DAY 17 - QUFU => YANZHOU => JINING => ZHENGZHOU
What a terribly mafan day. In the morning, we got up and got the bus to Yanzhou (for the nearest train station), but tickets to Zhengzhou were sold out. So we got the 15 minute base back to Qufu to get the bus, but there were no buses. So we went to the train ticket place across the road to get tickets for Wuhan. But they had none. But Ms Simpleton said they had tickets for Zhengzhou, which was exciting. But she was wrong. So we went to the bus station again to try for tickets to Zhengzhou, but from another woman. Which she sold us. We weren't convinced the first woman had properly checked, and it turns out she hadn't. Shortly after, we were told the bus had broken down, we had to return or change the tickets. There were no buses to Wuhan either, on account of the huge snow storms that affected the south of China. But there was a bus to Jining, and from there you could get a bus to Zhengzhou. So we did that. BUT at Jining, she told us there were no tickets to Zhengzhou. But her colleague informed her there were. The incompetence of the staff in Chinese transport will never cease to astound me. Anyway. Finally, we were on our way. On the emptiest bus in the history of time. Full sized coach, there were us and two others. After a while, we pulled over in a little village and picked up 6 migrant workers. The journey was unevenftul, although at one point I was listening to my music with my eyes closed and the driver suddenly blasted music REALLY loudly, scaring the youknowwhat out of me.
At one point, we left the highway and went through some small villages which were really poor. The people were everywhere and the driver had to sit on the horn to get anywhere. It made me feel quite guilty to see their way of life, but then I thought they wouldn't want pity or anything, they were just trying to earn enough to get by. On the doors, they had hung an upside down 福 (the pronunciation of 'upside down fu') sounds the same as 'bringing fortune'), which I thought was sad - where a lot of people do it for tradition, and businessmen do it in hope of a good next year, these people were hoping for their old hut to stand another year, and for no water-borne illnesses to take their family. And I know some people say it's interesting to see these places because it's 'authentic' and not like all the other 'boring cities,' which I think is a horrible attitude, as these people were (largely) desperate to not be there any more.
Eventually, we arrived at Zhengzhou, and after getting quite lost, we got a taxi about ten yards down the road to the Home Inn (如家), which was amazing for 179 for a twin room. We had dinner in the restaurant, where Nikki was told off for taking photos of the amazing duck dish (with little crispy pancakeyish things that had a character for double-happiness (a traditional wedding thing) on them). Then shower and bed, ready for seeing the monks the next day.
DAY 18 - ZHENGZHOU => LUOYANG
Another rather uneventful day. Rather too many of these. The original plan was to go and buy tickets to Luoyang then go to the Shaolin temple and get back to take the train, but we decided to take the next train to Luoyang. But we decided to take the next train to Luoyang, see the Longmen caves then take the bus from Luoyang to Shaolin temple the next day. However, the next train was at 1:38pm. So we got that, had lunch then got the train, which was PACKED. And I mean that quite literally, even busier than the Christmas when the fog grounded all the planes in the UK. People also kept talking about the laowai (foreigners), which really boils my blood because they're just so rude, and talk about us, justifying it with "they don't understand." Well actually, we do. SO we tell them. After two hours and the loss of feeling in one arm, we finally arrived, which was a huge relief. I've never been so close with strangers.
We took a taxi to the hostel after buying tickets for Wuhan, but by this point it was too late to do anything, so we discussed the rest of our route (the joys of speed-tourism: CONSTANT map, book and internet checking to see where you have time to go), adjusted it (for timing, naturally), and went to find food. It seems nearly EVERYWHERE in Luoyang is a hotpot restaurant, but eventually we found one that wasn't. While hotpot is nice, I'm not a huge fan, as I always leave feeling still hungry, and it's really expensive for what you get (not if there's of people, but when there's only two of you...).
We've also recently learnt that young children in China like firecrackers even more than teenagers in the UK like fireworks and vodka. Lovely.
We half-heartedly looked for an internet placey, but not finding one we just went home, where we saw two computers. But they were broken apparently. So we decided to do our internet things the next day.
