Jiangyong Voyage Tips and guide

Contents

The same train you might have taken to Yongzhou, Jiangyong station would either be the next or the previous one depending on whether you are coming from the north or from the south.

The train station is a bit far away from Jiangyong (south west), so you might have to take a bus or taxi. The bus is a cheap option and its relatively fast. The first town you pass by is Shangjiangxu (上江圩镇).

Some of the main sights are a bit on the outskirts, although you can use this place as a hub to go around the surrounding areas and this is the only place where you might actually find accommodation.

Nüshu script museum (江永女书生态博物馆). Ask for the bus that goes there or hire a taxi. It's relatively near.

This museum host the history of those women whom invented a special logophonetic script for describing their hardship in the country side with poems and literature and it was only taught by women in this area. The literary tradition has a history dating since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages.

Tongkou village 桐口村

This is a small beautiful town from the Ming dynasty a little bit lost in the valley that surrounds the county to the north and at one point in its history it was a small thriving town that had everything from restaurants to gambling parlors, but now it is quite abandoned with only a few couple of old folks just standing on the streets keeping an eye on grandchildren that has been left to them to take care of. The surrounding is beautiful with lush green mountains.

It is quite tricky to get there so you might have to ask around local people for direction. Take a bus back towards the train station and get off at Shangjiangxu. Type in this town in baidu maps (Tongkoucun 桐口村) and it will give you directions, but it might be a little inaccurate, because once you start following this road you might encounter several other roads and you might be left wondering which one to take. There is a small road that goes north which starts from Shangjiangxu and leads to this town.

You can either hire a driver or walk, since there is no public transportation. The town is quite unknown and virtually no tourist goes there. Hitchhiking is a good option; the locals are willing to help and are friendly. Although prepare for language barrier, because nobody in this area speaks standard mandarin, and even less, English (xiangnan tuhua (湘南土话 is spoken here).