I woke up at 4am and went to the toilet. I checked on the map and we were still a fair distance but I thought we would arrive around 6am. I went back to sleep until 5.30 and got up before 6 and read a bit. I got my suitcase out and put it on the bed so I was ready, my phone battery had a full charge earlier but was dropping pretty quickly and we eventually arrived at 7.40. I got the bus number 8 as per wikitravel and it was a reasonable distance so I switched my phone off and managed to miss my stop. so I got off on the East side of town and walked across town. It was quite hard with my suitcase but at least I'd had rest. I walked 2km and found that there was a stone in suitcase wheel so it moved faster once it was out. I stopped at a park which was open despite it being early and was also free. There were a couple of ponds with bridges and a small temple and I left my bag at the entrance then picked it up when leaving and walked the 1km to the hostel which I found with no problems. The bed was not free yet so I showered, put shorts on, left my stuff and headed out. I went to the hill and there were no shops on the way for me to get food and I only had some nuts and little else. I followed the Wikitravel route and the road was muddy and was being constructed but I walked along it anyway. I turned and headed along a grass path and came to a hut with a man in who didn't want me to carry on along the path he wanted me to divert a long way around. I found my way to the path and went uphill where there were some graves and I continued uphill where there were more graves. After a bit I reached Zhongzhe temple which had a flatish walking path going south and north. I went north as the views were supposed to be good but I had to wait as 2 girls were taking view photos at the spot. I ate some of my nuts and after taking pictures of them they offered to take one of me which we did and afterwards I realised I had my flies down. I walked past them but then dropped my nuts so they went past me trying to clean up and I next saw then stopped lookingat what turned out to be a red panda. It was sitting there in the tree eating bamboo which was really cool as its an endangered species and all. The path came to a waterfall and I turned back there and stopped at the panda who was still there. I met some people I wanted to tell about the panda but they spoke no English and I made it back to the temple then carried on south and had to sign in at a desk presumably to track people in case they don't make it. It was a fair way with some views and notice boards before phoenix eye cave which was shut semi-permanently. I was out of food by now and had an annoying singing guy walking behind me about my pace so I let him past to have some peace. I got to some more viewpoints around 1.30pm and then listened to music and finally made it through to the cable car area where I climbed up a fitness path which was quite hard going to get to a viewpoint. I went back down and took an easier climb to a pool area which was pretty before I carried on and went past the check point for the start of the walk for people heading north and they didn't want my details. At the cable car area I went down a bit to have a look around and the food prices were double or triple normal. I couldn't find the chessboard they had signposted and went back up but the path was soon blocked and the path up for a gorge view was a dead end. I headed down as there were no other options past a stream and another pool and down to the chessboard which was there after all. I continued down on the path along a stream which looked fresh enough to drink so I filled up my bottle a bit. There was a temple and another small temple before the cable car and path end. I went past the overpriced market stalls for tourists and had to take a boring road down where there were a few things nearby to see and I went to a temple which was an empty area but the next was a big, impressive temple which had some pagodas, a few levels and some large halls. I left onto the main road where I found a shop and bought cakes biscuits and nuts as I hadn't eaten much all day and I went through most of them. I got bus number 4 south and visited the Dehua stele which didn't have much to see. There was another temple so I went that way on a path going up hill past lots of graves. The white temple was shut as it was late but at least there were some views. I went back down and took bus 4 north to the hostel where I checked in and got a bottom bunk where I left some things and went to a supermarket. There was a bike shop on the way which wanted 30 yen for a day and opened at 8.30. In town there was a mosque and a shut temple, then I got to the supermarket and bought a lot like an egg bun, noodle wrap, some cheap fruit, yoghurt, bean sprouts and juice. I ate some and walked some more to a cultural palace which was kind of open but there wasn't much to see. The city gates were nice and I ate more until I was full up and came to a square with dancers in formation although they were rehearsing. I came to one of the proper city gates on the wall and there were tree blossoms around as well. I followed the wall and went back to the hostel slowly. The wifi was good at the hostel and my VPN worked which meant I had gmail and Facebook etc and a lot to catch up on. I ran my battery down and then went to sleep tired aftee a long day, the hostel was nice but the bed was hard.
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