After two days of trekking, we were in need of a few days rest. We had a night sleeper train to Xiangtan. It's not a touristy place, but a city where there are a couple of universities. Our main reason for coming, was that one of John's friends invited us to come and see him. Mark teaches English at the university, so lives on campus. He said there was a spare flat going and we'd we able to stay in it for a few days. Mark is a friend from England, so it was good to meet up with someone we know. We arrived at 5am and he agreed to meet us and give us the keys to our flat. We didn't sleep well on the train, so we went back to sleep in a comfy bed for a few hours.

When we got up, Mark treated us to some lunch, I had a spicy chicken wrap not knowing it was spicy and it was too hot for me to handle! They had some pitta bread warps which were not spicy. We stayed in the flat chatting to Mark and just catching up. It was good to just chill out and relax. Later on, he showed us around the sites and we popped into the local shopping mall and supermarket. We got a starbucks, and met another teacher, one of Mark's colleagues in there. We came back to rest in the flat for a few hours. Later we went to a local restaurant and experienced traditional Chinese food. We met one of Mark's Chinese friends there too, she was a doctor so could speak good English. It was so noisy you could hardly hear each other talking. It was good to go somewhere local though. Because this isn't a touristy place, we're getting a feel for the real China.

The next day, we didn't do anything, which was lovely. We just caught up on booking accommodation for the next few places we're going to and chilled out in the flat. I think we just needed some down time after Zhangjiajie, we were worn out. We met Mark late afternoon and watched some catch up football games. It's good for John to have one of his mates around to watch the football with. It's just a shame that most matches are at some ungodly hour in China. After the footy, we went out for a hot pot dinner. I've been looking forward to having one of these since we first tried it in Chengdu. We went with Mark's colleague and his doctor friend. It was delicious, we ordered a lot of food, but actually ate a lot of it. Although in Chinese culture it's polite to leave some food, this is to show the hosts that they have provided enough food for you. So we did leave some behind, out of courtesy.

As we didn't do much yesterday, Mark said he'd show us around Xiangtan today. When we first arrived, I was surprised at how big the city was. Well to me it felt big, but probably to the locals it's a small place. All cities in China feel huge to me. It's a city by a river, the Xiangtan River. We grabbed lunch in a local place that served some local dishes. Afterwards, Mark showed us around the university grounds, then took us to a park, where there was a lake. There were many small paddle boats and it was a scenic area. There were a few pagodas around the lake and there were many local people around here. We passed a local cracking a whip trying to hit some wooden post, perhaps some kind of game, so he invited us to have a go. John tried to do it, which was amusing to watch. We don't know the purpose of it, but John enjoyed having a go.

As we walked back around by the lake, it wasn't calm and serene as there was loud noise blaring from some speakers, which seems to be common in China. We also wandered by the river and saw some local fisherman and some really old cargo boats. We passed a couple of old Chinese style buildings. I feel we're in a place with authenticity and that we're seeing the real China. There weren't people trying to hassle us or sell tours to us, just the local people going about their daily lives. Perhaps this was the old part of the city, then we went back into the modern city with shopping malls galore. We went to a dumpling restaurant and had a wonderful dinner. It helps that we had a Chinese lady with us and there were some English translations on the menu. That's a task I find really difficult in China, ordering food when the menu is only Chinese and there are no pictures. We had a wander around by the campus later on, and I saw a building like an Eiffel Tower all lit up, which looked cool. There are bright lights all around in most cities with colourful Chinese symbols, I really like that.

We said goodbye to Mark the next day as he was actually flying home after 9 months of teaching English. Luckily we were able to stay in the flat that evening until we had a night train to Guilin. Before he left, we got some lunch and chatted for a while. John will be seeing Mark back in England very soon so it wasn't an emotional goodbye. After Mark left, we just stayed chilling in the flat until we got a taxi to the train station. It's kind of felt like being in a home for a few days, so it's a welcome break from travelling.