DAY 19 - SHAOLIN TEMPLE
Today, we got up at a reasonable time, for once. We got ready quickly, despite an awful night's sleep and went to the bus station to get the bus to the Shaolin Temple. We tried to get a taxi and the driver (a woman, as they ALL seem to be in Luoyang) told us to walk. Quite grateful really, it was really close. We ignored the people shouting "Hello! Hello! Shaolin!" and went to get a real bus. But the woman in the ticket office told us to get in one of the horrible buses. So we did.
They tried to charge us 100 each, but we got it for 50 return in the end. As there were few tourists they have to charge more you see. After a bit, they realised there would only be three people, so we were put on a bus headed for Xuchang. We suspected we'd be dropped off miles away, and the bus was a frightful bore, with the woman in front of Nikki vomiting out of the window rather more frequently than is normal for a healthy person.
Eventually, we got there, aware of having been ripped off (everyone else on the bus had paid around 6-15 kuai (but to other places, not Shaolin)), and also thinking we would have to pay more to get back. Ah well, we went to get tickets after Nikki went to the little girls' room, which meant I got talked at by random people trying to sell me tickets and telling me I don't understand. After a fashion, we got our tickets and went to see the monks. Along the road were some brilliant Chinglish signs, so we took lots of photos of those.
Then, the temple. Which was a lot like any other temple really, just with a lot more monks walking around. After the temple and having our photo taken with a random Chinese man, we saw the forest of pagodas. There's something like 600+ pagodas, each one with the ashes of a notable monk, except for the "common pagoda" which is for the non-notable monks. We saw lots of them, including the common one and the first one. We wanted to eat before the show, so scarpered towards the restaurant where one is served by monks. No idea where it was though. We tried at the entrance bit, but we couldn't go out and back in. But there's a restaurant right where the show was, so we went there. It was 1:30 by the time we got there, so we bought postcards and t-shirts (the shame!) before the show at 2. What these monks can do is stupid. One threw a needle through a pane of glass and popped a balloon. One put the tips of spears on his throat and pushed against them hard enough to bend the handles, and another put two metal rods together and smashed them in half with his head. Which led us to wonder what would happen if someone tried to mug them.
After the show, we ate at a not vegetarian restaurant where the staff were not monks. Disappointing. But before eating we had a photo taken with a monk, which made it better.
We got the bus back to Luoyang at 4 (and yes we did have to pay - 15), and went to search for an internet placey, which we actually did this time. After that, we went to Carrefour to buy decent food for the train the next day (i.e. not chicken feet or pickled eggs). And they had real French bread. It was AMAZING. How I miss real bread.
After getting home, we had the worst night's sleep EVER (for me at least). A weird squealing noise kept coming from either the next room or in the walls. All night, at random intervals. It sounded like furniture being moved. Added to that, I woke up with a splitting headache, which made for a less than fun...
DAY 20 - LUOYANG => WUHAN
God what a crappy day. We grudgingly got up and got ready, feeling like death. We had hoped to go out between 8 and 8:30, but didn't make it out 'til 9. We dumped our bags at the train station and got a stupidly expensive taxi to the Longmen caves. The taxi driver kept pointing things out, like huge residential complexes, saying they were pretty. Bit of an eyesore if you ask me.
We were worried about time, as our train wa at 1:40pm, but the caves don't take up that big an area, inspite of there being around 2300, not counting niches (9000ish). So having finished quite quickly, in spite of exhaustion, we got a stupidly expensive taxi to the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China. Turns out, it's actually not in Luoyang, but a nearby town named after the temple. It was rather like every other temple actually, and the current one is all new (relatively - it was rebuilt in the Tang dynasty).
Having seen that, we got back in the taxi to get the very uneventful train to Wuhan. I had expected it to be like the train to Luoyang, but it was relatively quiet. We had no seats, but we found a bit by the train door behind one of the doors at the end of the carriages, so it was quite private. We got constant stares, just for a change, and considered hanging something over the glass and charging 2 kuai a look. We'd be filthy rich if we had.
