{"id":18935,"date":"2015-10-28T16:42:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T08:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/?p=18935"},"modified":"2015-11-10T08:20:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T00:20:47","slug":"drive-from-zhengzhou-to-hanzhong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/henan-travel\/zhengzhou-travel\/drive-from-zhengzhou-to-hanzhong","title":{"rendered":"Drive from Zhengzhou to Hanzhong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Chen Weixiang and his wife Chen Ya came up to my hotel early this morning,\u00a0picking me up and placing my personal luggage onto the trunk of\u00a0his white High Lander ( 4x4w) and starting off for the long driving journey. Driving up to\u00a0an overpass leading to G30 Expressway, we are soon leaving the city of Zhengzhou far behind.<\/p>\n

\"Drive
Drive from Zhengzhou to Hanzhong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Situated 136 km to the southwest of Chengdu, Ya’an (\u96c5\u5b89) is the launching pad to further explore the West Sichuan Province.\u00a0 But Ya’an is about a 1330-km drive from Zhengzhou. Tonight we decide to put up at the city of Hanzhong (\u6c49\u4e2d)\u00a0in Shaanxi Province, 753 km from Zhengzhou, \u00a0approximately 9 hours driving. For the 753 km drive,\u00a0 we first\u00a0go west from Zhengzhou to Xian for about 470km along G30 Lianhuo Expressway (\u8fde\u970d\u9ad8\u901f), then\u00a0run south along G5 (\u4eac\u6606\u9ad8\u901f) from Xian to Hanzhong for the rest of the distance.<\/p>\n

On the route from Zhengzhou to Xian ( G30 ).<\/p>\n

\"On
On the route from Zhengzhou to Xian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Chen and I drive the white horse in turn. It is my first long-distance self-drive experience, a kind of challenge for me, used\u00a0to\u00a0drive slowly in the congested Beijing city. I’m excited with much expectation. It is a 4-lane expressway from Zhengzhou to Xian. The convenient service areas along\u00a0 the expressways make our self-drive trip much easier. They offer a range of services –\u00a0 toilet, dining, hot water, local products, gas station, auto repairs and more.<\/p>\n

Sanmenxia (\u4e09\u95e8\u5ce1) Service Area is our first stop among plenty of service areas on our 6000km round trip to the West Sichuan Province. A huge signboard points to Sanmenxia Service Area reminding you to drive off the main road to the roadside stop area.<\/p>\n

\"A
A huge signboard points to Sanmenxia Service Area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The city of Sanmenxia in Henan Province borders Shaanxi Province on the west. The picture below is the main building of Sanmenxia Service Area.<\/p>\n

\"The
The main building of Sanmenxia Service Area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The buffet at Sanmenxia Service Area offers a wide range of food and dishes.<\/p>\n

\"The
The buffet at Sanmenxia Service Area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Sanmenxia it is my turn to rev the white horse onto the expressway and roll it towards Xian. Pre- and post- my starting\u00a0 the engine, Mr. Chen takes\u00a0one stereotyped picture of me to imprint the important moment on my memory.<\/p>\n

A stereotyed photo of me by the white horse.<\/p>\n

\"A
A stereotyed photo of me by the white horse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Xian we branch off G30 Expressway and diverge to G5 Expressway down to the south running into the northern Sichuan Province.\u00a0 Between Xian and Hanzhong ( our today’s destination ) lies Qinling Mountain Range ( \u79e6\u5cad Qin Mountain ),\u00a0\u00a0a major mountain range located mainly in the\u00a0southern province of Shaanxi, in China. Qinling Mountain is the most important climate dividing line between northern and southern China. The north side range is prone to cold weather while the south side enjoys a subtropical climate due to the physical barrier of the mountains with the rich and fertile landscape\u00a0and a wealth of wildlife and vegetation.<\/p>\n

I cannot supress my excitement over the physical touch on the mountain range which has been long lingering in my mind\u00a0 dating back to my high school when I was educated to learn the name of Qinling in China geography lessons for the first time. Qinling Mountain Range looks more vivid and interesting than what we’ve learned from our geography book. Numerous tunnels cut through the mountains in the range extending over 100 km! What a human feat! Salute to the road builders!<\/p>\n

Driving through Qinling Mountain Range.<\/p>\n

\"Driving
Driving through Qinling Mountain Range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Running through numerous tunnels dug through the mountains extending over 100 km.<\/p>\n

\"Running
Running through numerous tunnels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Take a break at Qinling Service Area 1311 meters at sea level.<\/p>\n

\"Qinling
Qinling Service Area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we get to the city of Hanzhong, it is getting dark. Hanzhong is a small, but clean and pretty city with Han River passing by, one of the tributaries of Yangzte River. Lying on the south side of Qinling Mountain Range, it has a rich and fertile landscape.\u00a0 Settled down in a nice hotel by the city square where local people sing and dance like other cities in China, we begin to look for something to eat.<\/p>\n

\"Dancing
Dancing at Hanzhong Square<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Searching online, we get to know a back street north of the square, where we are supposed to find the local flavors or snacks. “Remianpi”(\u70ed\u9762\u76ae) is a local snack, literally meaning “Hot Flour Skin”. Putting a bowl of liqid flour onto a steamed grid, a thin skin of Remianpi is dipped with soy source with hot peppers and bean sprouts, sotft and delicious.<\/p>\n

The making of hot flour skin<\/p>\n

\"The
The making of Remianpi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A bowl of hot flour skin<\/p>\n

\"A
A bowl of Remianpi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The night view of Hanzhong City.<\/p>\n

\"The
The night view of Hanzhong City.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hanjiang River winds past the city of Hanzhong.<\/p>\n

\"Hanjiang
Hanjiang River winds past the city of Hanzhong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any questions, just drop a line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Chen Weixiang and his wife Chen Ya came up to my hotel early this morning,\u00a0picking me up and placing my personal luggage onto the trunk of\u00a0his white High Lander ( 4x4w) and starting off for the long driving journey. Driving up to\u00a0an overpass leading to G30 Expressway, we are soon leaving the city of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3155,1904,1922,84],"tags":[3159,3160],"class_list":["post-18935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hanzhong","category-henan-travel","category-shaanxi-travel","category-zhengzhou-travel","tag-self-drive-from-zhengzhou-to-hanzhong","tag-self-guided-tour-from-zhengzhou-to-hanzhong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18935"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19140,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18935\/revisions\/19140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}