Ink Millennium: A 2-Day Secret Getaway to Huangyao

🚩 Quick Look at the Highlights 🏮 Huangyao Ancient Town: A Ming and Qing ancient village with nearly a thousand years of history, a poetic collision of bluestone streets and lantern-lit nights. 🌅 Dongtanling: A cloud viewing platform overlooking the panoramic view of Huangyao, with clouds and mist surging at sunrise like a Xianxia scroll. 🍷 Huangyao Winery: Thousands of jars of aged wine in a karst cave, a fantastic experience of underground dark rivers and neon lights. 🐔 Kiln Chicken Feast: Free-range chicken roasted in a firewood kiln, a taste bud explosion with juice overflowing the moment it's torn open. 🌳 Gupo Mountain: The largest natural oxygen bar in South China, a forest paradise where waterfalls and streams dance with macaques. 🌿 Day 1: Ancient Town Scenery and Sunrise in the Clouds 📍Huangyao Ancient Town → Dongtanling → Overnight stay in an ancient town inn 🏮 9:00 AM: Journey Through a Thousand-Year-Old Stone Street Push open the wooden window of the inn in the early morning, and Huangyao in the thin mist looks like an overturned inkstone. I put on a rented Miao embroidered horse-face skirt (CNY 30/hour) and learned to dance the bamboo pole dance with the local grandma. I used a slow shutter to photograph the flowing water by the Bailong Bridge, and the mobile phone holder was stuck in the stone crevice. I accidentally photographed a fisherman in a straw raincoat in the morning mist, and I thought I had broken into the set of *The Assassin*. Must-see photo spots: 1️⃣ Dragon Claw Banyan: Shoot upwards with a 0.5x wide-angle lens under the 500-year-old tree, and the shadows of the trees and blue tiles overlap to form an ink silhouette. 2️⃣ Stone Skipping Bridge: Carry a lantern and step over 37 square stones at dusk, and let your friends capture the reflection on the shore. 3️⃣ Immortal Ancient Well: Squat and wait for the washing grandmas at 6 AM, and use an 85mm telephoto lens to capture the dance of water and morning light. 🌌 7:00 PM: Lantern Sea Night Banquet When 20,000 lanterns light up at the same time, the ancient town instantly becomes the bathhouse in *Spirited Away*. I went into the alley behind "Guo Family Courtyard" and spent CNY 5 to buy freshly pounded mugwort glutinous rice cakes from Grandpa. I sat on the second floor of "Zuixianlou" gnawing on a kiln-roasted chicken leg (CNY 68/piece) and watched the stage suddenly light up—it turned out that there was a live performance of *Looking for Huangyao Roots* every Saturday night, and the water sleeves of the Yao ethnic group's long drum dance almost hit my face! 🌅 5:30 AM: Chasing Light in the Clouds of Dongtanling I wrapped myself in a blanket borrowed from the inn and rushed to the viewing platform, and the mountain wind rolled the morning mist on my face. When the first ray of golden light pierced through the clouds, the entire karst peak forest turned into a gold-plated bonsai, and a flock of egrets were startled when the drone rose. Photography tips: Use Snapseed's "Dramatic" filter to instantly improve the texture of the clouds by 200%. 🍶 Day 2: Subterranean Wine Aroma and Street Flavors 📍Huangyao Winery → Kiln Chicken Workshop → Hezhou City → Return trip/Gupo Mountain 🕳️ 10:00 AM: Karst Cave Micro-Drunk Journey Holding a flashlight, I drilled into Yuquan Cave, and the coolness of 18°C wrapped in the aroma of wine came to my face. In front of the "Daughter Hong" wine jar array, the winemaker taught me to dip 30-year-old aged wine (free tasting!), and the lingering sweetness that exploded on the tip of my tongue reminded me of the legend of the Dust Bead in *Ghost Blows Out the Light*. The most shocking thing is the "Milky Way Waterfall"—the stalactite group transforms into a cyberpunk bar under laser lights, and three consecutive photos were sent to Moments and asked "Is it AI generated?". 