Hubei Shennongjia

I visited Shennongjia on a Monday in June. I took a train from Wudangshan in the afternoon to Xingshan. It takes about 2.5 hours and involves a change in Xiangyangdong.

From Xingshan, I took a bus to Muyu from the bus station which is about 5 minutes walk from the train station to the right. The bus took less than 1.5 hours. It is a beautiful ride with pretty views towards the right side for most of the trip.

I did not have much information on Shennongjia before my visit, just that there are several scenic areas and that there should be busses. The guesthouse where I was staying did not have any specific information on buses either. The town street was under reconstruction in typical Chinese style, all the streets were being renovated in one go. Probably incredibly efficient but it was rather unpleasant to move around. The tourist transfer center was closed too, probably due to the road works.

So, not much wiser except knowing that I wanted to give priority to the Shennongding Scenic Area, I ventured out around 7 am next morning and randomly hailed a passing minibus. I was lucky as it took me and it went along the entrance to Shennongding scenic area for RMB 10. I paid my entrance fee (RMB 130) and bus ticket (RMB 60) without knowing what would happen next and waited in an empty bus, soon to be joined by a full tour group. The group …

Some places just take a lot of effort if one wants to visit individually and I feared this would be the same. I hate tours in China and they tend to spend more time on shopping stops than sights, but there is a tour from Enshi that takes you to this and other places worth seeing, if only I had done all this before. The tours hardly touch the area at Shengnongjia so actually don't do this! You can either come in by bus from Yichang East (the airport shuttle's first stop), 3 and a half hours max with mostly G standard roads, or you can fly in from Shanghai/Wuhan to Hongping airport which is another hour from the scenery areas. The bus stops at a town called Muyu and has several rides a day. In the busy time you can also find minivans going back to Yichang. The official bus terminal even hands out these cards of the drivers if you want an alternative transport. You don't actually need to stay in Muyu but it's a good hub. If you spend more time at the other areas you can stay at a hotel over there which saves some time coming back to Muyu at the day but obviously you would have to arrange transportation or have your own car.

Muyu has lots of hotels and tour drivers, so I tagged on with a group of people from Canton and each paid 100 RMB for the day, excluding entrance …

It is located in western Hubei, not easy to arrive here by bus or by train, it takes 3 or 4 hours from Yichang, the nearest big city. Tickets are very expensive, especially considering the poor service, not a good experience. Car hiring are highly recommended, and don't trust the local drivers easily.