Ratings by backpackers :

Description : Charming Dong minorities villages full of characters, lush greenery, water and smiling children. We are off course not talking about Sanjiang but the village of Chengyang, 19km away in the North-East !

Comments : Forget Yangshuo : this is the place to go for real relaxation

What to do : Enjoy the ride from Longsheng / Watch & listen to the numerous water wheels from your room / Walk the villages / Play with the kids / Take a lot of photos / Meet the farm : pigs, chicks, ducks,...  / Increase your weight at dinner time... / Watch phosphorescent insects at night

What you may not like : Not being able to stay longer as you have other places to visit / The aggressiveness of the souvenirs' salesgirl if you dare to put a foot on the bridge / The rainy weather / Being arachnophobiac /

How long ? one day is a minimum !

Tip : when you arrive, cross the stone bridge to the guesthouses to avoid the 10Y entry to the Wind & Rain Bridge (even so the guy is now moving around and may try to charge you for looking at the bridge. Resist !)

Where to stay ?  

Two equally recommendable options are fighting each other for the favor of the travelers. The first one has the nicest rooms.  The second one prepare the tastier meals...

• Dong Village Hotel (0772) 8582421, dvhcy@yahoo.com.cn ) opposite the stone bridge / Bed around 15 / Wood smelling Dble room with great balcony around 30 (but down to 10 in low season) / Some English is spoken there / HW on request in buckets / Dinner for 15Y

• Chengyang Bridge National Hostel, on the left of the Wind & Rain Bridge, turn right after the stone bridge / Sgl or Dbl around 15 or 30 (also much cheaper in low season). / Noisy if Chinese tourists around / Better showers / Excellent & abundant dinner 10Y

Market : Colorful (at least when it is not raining) Dong Market in Linxi (30mn from Chengyang, 2Y) every 5 days : 5, 10, 15, 20 etc of each month. On the way, you will see other Dong villages also worth exploring.

Backpacker's Tips : Blaise Fiedler, France (July 05)
« Sanjiang: If you're stuck there there is a hotel very close to the 2nd bus station (the one for Chengyan) - it's called Department Store and will cost Y20 / room incl bathroom. chinese style (spit pots in the corridor)
Chengyang: This is one of the most pleasant stops in China. The waterwheels are splendid and so are the villages around. I recommend staying at the Dong Village Hostel - it's Y50 and that gets you a splendid double with a view to kill, hotwater and toilets. There is a restaurant with no menu but with OK food at reasonable prices. But the best part is that the owner, Michael Yang gives you a hand drawn map for free.I highly recommend the walks on this map - they are all very scenic.
The only problem of the area are spiders - there are plently of them. And they are big. There is now an entry fee for the whole area of Y10 - they are not too pushy if you do not want to pay it. Leaving Chengyang - there are buses every 40 minutes starting at 7:20am. They cost 4y and take 40 minutes. They normally honk as they drive past the covered bridge.» 

Backpacker's Tips : Stefan Westerheide, Germany (Jan 05)
« Dong Village Hotel dbl, br, hw, 50 Y (just where you get off bus across the 1st ordinary bridge. v friendly, helpful, and good food). good value
Ask for directions for hiking Jichang>Pingtan>Maan (3-4 hours). With a digicam take a picture of the map in the hostel. Owner speaks English, waited with his own minivan at sanjiang bus station.
Bus to Diping (no direct bus to Zhaoxing after 10 am on this day, 3h, 11 Y, very rough road) » 