Eventually, we got to Wuhan, jumped in a taxi to the hostel, and went to bed. The hostel was run by a British guy and a possibly Swedish girl. The British guy was telling us about how when he went to get his Chinese visa, he ook his old passport as it had a previous Chinese visa, which they might have wanted to see. When he got the two passports back, they had stapled them together. How typical.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Friday, 22 February 2008
DAY 183: Episode 4
DAY 13 - HARBIN => CHANGCHUN => SHENYANG => DALIAN (or, the day of three provinces)
This was a rather dull day really. We got an early train to Changchun, had lunch in "Favourite Land," and a short time later we got on the train to Shenyang, where we did nothing much really, but we did buy noodles, which ended up going rather farther than expected. The noodles were because our journey was 8 hours, and there's a law in China that you're not allowed to get on a train without instant noodles. But actually, our train journey ended up being only 4 hours and 9 minutes. It was a nice train too, soft seater, which we had never done before.
On arrival at stupid pm in Dalian, we got in a taxi to the Jinjiang inn, and slept rather a lot. In a rather comfortable bed. Not that expensive, and really classy. Brilliant.
DAY 14 - DALIAN => YANTAI
So, the day I had been dreading had arrived. It's also another day where basically nothing happened. We got up, got a cab to the ferry port and chatted loads to the driver, who showed us nice bits of Dalian. We bought our tickets for the ferry (which I assumed was the 3.5 hour one), had some lunch and killed some time (read: stalled) for a bit, then went to the waiting room. After a bit, we were put on a bus with the other 10 passengers, which led me to fear that we were going to be on a really small boat. We drove about 700 miles to the boat, when I was relieved to see it was a real boat. With about 3496873946791387698 people on it. We went to find out seats in the seating room, but there were none left. We were in seats 5 and 6, but the actual seats had no numbers on them. And they were all taken anyway. And not a single person in the room did not STARE. In a really obnoxious way. It was hardcore gawking and laughing at us. I'm quite used to staring, having been in China for 6 months now, but this was in a league of it's own, and was probably the worst I'd had up until that point.
So as we had nowhere to sit, we decided to sit in the corridor. Have you ever heard the stories about how the Chinese over fill their boats and they sink? Well, this one was quite full. Didn't sink, but was definitely overfull. At one point, this guy came up to me and just started blabbing (would a 'hello' or an 'excuse me' have hurt? Maybe not in China, but in the west we tend to start conversations with strangers with something other than just...mid-conversation), and as I hadn't been aware that he was talking, I didn't respond, and he assumed I didn't understand. Which annoyed me.
Well, as I really REALLY don't like boats, I just got stuck into my book (100 Years of Solitude by Gael Garcia Marquez - one of the best books in the history of time - read it).
Anyway, at just after 9pm we finally arrived in Yantai, and took the free bus to town, from where we took a taxi to the youth hostel and went to bed. There's rather a lot of posts where that features multople times.
DAY 15 - YANTAI => JINAN
Finally, a day we did things! Firstly, we went to buy train tickets and put our bags in left luggage, which was not the most exciting thing we did by far. Then we wandered around looking for Korean food, as we had heard that the Korean food in Yantai is some of the best in China, on account of all the ethnic Koreans there.
But after an hour, no joy. How bizarre. So we ate at a random Chinese place, where the waitress pointed out the western food, which I quite frankly did not want. We each go a set meal, mine Chicken Curry, Nikki's some kind of beef. We also ordered some Oolong tea, which was marvelous. Our food came as the main thing, rice, soup, kimchee-esque stuff, a green leafy veg in gravy and a weird yellow-ish substance. It had a texture between thick yoghurt and jelly that got waterier further down, and had crabstick, ham and possibly other delights. Needless to say, I didn't eat mine. The rest was really good though. The drink that came with it was weird though - cold and slightly sweet, with an almost tea flavour somewhere. No idea what it was.
