Day 2: Driving 4,000km to Tibet — Through Zhangjiajie

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Good morning, this is Jake. I just got up and I made myself a cup of tea. This is the hotel I stayed last night. Now let's go to eat the breakfast. It is buffet, it is free and we're going to see what a 25 US dollar hotel room breakfast looks like.

[00:00:22]Oh, some guests are already here.

[00:00:26]Some fruit.

[00:00:29]Bread.

[00:00:31]Okay, they have some fresh vegetables here. It shows that the food is made from the fresh vegetables. Look at all the choices.

[00:00:55]This is porridge.

[00:00:57]Eggs. It's coffee and milk.

[00:01:12]So this is what I got for my breakfast.

[00:01:15]I got some vegetables with rice, with fruit and a bowl of noodles with an egg, some meat and this is a cup of red tea.

[00:01:29]More and more people are coming.

[00:01:45]You know, I just love the breakfast.

[00:01:47]It's very good and you can just eat as much as you want. I just finished my breakfast. Day two driving from my hometown to Tibet. Let's get started.

[00:02:00]I still have to go through the county.

[00:02:03]Actually, I just uh got to know that Lixian is a county.

[00:02:07]It's not a city.

[00:02:10]The county has 700,000 people. It's just a very ordinary, normal county.

[00:02:19]I guess we have hundreds of counties in China.

[00:02:22]I mean, the roads are fine.

[00:02:26]Today is a bit uh downcast. It's not sunny day.

[00:02:31]So, it's not hot.

[00:02:34]Okay, I'm on provincial roads again.

[00:02:39]Wow, these houses are pretty short and they're kind of old.

[00:02:48]Most of the houses are made of red bricks.

[00:03:00]Now, I'm passing by a town.

[00:03:04]I just uh saw many orange trees.

[00:03:07]It seems in this town there are many orange factories.

[00:03:14]I mean, there are many orange plantations and then they have to package the oranges. So, there are some factories to package them.

[00:03:24]But now, the oranges are not ready.

[00:03:27]So, I cannot show them.

[00:03:30]I mean, this is just uh so narrow. What the hell?

[00:03:36]It's just uh so narrow.

[00:03:40]Okay. Okay. Okay.

[00:03:43]Okay, finally, I got through that.

[00:03:50]I'm really in villages.

[00:03:53]You see, they have pretty narrow roads, the rural roads.

[00:03:59]Mhm.

[00:04:03]Oh.

[00:04:05]Okay.

[00:04:16]Okay, I'm entering Zhangjiajie.

[00:04:20]Wow, I'm in the mountains now. It's getting a bit cold.

[00:04:24]There's a small island in the river, and the water is pretty clean.

[00:04:39]Some villages over there.

[00:04:53]I just passed by a small town. I'm hungry, so I found restaurants. When the cook is cooking, let's have a look around the small town.

[00:05:05]Oh, I just saw a oil mill.

[00:05:12]They just press oil on the spot, rapeseed oil.

[00:05:29]This is the press cake.

[00:05:45]There is not so water in the river. The river is pretty shallow.

[00:05:50]It's just a very small town.

[00:05:59]Okay, my meal is ready. I got an omelette, vegetables, rice, and the tea.

[00:06:06]It's 5 US dollars.

[00:06:08]And this man, he is on the same road, so he start to to talk to me.

[00:06:14]The omelette is pretty good.

[00:06:25]Vegetables, lettuce.

[00:06:28]You know, I just finished my food, so I got recharged. Now I have energy.

[00:06:33]But I just saw a very old house.

[00:06:38]You know, I'm in Zhangjiajie.

[00:06:40]So, it is a mountainous area.

[00:06:48]Look at this house.

[00:06:50]Yeah.

[00:07:04]Let's just keep driving.

[00:07:10]These are winding roads.

[00:07:13]You know, I love this winding road.

[00:07:16]Because it's interesting.

