It is not as hard as it was before, a decade ago. I recall the road being in terrible condition because it was a main route to Zhengzhou, so the road was pulverized daily by coal trucks. Now they have expanded to have not one but two highways (gaosulu). Here are the hops: Changzhi’s Dongguan bus station, Licheng, Changning, Longwangmiao, to Quixuiyuan. Two buses. The bus from Changzhi to Licheng is hourly and travels about 48kms and costs 20 RMB. The bus from LiCheng to Changning is hourly on the 15 and costs 5 RMB. The bus from Changning is only twice a day for the last 8 kms.
Get on the bus in Changzhi (3.5M population) at Dongguan station. This station is east of the main Changzhi train station, and is not far. The bus fare is about 20RMB for the 480km distance to Licheng. Sometimes there will be a crash along the route so the bus will vote on taking the highway. This is more expensive and everyone pays for the toll. It is still better than waiting on the road for hours. Crashes are common on these roads, particularly the coal trucks. The bus is a small mianbaoche, seating about 30 people, including luggage. Buses are reasonably clean. Licheng is on the train line.
The Changzhi-Licheng bus starts at Dongguan bus terminal in Changzhi, Shanxi, China
The overall route takes you from Changzhi’s Dongguan bus station, along the National 309 road (G309), which parallels the Changhan Expressway. G309 goes for about 48 kms to Licheng (1M population), where you can then take a bus to Dongyangguan (4k population) and eventually Changning. Cut off G309 north on a side road for another 2 kms to ChangNing (2k population). Further north is Longwangmiao (1k population) and Quixiuyuan (1k population).
The trip Changzhi-Licheng-Dongyangguan-Changning-Longwangmiao, Shanxi, China
The Changzhi-Licheng bus will drop you off at the main Licheng bus terminal. You will need to exit the bus terminal, and walk north to the main square, on the 15s of the hour a bus will stop that will go to Changning. The central square is north and east of the bus stop. The bus stop is in front of a 2 story department store. The cost is 4RMB, but there are private taxis that, while crowded, are faster and only cost 2RMB. They are, of course, illegal.
Downtown Licheng's central square, where you catch the bus to Changning, Shanxi, China
The Licheng bus terminal (bottom right) is south-east of the Main Square. Licheng, Shanxi, China
The Licheng-Dongyangguan map, Shanxi Province, China
Dongyangguan-Changning-Quixiuyuan map, Shanxi, China
along the road north to Changning, on the left side you’ll pass a large fertilizer factory. At the Changning stop there is a circular pond, about 15m wide. To the east is ChangNing’s main road. To the west is the road to Xincun. The 1 km long road into the village is bordered on both sides with crop fields. As you enter the village turn north until the road ends. At this intersection there is the old road into the village back to the main road. Take this road at your peril. It is dirt and washed out, difficult to traverse by motorcycle but walkable. The bus will stop if you flag it down. On the east side of this intersection about 40m is XiaoYi’s house.
Map of ChangNing, Shanxi Province, China
From ChangNing the road will continue north and then fork at Longwangmiao. Take the east road (right) to Quixiuyuan.
Map of QiuXiuYuan, Shanxi, China
The entrance to Qiuxiuyuan has large concrete blocks that prevent large buses and trucks from entrance, but there is space for a car. Continue into the village but be careful of villagers and children walking to their homes. There are so few cars here that most people don’t expect anything larger than a loud motorcycle. At the pond (50m from the entrance), car traffic northbound is difficult. Travel north 15m, going up the steep hill. Turn left and follow this to the end, which will make a right hand turn. The entrance has a gate with a roof.
Following the main road that parallels Quixiuyuan gets very bumpy. There are large concrete blocks at the border of Shanxi and Hebei, blocking cars and trucks, around 3.5m from Qiuxiuyuan. Coal trucks stop and turn around here. Further travel is possible by motorcycle into Hebei Province, but there are no larger towns in the area. There are no authorized gas stations in the area, but one illegal one.
This area of Shanxi Province, China is restricted to foreigners. Police will prosecute and expel foreigners. If you are not of Chinese heritage you cannot hide, as this area is homogeneous Chinese. You need to be fluent in Mandarin to be understood. The local dialect is markedly different from Mandarin. There are numerous police in Changzhi and a Shoupaichu at Dongyangguan. From Dongyangguan to Qiuxiuyuan there are many coal trucks but few cars, some motorcycles and almost no police.
Outlining this trip with maps could not be done without Google Maps. Even peering into the countryside of The People’s Republic of China, finding roads used, looking into villages that are no larger than 1,000 people and being able to almost identify individual houses that you visited is quite remarkable. Even more remarkable is to be able to do this in a strictly controlled communist country.
Shanxi, Longwangmiao, Qiushuyuan’s performance of YingYang Can.
Satellite map of China, Shanxi Province, Licheng, QiuShuYuan 8P8MJG8C+H2, 2017-11-23, Google Maps, stitched together from highest resolution.
Addendum 2017 Nov 23: it has been a while since I redid mapwork for QiuShuYuan. Baidu has not improved their map and offers no satellite imagery for the area. This area is still closed off to foreigners. Google, however has improved a great deal, with detail down to 20m. Along with historical photos I can somewhat find my way around. Unfortunately, WordPress has a limit of 2M per image, so I cannot directly include the larger 5.4M 2100×2300 image I stitched together from Google’s highest resolution. The maps are pointing north, and the village is somewhat diagonal, from bottom left to top right, making the map cumbersome to fit into an image.
The central square is close to the third Google map legend from the bottom, the one without the compass.
Satellite map of China, Shanxi Province, Licheng, QiuShuYuan 8P8MJG8C+H2, 2017-11-23, Google Maps, only a portion of the village, from the central square and west 100m.
China, Shanxi Province, Licheng, Xincun at the top and Changning 8P8MHG36+H6 below, the main road splitting them. Google Maps 2017 Nov 23
China, Shanxi Province, Licheng, Changning 8P8MHG36+H6 south of the main road. Google Maps 2017 Nov 23
China, Shanxi Province, Licheng, Changning 8P8MHG36+H6 south of the main road. From the pond walk south. Google Maps 2017 Nov 23
Plus Codes:
Qiushuyuan 8P8MJG8C+H2 36.616437,113.520062
ChangNing 8P8MHG36+H6 36.553937,113.510562
DongYangguan 8P8MGFQP+G2 36.539562,113.485813
LiCheng 8P8MG93P+4R 36.502812,113.387063
ChangZhi 8P8M54M6+V5 36.184688,113.110438