Anyway, I talk about food too much. After eating, we had a look for an internet place, where we found Tracey had sent us loads of useful things about Yantai (she used to live there), so we copied it all down and went to find the number 17 bus from the train station. On the way to the train station from the internet placey, we went though a huge night market, which was cool. Loads of people were selling small (whole) squids on sticks that they fried right in front of you. Kind of gross. We couldn't find it, so we got another bus to the university. But it was the wrong university. So we got a bus to a stop labelled Train Station, and discovered that the train station currently in use is a temporary one, as they have demolished the old one and are putting a new one in its place. And the 17 didn't stop their temporarily, or so I thought. I realised after I had translated wrong, the sign said "temporary bus stop" but I read it as "temporarily stops being a bus stop." But anyway.
So we took a taxi to the Yantai university (working on assumption here), and ended up at the right place. The road the cab took had nicer views than from the bus actually. Anyway, we got there and found the Korean place Tracey had recommended. We had sea slug, a big pancakey type thing, some fried meat and possibly something else, I forget. Oh, and Kimchee of course. Problem is, by this point, my cold was at its peak, and I could nothing. But I still tried it all, and I think it was all nice, although sea slug is a small quantities food. The texture was not what I expected either - crunchy and stringy.
Anyway, having eaten, we went back to town to collect our bags and wait for the train.
DAY 16 - JINAN => QUFU
So, at 5:45am we were woken by the conductor, our train getting in at 6:15. At Jinan, we went straight to the bus station and bought our tickets to Qufu. Jinan is a total dump, as we had been told and as we had seen in our short time there, so we were on the 7:30am bus out of there.
On arrival in Qufu, we got in a taxi with a woman who couldn't be bothered. She said her meter was broken, but then only asked for 5, which is the flagfall, so maybe it was. En route, she asked where we were going to go, and then pulled over, saying we were next to the Confucius Mansion, which I had said in response. I explained that we had wanted to go to the place that I had told her (the hostel) first, and she drove on.
After another short stretch of road, she pulled over and informed us it was down the road to the left, which had a big sign in the middle of the road, which I took to be a no-car sign. We walked right down the road without finding it. So we walked right back up. Back where we started, we discovered that the sign actually said no parking. We both instinctively veered left, and it was about 40 yards ahead. Lazy taxi driver clearly just couldn't be bothered.
We checked in and went to do laundry - life on the edge! But we couldn't find the machine. So we asked at reception, and she said to go to the second floor. We found it! We only had handwashing soap, so we soaped everything up, put them in the machine (this makes more sense than it sounds, Chinese ashing machines are both strange and look like they were made by Mattell). But we had no hot water. So I tried the shower 9in the same room), but it ran cold. So I went down to the bit labelled "hot water," but the boiler was turned off. SO we washed with cold water.
Clothes clean and drying, we set off. First, the Confucius Temple where we saw lots of nice things. Having seen that, we decided to go for lunch. We found a nearby restaurant and had Confucius style Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple. Confucius style Chicken is actually just a whole roast chicken in gravy, and by whole I mean that quite literally - head, feet, the works. Nummy :D
Having eaten, it was off to the Confucius Mansions, where we didn't meet the 75th descendant of Confucius. That was at the Temple, and we were ripped off by him. One scroll was 180, the other was 100, so I offered around 200. He said no, he would go no lower than what he'd said: 300. So I said no, that was higher than the price, I decided to buy them because it was 280. He said: okay, 280's okay. I think that was his way of stopping me bartering. But then, instead of my change, they gave me a picture. Then kept trying to sell us stuff. The whole place (both the Temple and the Mansion) really annoyed me, because you couldn't move for people selling you things, and a good third of the rooms were shops selling tourist tat.
We took a walk down to Queli Arch, as the emperors once did, then took our first rickshaw in China to the Confucius Cemetery. It was rather an anti-climax, it was one mound in the middle of a (really quite nice) forest.
We walked from the cemetery to a road where we could get a taxi back to the hostel, and ended up back at the hostel. We decided to mail our scrolls and some other bits back home, so I took 3 books I had read and didn't want to carry any more. On arrival at the post office, I was informed one of my scrolls was too big and I couldn't send it. However, there were some very inventive and clever ladies in this post office (unlike the one at Hongshan in Urumqi (the one from where you can send parcels)), who managed to stick two boxes together and fit it. So my parcel (contents: 500; postage: 200) should arrive around the end of March.