[00:07:20]And uh you never know what's waiting for you.

[00:07:29]>> [clears throat] >> The hills! WE'RE IN ZHANGJIAJIE NOW.

[00:07:35]ZHANGJIAJIE IS A mountainous area. It has so many mountains, so many hills.

[00:07:51]Wow, these mountains are pretty high.

[00:07:56]I just love the trees, the mountains.

[00:08:00]I love nature.

[00:08:05]Wow, it's beautiful.

[00:08:08]We're entering some tourist area.

[00:08:11]It's called Wulingyuan in Zhangjiajie.

[00:08:16]There are many wood housings.

[00:08:24]And I just booked a hotel room for tonight. The room is 20 US dollars per night. We'll see what it looks like.

[00:08:32]Okay, let's go.

[00:08:35]So, this room There are two seats there.

[00:08:40]And this is the bathroom.

[00:08:43]Hello, how are you doing? Are you watching my videos?

[00:08:46]In fact, this is a smart room.

[00:08:49]Let me show you.

[00:09:04]You see AC is on. You know, it's still kind of early, so I just uh come out and I'll walk around a bit.

[00:09:12]I'm in Zhangjiajie now. It is a tourist uh place.

[00:09:16]Oh, this is a massaging place. It's just so cheap, like three US dollars for once.

[00:09:30]Hey, that's a pretty good nice view. And that's a huge restaurant.

[00:09:36]People are taking pictures.

[00:09:39]Okay.

[00:09:40]>> [laughter] >> Wow.

[00:09:46]This is a pretty fancy place. There are many fake flowers.

[00:09:58]How about this space?

[00:10:02]Colorful lights.

[00:10:04]Plus fake flowers.

[00:10:07]You know, because my shoulders hurt while driving, so I just came here and got a spa. I'm still in my spa clothes.

[00:10:17]They're pretty comfortable.

[00:10:18]And the lady who gave me the massage is around 50 years old. And then she told me what worries her most is that it's difficult for her sons to get married.

[00:10:31]She has two sons. One is 20 years old and one is 28 years old. But the 28-year-old son is still not married.

[00:10:41]And she told me the bride price here is generally 188,000 RMB.

[00:10:51]Why is that number? Because, you know, in China, like eight sounds similar to the word wealth or rich. So, Chinese people like the number eight. That transferred to US dollars is 27,000 US dollars.

[00:11:08]I mean, that's the general price. It can be a bit lower, but it can be higher. It changes from probably like 20,000 US dollars to 40,000 US dollars. And I asked her salary. So, she told me she makes around 400 US dollars a month in low season, 700 US dollars per month in high season.

[00:11:33]Compared to the salary here, the bride price is pretty high, isn't it? In Chinese culture, you know, it is really important for people to get married and have children.

[00:11:46]Because if you do not have children, you cannot perpetuate the family line or the bloodline.

[00:11:54]And that's a month the ultimate betrayal to your ancestors.

[00:12:01]I mean, in order to have children, you have to get married, and in order to get married, you need to give bride price.

[00:12:07]And usually you need to have an apartment and a a car. So, it's very difficult for some men in China to get married. And uh as a mom of two sons, from our conversation, I can feel she's definitely pretty worried.

[00:12:25]So, I hope one day the culture of bride price can change.

[00:12:30]You know, sometimes when I hear about this story, I don't think why is life so hard for some people?

[00:12:40]Why can't we just make life easier?

[00:12:45]Hm.

[00:12:46]Anyway, she is very skillful and I feel much more comfortable after the massage.

[00:12:53]I'm walking back to my hotel. The massaging lady is really good.

[00:12:58]It's kind of quiet, but lights are still on.

[00:13:04]I'm back to my hotel now. So, today's activities are almost finished.

[00:13:10]What do you think of it? Which part of today's journey do you find the most interesting? Leave a comment.

[00:13:16]Thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next video.