county and not a village like I'd believed and that there were a lot of villages in the area (maybe just not as pretty as theirs!). We'd arrived in the "big smoke" as Ed described it, Wuyuan town, the county capital and had what is considered a small population of 300,000. Bearing in mind we were now 4 hours away from Shanghai by high speed rail in the middle of rurual China and there's still a lot of people.

Our new home for the next 17 nights was in a little village call Yancun (pronounced yan-soon) within the Sixi-Yancun Scenic Area. This is a protected historical area with an entrance fee of 60rmb to both Yancun and Sixi because they showcases original building creeatted during the Qing dynasty - medieval China. Skywells itself was almost falling down when the guys decided to buy and renovate it, some parts of the building being 250 years old! Well a very quick briefing session had, we were about to see this wonderful place for the first time...Read more