Spontaneous Trip to Liyang

In early August, I went to Liyang with my family. It was not the original plan.

We were actually supposed to be going to Changsha. We were at the airport, ready to board, but our COVID test strictly passed the 48-hour mark by a tiny margin. We had taken a new test seven hours earlier, but the result was still not back. China Southern Airlines stood firm: no boarding.

I stood there arguing with the staff for a long time, holding up a Shanghai notice stating that a 72-hour negative certificate was enough. But they out-numbered me, and eventually, the plane just took off without us. Changsha was out. I had a packed suitcase and angry momentum, so I decided we were just driving to Liyang instead.

You don't really prepare for a trip you invent in an hour. The next day, I grabbed the exact same suitcase I had packed for the flight and loaded the car. Just to be safe, we took yet another test in Shanghai before finally hitting the road.

Because I had done exactly zero homework on Liyang, the entire itinerary was outsourced to whatever was popular on Mafengwo. We got there in the afternoon, took a short break, and went to Hantian Hot Spring. The second day was Tianmu Lake Landscape Garden, and the third was Nanshan Bamboo Sea.

Even though we drove the whole way, there was still a massive amount of walking inside the parks themselves, which completely drained us. Also, one piece of advice: do not go in the summer. Do not go in the summer. Do not go in the summer. Climbing around a bamboo mountain in forty-degree heat is not quite the romantic getaway the travel photos suggest.

I put together a short video for this trip, which is why there isn't much more text.