I left my hostel at 6:30am to make sure to not miss the 8:31 train to Huangshan!

The metro ride as predicted was good and on time. Strangely we had to all get out of a metro, they closed the doors and made us take another one.

Once I got to the main railway station the adventure began! Trying to figure out things here in china is a little bit more complicated and literally no one speaks English, sometimes not even at the help desks at the stations!

I am gladly to say that after 1hr and 40 mins I finally made it to my train!

And I was also glad that the was decent! I have heard horror stories of Chinese trains so I paid to go on the fast train and expensive train to try to avoid any bad experiences. 

After 3 hours and 15 minutes on the train we stopped at a station and a lot of people got out but I noticed that the people sitting next to me didn't get their luggage... strange! 

They had long announcements in Chinese but nothing in English! They had been giving info in English such as the stop names and to get out of the front door but this time no english. I was very confused!

We ended up stopping for 35 mins and people went out to smoke and got some food.

In the train I got to observe a lot of Chinese people eating; all the people I saw were chewing on big bones and they were all wearing plastic gloves. One of my many pet peeves is people chewing loudly and with their mouth open and guess what?!? thats the way Chinese people eat. They chewed on the bones, chewed very loudly while talking to one another, and on top of that spitting the bones down to an open bag on their lap, some even spitted the bones on the lap of other people! It was so disturbing!  

Finally made it to huangshan and oh my! There is absolutely nothing written in English! I was actually shocked!!! 

Thankfully I had the name of the bus I needed to take in Chinese and showed it to a guy that pointed to the bus but otherwise I don't know how I would have done it!

I finally arrived in Tunxi, the super cute town where I'm spending a couple of days in a hostel.

In my room at the hostel I met a Chinese girl who did not speak an ounce of english but somehow me managed to say to each other that we should go together check out the surrounding so we went out and explore the town.

Near the hostel there is Tunxi old town which was super duper charming.

It was my first look at the beautiful Chinese towns; this one was mostly painted in white with black roofs and brown or red wooden façades. Inside the old town was the pedestrian street filled with hundreds of shops with souvenirs.

People put their clothes to dry out in the open! No driers here!

Lots and lots of shops with brushes for doing traditional Chinese letters and paintings.

I saw a girl writing with water in a piece of paper and she told me I could try it... so i did! (in the picture I am copying her image in yellow! mine turned out green!) The paper was super cool, I think it is used for practice so they get the brush wet and write on the special paper and after a couple of seconds (or maybe a minute) the paper dries up and the letter is gone! It's reusable paper! Loved it!

Look! They not only hang dry clothes but also pig legs!!!!

There were many many many shops dedicated to sell all kinds of teas! Chinese are huge on tea, they drink it all day long! They also only drink hot water!

I thought this town was so beautiful! I couldn't help but walk looking up, taking in the view of the roofs, the decorations, the wooden carvings... I really loved it!

I felt bad for the Chinese girl because I stopped a lot and took tons of pictures! Maybe she is used to this kind of scenery but for me it was a first and I just took my time and really took it all in!

The more we walked the more I saw stores selling some kind of tofu. I love tofu (or so I thought!) so I gave a try!!!!  BAD BAD BAD CHOICE! That tofu was horrible! that tofu was disgusting! That tofu almost made me throw up!

There were lines of people trying to buy it so I thought it would be good. 

I believe this kind of tofu is a "delicacy"!

After I tried it my new friend literally ran to buy 2 bottles of water and gave me one! haha She knew how horrible that thing was. In fact, it tasted nothing like tofu, it was all a salty and had a pungent taste! 

I enjoyed seeing this guy hand painting a traditional Chinese fan!

One of the things I found amusing was the way people cover themselves up! No where in Shanghai i saw this! I have no idea if it is to get some protection from the sun, the rain, or simply a fashion statement!

On the way back to the hostel we passed through the river and saw people washing their clothes!

I really enjoyed walking the street of Tunxi! Tomorrow I'm off to the Yellow Mountains! So excited!!!