I’ve written this before, but 11am is the sweet spot for departing a place. We can wake up without alarms, eat, pack up, and get to the station or airport on time. Today, we took a taxi to the Guilin train station and then waited for our train. It was chaotic and packed. Perhaps the last vestiges of the Chinese national holiday week.

Despite all the people, we now know the order of operations for Chinese train boarding and we got to our seats easily. They had sold out of the 2nd class tickets so today we were in 1st. My review is: probably not worth the money.

Millie (and Nick) happily watched movies for the whole 3 hour ride. When we arrived in Changsha we were hit with HEAT. We thought Guilin was hot, but it’s hotter here. In October! It was mid-90s, very humid, with a “feels like” index of 107.

We took a taxi to our hotel. Millie’s new thing in taxis is saying “can you tell me a story? Pleaaaasse”. We have almost exhausted every story from our childhood and it’s exhausting.

We arrived at our hotel sweaty and worn out from the heat. We did a couple of hours of quiet time. She drew and played while Nick and I zoned out on phones. Not our best parenting but we all needed it.

When the sun started to set we went out for dinner. We thought we could walk but as soon as we set off we learned that the heat does not let up when the sun sets. So we called a taxi. We went to a fancy beer bar. Millie complained she was jealous that we got special drinks and she didn’t. We agreed it wasn’t fair and got her an overpriced mocktail.

From here we walked through the food alleys of the city. Changsha is known for its good food and nightlife, and it was accordingly very lively. It felt like Times Square ever we turned. Bright lights, lots of people.

We found the food alleys and stopped anywhere that looked good or interesting. First stop? Smelly black tofu. We had heard it was good here and wanted to try it.

We… did not like it. I described it as tasting like a corpse and Nick described it as tasting like a sewer. We figured we could only go up from here. And then we spotted a bunch of racks of something that can only be described as “moldy lumps”. We had to try them.

I translated the sign which didn’t make us feel much better.

Nevertheless we persisted. The seller cut us off a bunch of hairy balls and added various spices to them. He handed them to us in a big plastic jar. As we were walking away Nick started opening them for a taste. A man ran up to us and said “No! Don’t eat now. Wait to ferment. 3 days or more.” This man saved our life. I can’t believe we have to wait for these things to get worse.

We then had some safe tastings of mochi balls and sausage. Enough risk taking for me for one night.

Even though it was 9pm we were so sweaty. We waited for a taxi and made it back to our hotel.

From our room on the 36th floor we watched in awe at the endless city and the way the buildings are all synced up for a light show. Changsha is yet another city that would be the largest city in the US if it was there instead of China.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. We are from a hot place and this is so much more intense.