🔥 12:30 PM: Firewood Kiln Chicken Carnival Following the navigation, I found "Lao Chen's Earth Kiln" and witnessed the hardcore operation of killing live chickens and wrapping them in mud. While waiting, I learned the secret of building a kiln: yellow mud must be mixed with straw to be tough. When the first wisp of smoke emerges from the top of the kiln, the meaty smell mixed with the aroma of lotus leaves makes people swallow saliva. At the moment of tearing open the burnt shell, the golden and shiny chicken is dripping with honey, and I only remembered to take pictures after gnawing three chicken wings! 🚗 2:00 PM: Seeking Flavors in Hezhou City A 2-hour walk in Lingfeng Square to check in: ✔️ "Yang Jinji" fermented soybean powder with chili sauce (CNY 10/bowl), the salty aroma rushes straight to the top of the head; ✔️ "Taiyuantang" Guiling jelly with condensed milk (CNY 5/cup), the bittersweetness is just like life; ✔️ "Luotaixian" field snail and duck feet pot (CNY 48/pot), the sour bamboo shoot smell is so strong that you need to wear two layers of masks. 🌳 Day 3 Optional: Deep Breath in the Green Wonderland 📍Gupo Mountain Forest Park → Fairy Maiden Waterfall → Fangjia Tea Garden 🌿 9:00 AM: Break into the Green Wonderland Take the small train into Gupo Mountain and get drenched into drowned rats under the Fairy Maiden Waterfall. The biggest surprise is the "Macaque Paradise"—when I took out a banana, three monkey kings surrounded me with their younger brothers, and the breeder uncle smiled and said, "They can pose better than you!" Note: Wear a backpack! I saw a young lady's shoulder bag being snatched away by the monkey. 🍵 3:00 PM: Stealing Half a Day of Leisure in the Tea Garden Follow the Yao ethnic girl to pick Mingqian tea in Fangjia Tea Garden, and the freshly fried green tea has the aroma of pot gas. Spend CNY 68 to experience tea-dyed handkerchiefs and imprint the sea of clouds of Gupo Mountain on cotton cloth. Take away the "Xiangqi Mountain Small Canned Tea" when you leave, and colleagues exclaimed after brewing it in the office, "I drank the forest dew." 🍜 Local Food Red and Black List ✅ Must-Eat List Huangyao fermented soybean powder + papaya shreds (at "Longxing Powder Shop" in the south gate of the ancient town) Firewood kiln chicken (reservations required 3 hours in advance, limited kiln caves!) Green plum wine (CNY 10 tasting package at the winery exit) ❌ Lightning Protection Guide Most of the "Ganoderma" in the scenic area are artificially planted Night market grilled scorpion, bamboo worms and other insect banquets, those with weak stomachs should try with caution 📌 Super Practical Survival Guide 1. Transportation Hacker Take the high-speed train to Hezhou Station and then take a shared car to Huangyao (CNY 30/person), look for the blue and white painted regular cars Buy a full ticket for the Gupo Mountain scenic area sightseeing bus (CNY 50), hiking will miss the hidden waterfalls 2. Accommodation Metaphysics Strongly recommend "Zuixianju" Inn in the ancient town (CNY 200-300), the attic room has a dragon claw banyan tree when you open the window Avoid the stilted buildings by the river, the sound of running water at night affects sleep 3. Photography Secrets Use iPhone's live mode for sunrise in Dongtanling, and select "Long Exposure" in post-production to make the sea of clouds flow Wear white clothes in the karst cave winery, and turn on the flash to take beautiful silhouette photos 4. Special Care The bluestone road in the ancient town is uneven, wear thick-soled sneakers! Do not wear shiny jewelry in the macaque area, the monkeys will regard it as a treasure and snatch it The most magical moment of this trip was when I met an eighty-year-old photographer while waiting for the sunrise in Dongtanling. He took out a Seagull film camera from 1983 and said, "I have been shooting here for forty years, and the morning mist in Huangyao is more difficult to capture than a girl's thoughts." Perhaps the meaning of travel is to hear the sound of time flowing under the ancient banyan tree that is thousands of years old.