By this point it was 6pm, and we didn't really know what to do. So we went to check out our plans to Wuhan to our trip, to see if it was feasible. Nikki needed more notebooks for her diary and I wanted postcards. Did you know there are no postcards in Qufu? Giving up on our quest for postcards (notebooks had been acquired successfully earlier), we went to eat two recommended Qufu foods - 阳关山叠 and 诗礼银杏. The first was alright, it was sort of a pancakey folded up thing. But the other one? Good GOD it was horrible. Little yellow balls (whose identity was revealed later) in a weird silvery translucent goop. I was eating the wraps while Nikki ate the goop, and she didn't like the wraps and I didn't like the goop. When she first tried the yellow things, she swore she tasted aniseed, but I didn't. But as I was eating the wrap-esque things, I suddenly got it rather strong. Fortunately I was already full, because aniseed is one of the worst anti-foods ever.
We went home and had I showered before getting into bed. Our room was cold so we'd had the a/c on heat all day, but it suddenly made a very strange noise and just stopped it, so we turned it off and went to sleep in the coldest room in the history of time.
This was a rather dull day really. We got an early train to Changchun, had lunch in "Favourite Land," and a short time later we got on the train to Shenyang, where we did nothing much really, but we did buy noodles, which ended up going rather farther than expected. The noodles were because our journey was 8 hours, and there's a law in China that you're not allowed to get on a train without instant noodles. But actually, our train journey ended up being only 4 hours and 9 minutes. It was a nice train too, soft seater, which we had never done before.
On arrival at stupid pm in Dalian, we got in a taxi to the Jinjiang inn, and slept rather a lot. In a rather comfortable bed. Not that expensive, and really classy. Brilliant.
DAY 14 - DALIAN => YANTAI
So, the day I had been dreading had arrived. It's also another day where basically nothing happened. We got up, got a cab to the ferry port and chatted loads to the driver, who showed us nice bits of Dalian. We bought our tickets for the ferry (which I assumed was the 3.5 hour one), had some lunch and killed some time (read: stalled) for a bit, then went to the waiting room. After a bit, we were put on a bus with the other 10 passengers, which led me to fear that we were going to be on a really small boat. We drove about 700 miles to the boat, when I was relieved to see it was a real boat. With about 3496873946791387698 people on it. We went to find out seats in the seating room, but there were none left. We were in seats 5 and 6, but the actual seats had no numbers on them. And they were all taken anyway. And not a single person in the room did not STARE. In a really obnoxious way. It was hardcore gawking and laughing at us. I'm quite used to staring, having been in China for 6 months now, but this was in a league of it's own, and was probably the worst I'd had up until that point.
So as we had nowhere to sit, we decided to sit in the corridor. Have you ever heard the stories about how the Chinese over fill their boats and they sink? Well, this one was quite full. Didn't sink, but was definitely overfull. At one point, this guy came up to me and just started blabbing (would a 'hello' or an 'excuse me' have hurt? Maybe not in China, but in the west we tend to start conversations with strangers with something other than just...mid-conversation), and as I hadn't been aware that he was talking, I didn't respond, and he assumed I didn't understand. Which annoyed me.
Well, as I really REALLY don't like boats, I just got stuck into my book (100 Years of Solitude by Gael Garcia Marquez - one of the best books in the history of time - read it).
Anyway, at just after 9pm we finally arrived in Yantai, and took the free bus to town, from where we took a taxi to the youth hostel and went to bed. There's rather a lot of posts where that features multople times.
DAY 15 - YANTAI => JINAN
Finally, a day we did things! Firstly, we went to buy train tickets and put our bags in left luggage, which was not the most exciting thing we did by far. Then we wandered around looking for Korean food, as we had heard that the Korean food in Yantai is some of the best in China, on account of all the ethnic Koreans there.
But after an hour, no joy. How bizarre. So we ate at a random Chinese place, where the waitress pointed out the western food, which I quite frankly did not want. We each go a set meal, mine Chicken Curry, Nikki's some kind of beef. We also ordered some Oolong tea, which was marvelous. Our food came as the main thing, rice, soup, kimchee-esque stuff, a green leafy veg in gravy and a weird yellow-ish substance. It had a texture between thick yoghurt and jelly that got waterier further down, and had crabstick, ham and possibly other delights. Needless to say, I didn't eat mine. The rest was really good though. The drink that came with it was weird though - cold and slightly sweet, with an almost tea flavour somewhere. No idea what it was.
