In July the horizon goes pink and green and it is all one plant. 南县 Nánxiàn is flat reclaimed land in the north of Hunan, ringed by the channels that carry water off 洞庭湖 Dòngtíng Hú, and a great deal of it is given over to 荷花 héhuā, lotus, grown in shallow flooded fields for the roots, the seeds and the leaves, and left in flower through the summer because the county has discovered that people will come to look at it. A lodge on the edge of those fields is a simple proposition: a low building, a raised walkway out over the water, lotus on every side, and a horizon with nothing on it. At dawn the flowers open and the whole surface of the water moves with frogs and insects; at midday it is blinding; in the evening the light goes flat and orange and the fields smell of warm mud and green.
The building itself is usually new and usually modest — a house built for visitors by a family that farms the fields, with a handful of rooms, a dining room, and a courtyard with a table under a vine where everyone eats. Some have a boardwalk running out over the water to a pavilion; some just have a bank to sit on. The rooms are plain and the plumbing is what a farmhouse has, and what you are paying for is the location and the food, which is whatever came out of the water that morning: lotus root, lotus seeds, 藕带 ǒudài, the young shoots, freshwater fish, and the local crayfish in season.
What the Rooms Are Like
Expect a double bed with a firm mattress, a fan, air conditioning in the newer rooms, a bathroom that may be en suite or shared, and a window that looks either onto the lotus or, in the cheaper rooms, onto the yard. Ask specifically. The best rooms have a balcony over the water and a screen, because the mosquitoes in a lotus field at dusk are serious and the county is a wetland. Rooms are also subject to the season: from June to August the fields are in flower and the place is full, and from November the lotus dies back, the water goes grey, and the county is just a flat agricultural place.
Practicalities
Price. A double runs roughly ¥150 to ¥350 a night, with the top of the range in July and August when the lotus is out and the bottom in winter. Dinner is often charged separately, thirty to eighty yuan a head, and is nearly always worth it — the lotus root and the fish are as fresh as food gets. Whole-house rentals are common for family groups.
Address. The lodges sit among the lotus fields of the 南县 Nánxiàn wetlands, south and east of the county town of 南洲镇 Nánzhōu Zhèn and within reach of 南洞庭湖 Nán Dòngtíng Hú and the 罗文 Luówén flower fields. They are booked by village or by field name rather than by street, so a driver will need the name of the guesthouse and not an address.
Rooms. Ask whether the room faces the water, whether the bathroom is en suite, whether there is air conditioning as well as a fan, and whether the windows are screened. Ask about the mosquito situation honestly, and pack repellent regardless of the answer. If you want to photograph the flowers at first light, ask for a room on the field side and confirm that the boardwalk is open before breakfast.
Getting there. By car from 益阳市 Yìyáng Shì takes about an hour and from 长沙 Chángshā around two, on flat roads across the lake plain. 南县 Nánxiàn has no passenger railway station of its own, so the approach is by road from 岳阳 Yuèyáng, 益阳 or 常德 Chángdé. Public buses reach the county town; the lodges beyond it need a taxi or a lift from your host.
flowcloud would say that a room in the lotus fields is the rare hotel where the season is the amenity, since the building is ordinary for eleven months and in the twelfth the water in front of it turns into the only thing worth looking at.
Where to stay: in one of the family lodges among the lotus fields south of 南洲镇 Nánzhōu Zhèn, in a room that faces the water with a screened window, in July if the flowers are the reason and in September if you want the county to yourself. Ask before booking whether dinner is available, whether the boardwalk is open at dawn, and whether the room has air conditioning, and bring mosquito repellent whatever you are told.