Backpacker's Tips :   Tania Wang, Australia (May 04)
« The Dong Village Hotel 40 yuan per twin room without bathroom, 50 yuan per twin room with bathroom. Hot water shower now available 24 hours a day. The meals are substantial, reasonably tasty and VERY cheap. For two people, 5 yuan for breakfast, lunch/dinner: 10 yuan (vegetable dishes), 15 yuan (includes a meat dish).
Chengyang Bridge National Hotel is now 30 yuan/bed in high season, 20 yuan/bed in other times.
Another hotel, the Dong National Hotel has opened up. It is just to the right of the Wind and Rain Bridge and is signposted in English. Rooms with double beds are 30 yuan, twin rooms are 20 yuan/bed. None of the rooms have bathrooms. This place has a nice balcony restaurant with great views of the Bridge, however its meals are much more expensive than the Dong Village Hotel.
In the town the local people are happy to put on a traditional song/dance performance for 200 yuan (regardless of how many people come to watch it). The show lasts about an hour, and involves around 20-30 of the village people. It really is a performance with gusto!
There is now a market in Chengyang Dazhai every 5th day from the 6th of the month: 6, 11, 16.....
Buses to Guilin now begin at 6am, Ticket price: 22 yuan. To Liuzhou, ticket price: 25 yuan. To Longsheng, ticket price: 10. To Congjiang, ticket price: 18, and the earliest bus is 6:20am. To Zhaoxing, ticket price: 18. The Zhaoxing bus now leaves at 14:30. It is the only bus to Zhaoxing every day. To Long'e there is only one bus, 14:00, ticket price: 13. (All the other information you provided is accurate)
Therefore, getting to Zhaoxing from Sanjiang is much easier than in the past. No matter where people are coming from, a bus at 14:30pm is convenient. There is no need to have to change buses, or hike.
Also, the train from Zhangjiajie to Sanjiang has changed its time again. It is still the 1473 train but it leaves Zhangjiajie at 7pm, and arrives in Sanjiang at 3:30am. Not great timing, but Michael Yang at the Dong Village Hotel in Chengyang is happy to pick up travellers at that time, if they request it in advance
(you'll need to discuss a price with him). Also you need to be careful that you don't sleep through Sanjiang station. The train doesn't always stop at the platform (we had to get off and walk along the traintracks for 5 minutes in the pitch dark), so you can't see the name of the place. You really need to ask
somebody. »

Backpacker's Tips :   Stef Derluyn, Belgium (April 04)
« Zhaoxing-Sanjiang-Guilin: the road between Congjiang and Sanjiang is being repaired so it took us 5 hours from Zhaoxing to Sanjiang. We left around 8 AM ( apparantly there are 2 buses a day from Zhaoxing to Sanjiang ), 20 rmb pp. Sanjiang is VERY dusty. Do not stay there ! We took the 13.20 bus to guilin, arrived there 17.50, 22 rmb pp »

Backpacker's Tips : Michael Yang, China (June 02)
« l am the owner of the Ding Village Hotel. One more thing l want to recommend is the wedding festival in Chengyang. It happens in the Chinese new year, last five days (from Chinese new year's eve to the fourth day of the first lunar moth). About 40-50 wedding are hold in the festival every year, the Dong people marry in the traditional way. Some rooms have bathrooms, some rooms without bathrooms in the Dong Village Hotel now. (the rooms with bath rooms 25Y, the rooms without bathrooms 15Y).»

Backpacker's Tips : Brian Van Tassel, USA/Canada (Aug 01)
« We stayed at the Dong Hostel. They now DO have hot water in the showers. The proprieter's son, Michael Yang, often goes to Sanjiang and tries to meet backpackers at the bus station to tell them about his hostel. He's dependable. He can speak some English and can give information about the local area. One plus about this hostel is that it is run by Dong people, not by Han businessmen that have moved to Chengyang. The Yang family sang Dong songs and played Dong instruments for us.»

<< Discover the peace of Chengyang...

Bus Schedules : From Sanjiang

Trains  << Click there

11 Km from the bus station in Sanjiang, it takes around 40mn by bus to reach the Train Station "Sanjiang Xian" (Sanjiang County)

The trip to South-East Guizhou (Zhaoxing) : Minibus / SSSS / L / Y14 / 4 hrs

A trip to South Guizhou is China at its best : dirty, slow, bumpy and crowded bus. In this kind of scenario, it is worth fighting your way to secure the front right seat, the oasis next to the driver. There, you might even be able to discretely decrease the volume of the radio... and you will enjoy a full panoramic view of the splendid province.

From Chengyang, take an early bus (from 7am, every 30-40 mn) back to Sanjiang and prepare yourself for the expedition North to Guizhou. 

If you stayed in Chengyang, you will arrive at Sanjiang too late for the direct bus to Liping via Zhaoxing (6:50)

The suggested solution is to take an early bus to Congjiang (left window) and get off around 3 hours later at the Baluo intersection.  From the intersection, take a bus (or any kind of local transport) to the Dong Village of Luoxiang (1 hour, the bus from Congjiang should pass at around 15:00 and 17:00). You can then take a local tractor or a bus (1Y), walk the 7 km to Zhaoxing (nice scenery), or choose to spend the night there with a friendly family (around 7Y).

The above solution should let you arrive in Zhaoxing the same day. If you take the bus to Long'e, you will have to spend the night there as the only connecting buses to Liping via Zhaoxing are in the morning. This option might however be less stressful...

See also the trip from Longsheng to Sanjiang...