Guangdong is full of interesting cities. In the past, I wasn’t very interested in traveling around my province, but the more I have traveled in Guangdong, the more I love it. I especially love the mountains in my province. The mountains aren’t as impressive as the Rockies in Colorado or the snow mountains in the Hengduan Mountain range in Yunnan, but I love them anyway.
I used to make fun of the mountains in my area—they aren’t even really mountains, they’re just big hills. But as someone from Kansas, what right do I have to be picky about mountains? And some advantages to smaller mountains is that they aren’t quite as scary to drive in, or as dangerous.
During the October holiday this year, some friends and I decided to drive to Heyuan （河源）. We left on the 4th, and I was pretty sure the traffic on that day would be fine. But I was a little bit worried about driving back to Guangzhou on the afternoon/evening of the 6th. Since the October holiday is one of the biggest holidays in China, millions of people are traveling all at the same time. Originally we planned to get a train ticket to come back, but even though we reserved it ahead of time, we couldn’t get one. So I agreed to drive us.
Driving to Heyuan went smoothly. It took about 2 and a half to 3 hours, and I loved the drive. We could enjoy looking at the mountains from the highway, and the sunset was beautiful. Thanks to Timothy for taking pictures while I drove!
Timothy’s parents live in Heyuan, and they cooked us some delicious local food for our first evening. They had a fried fish, chestnuts and pork in a crock-pot type dish, beef balls in a fresh soup, seafood balls in another similar soup, and several other dishes. Everything was delicious!
What are some of the fun things that we did in Heyuan?
We did mainly three activities while we were there, and they were all really fun! I’ll share them with you.
1. Hike around Wan Lv Lake （万绿湖）. (Name of the location we used: 新丰江森林公园-九里湖畔, Xinfeng Jiang Senlin Gongyuan–Jiuli hupan)
My friends all know that I love hiking, so Jessica and Timothy took us to this beautiful lake with a friendly hiking trail. The trail had enough uphill sections to be interesting, but it was not too difficult, and we all enjoyed it. Wan Lv Lake is quite large, so we only hiked around a small section, but I loved seeing the beautiful lake and all the trees. At this time of the year, there are also a lot of butterflies, and I enjoyed looking at the different butterflies also.
2. Hot Springs. (Name of the location we chose: 叶园温泉旅游区, Yeyuan wenquan lvyouqu)
We weren’t sure if we would want to go to the hot springs, since our province has been quite hot lately, but right before we left, we had a bunch of rain, and it finally cooled off. The hike was a bit warm in the sun, but still comfortable with a nice breeze. And by the evening, it was a bit cool—perfect for hot springs.
Timothy and Jessica had visited one hot springs in the area, but it seemed to be on it’s way out of business, so Timothy found another one with better reviews. It was about 30 minutes from where we were staying, and we had to drive through a very small village. We were all wondering about what the quality of this hot springs would be like, but when we arrived, we found a giant resort with lots of different hot springs pools. We spent about 100 kuai, which is on the cheap side for hot springs resorts, and this one was very nice. A local specialty is sweet potatoes, and here they offered them to guests for free. I do love a good roasted sweet potato, and they were quite filling! I also bought a tea egg (one of my favorite options for quick protein) for 3 kuai. That’s not bad for food inside of an amusement area like this.
We had fun hopping around to the different pools. They pools had lots of different temperatures, and many of them also had different flavors (not for drinking, just for soaking!). Many of the pools had different health benefits, such as being good for the joints, blood circulation, relieving tension, and many others. The signs were in English and Chinese, so it was easy to quickly see what the pools were.
There were a few other people, but it wasn’t too crowded, and we mostly had the pools to ourselves. We enjoyed relaxing in the hot water and then wandering around to find another pool when it got too warm.
3. Paddleboarding in Wan Lv Lake. (Name of the location we used, but there were many to choose from. Just make sure to confirm that parking and showers and everything is included in the price ahead of time: 万绿湖边悦色桨板露营地, Wan Lv Hubian Yuese Jiangban luying di)
On our last morning, we decided to try some paddleboarding. The first place that Timothy found was around 160 kuai, and while that seemed like a lot, that also sounded similar to what kayaking/paddleboarding usually costs. However, he and Jessica weren’t satisfied, so they continued to search for better places, and they found one!
The one that they decided on in the end was down a long mountain road that was a little bit stressful to drive, but it was mostly wide enough for two cars. The last section was down a very bumpy dirt road, but we made it without any incidents. And once we finally arrived, we were very impressed with the place. Most people advised kayaking at sunset, so since we arrived in the morning, there weren’t many other people there. We didn’t have to wait, and we had our pick of the paddleboard colors.
The owners set us up with our paddleboards, gave us an oar and sent us out into the lake.
“You can go as far as you want!” They said.
I was excited about this since the last time we went kayaking, we were only allowed in a small section of the river.
“If you get someplace and can’t come back, just call me and I’ll come pick you up,” he said as we stuffed our phones into plastic protectors that they provided for free.
We headed out into the lake. At first, the water was calm, but once we got out away from our little bay, the water was riddled with small choppy waves. We paddled over to the other side of the lake (actually we were on one arm of the lake) then toward the mountains in the distance, then back to another small section. I was sad to see a lot of trash on the sides. Also, ironically, I saw a lot of Nongfu water bottles. This brand of drinking water gets their water from this lake, but I was sad to see that the water bottles were also polluting the beauty of the lake.
But the mountains were still beautiful, and we had fun paddling all around.
After we finished, we headed back to the dock (we did not need to call for rescue). They had nice bathrooms for showers also.
That afternoon, we returned to Guangzhou, and I was praying that the traffic would not be too bad. On the highway, we got stuck in some traffic from accidents, but it didn’t take too long. I was mostly worried about the traffic back in Guangzhou, but we had no problems there. In all, the trip only took about an hour longer than it usually did, so I was really thankful for that!
Heyuan was a beautiful place, and I’m thankful for lots of beautiful places so close to where I live! China is full of adventures!