Houtouwan

A few years ago, Nana saw an article about the abandoned island of Houtouwan off the coast of Shanghai.  It is a remote island that can be tough to get to without a guide or native Chinese speakers, but we gave it our best shot and got lucky enough to visit.  It seems a bit of a miracle given the number of unknowns leading up to our arrival, but it made for a fun adventure.

Houtouwan was once a booming fishing village that was prosperous and, despite their distance from Shanghai, did such good business that they could afford to have ships for import and export purposes.  But in the early 90s the fishing dried up and they couldn't overcome how remote they were from everything else and people left town.  25 years later, nature has taken back the village and ivy has covered the buildings, trees break through the roofs.  It is an amazing site and very beautiful.

As for the obstacles, we had to wake up early to get to a certain bus stop that could take us over a major (20 mile) bridge to get to the ferry terminal. The bus speed was not going to get us there in time, but an opportunistic uber van did; regular uber drivers are not permitted on this drive. The ferry station was also full of ambiguity. Nina and Pip helped to translate where we were going, but there were four destinations and we had to hope that we were on the correct ship.  After a stop at a different island we weren't entirely sure where we were going, but ended up on the island of Gouqi, which connects to Houtouwan.  

Because we weren't sure if we'd even make it, and after reading some online reports, we hadn't booked a hotel in advance and a local helped find us a spot.  Our first hotel was very nice, but unfortunately they only had room for one night. We found another hotel down the street and it all worked out.  The girls enjoyed the beach, but there was no swimming allowed while we were there.