Overnight stay in Zhuzhou, a town I can’t remember

When you’re on a budget traveling trip, you are usually in a state of constant motion. Every few days – at the least – you pick up and head to the next place on your adventure. A lot of experiences are flying at you, fast; catching them is the fun of it all.

Sometimes, however, you do something and later it gets buried in a morass of memories. As if it never happened. Or as if it happened to someone else.

This phenomenon is one of the necessary mysteries of travel.

On Day 52 of our trip through China, Masayo and I ended up in a city called Zhuzhou (株洲) in Hunan Province. It was an overnight train ride from Xiamen, where we’d spent a couple weeks, and this was our first time heading back into the interior of China for a while.

We stayed overnight in Zhuzhou, in a hotel called Ginde. We found something to eat for dinner. Apart from those facts, and writing this article some time afterwards, that’s about all I remember of Zhuzhou.

I didn’t even hardly take any photographs of the city.

There is nothing wrong with the city of Zhuzhou as a destination or as a place to rest; if we had bothered to go exploring at all I’m sure we would have found some interesting areas, or at least some curious-looking buildings to gawk at.

Every destination has something interesting in it. Talented travelers are good at finding it.

But, tired from the rough-and-tumble overnight Chinese train bunks, all we did was get a good night’s rest and then move directly on to Wuhan on Day 53.

So Zhuzhou became a kind of ghost town in my mind. I do remember lots of skyscrapers and office-looking buildings, and I have a vague recollection of walking down a street to find dinner, which I believe was from some takeaway place.

But when I look at a map of our entire China trip, it is Zhuzhou that sits on the route like a question mark. An event that wasn’t an event. Something necessary but almost subconscious.

How did this happen? Why did the travel gods demand this of Zhuzhou? For clearly it wasn’t just me — I wasn’t compelled to take any pictures, though I took several in every other place we went. It was as if on this trip, Zhuzhou had to sacrifice itself for us.

And that’s how it goes sometimes on the road. The memories and experiences of an area can be otherwise so impressive, and so clear, while one place just fades away. “Yes, I know we went there, but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it.” This happened in Klang, Malaysia too: a nice town that became a blip on the travel route.

It’s part of the yin and yang of travel: you can make all the effort to find tickets to, and lodging in, some place only to immediately have it slide from your mind in deference to some other experiences on either side.

For that reason, although I remember nothing about it, Zhuzhou can be said to be one of the highlights of the trip: the humble assistant, living to serve the greater good.

Thanks anyway Zhuzhou! I promise to return some day and make your acquaintance more properly.

Thanks for reading. Suggested:

• Share:
• Read next: Day 53: Eight days in a backpacker's oasis in Wuhan, China
• News: Newsletter (posted for free on Patreon every week)
• Support: Patreon (watch extended, ad-free videos and get other perks)