Anyway, I talk about food too much. After eating, we had a look for an internet place, where we found Tracey had sent us loads of useful things about Yantai (she used to live there), so we copied it all down and went to find the number 17 bus from the train station. On the way to the train station from the internet placey, we went though a huge night market, which was cool. Loads of people were selling small (whole) squids on sticks that they fried right in front of you. Kind of gross. We couldn't find it, so we got another bus to the university. But it was the wrong university. So we got a bus to a stop labelled Train Station, and discovered that the train station currently in use is a temporary one, as they have demolished the old one and are putting a new one in its place. And the 17 didn't stop their temporarily, or so I thought. I realised after I had translated wrong, the sign said "temporary bus stop" but I read it as "temporarily stops being a bus stop." But anyway.
So we took a taxi to the Yantai university (working on assumption here), and ended up at the right place. The road the cab took had nicer views than from the bus actually. Anyway, we got there and found the Korean place Tracey had recommended. We had sea slug, a big pancakey type thing, some fried meat and possibly something else, I forget. Oh, and Kimchee of course. Problem is, by this point, my cold was at its peak, and I could nothing. But I still tried it all, and I think it was all nice, although sea slug is a small quantities food. The texture was not what I expected either - crunchy and stringy.
Anyway, having eaten, we went back to town to collect our bags and wait for the train.
DAY 16 - JINAN => QUFU
So, at 5:45am we were woken by the conductor, our train getting in at 6:15. At Jinan, we went straight to the bus station and bought our tickets to Qufu. Jinan is a total dump, as we had been told and as we had seen in our short time there, so we were on the 7:30am bus out of there.
On arrival in Qufu, we got in a taxi with a woman who couldn't be bothered. She said her meter was broken, but then only asked for 5, which is the flagfall, so maybe it was. En route, she asked where we were going to go, and then pulled over, saying we were next to the Confucius Mansion, which I had said in response. I explained that we had wanted to go to the place that I had told her (the hostel) first, and she drove on.
After another short stretch of road, she pulled over and informed us it was down the road to the left, which had a big sign in the middle of the road, which I took to be a no-car sign. We walked right down the road without finding it. So we walked right back up. Back where we started, we discovered that the sign actually said no parking. We both instinctively veered left, and it was about 40 yards ahead. Lazy taxi driver clearly just couldn't be bothered.
We checked in and went to do laundry - life on the edge! But we couldn't find the machine. So we asked at reception, and she said to go to the second floor. We found it! We only had handwashing soap, so we soaped everything up, put them in the machine (this makes more sense than it sounds, Chinese ashing machines are both strange and look like they were made by Mattell). But we had no hot water. So I tried the shower 9in the same room), but it ran cold. So I went down to the bit labelled "hot water," but the boiler was turned off. SO we washed with cold water.
Clothes clean and drying, we set off. First, the Confucius Temple where we saw lots of nice things. Having seen that, we decided to go for lunch. We found a nearby restaurant and had Confucius style Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple. Confucius style Chicken is actually just a whole roast chicken in gravy, and by whole I mean that quite literally - head, feet, the works. Nummy :D
Having eaten, it was off to the Confucius Mansions, where we didn't meet the 75th descendant of Confucius. That was at the Temple, and we were ripped off by him. One scroll was 180, the other was 100, so I offered around 200. He said no, he would go no lower than what he'd said: 300. So I said no, that was higher than the price, I decided to buy them because it was 280. He said: okay, 280's okay. I think that was his way of stopping me bartering. But then, instead of my change, they gave me a picture. Then kept trying to sell us stuff. The whole place (both the Temple and the Mansion) really annoyed me, because you couldn't move for people selling you things, and a good third of the rooms were shops selling tourist tat.
We took a walk down to Queli Arch, as the emperors once did, then took our first rickshaw in China to the Confucius Cemetery. It was rather an anti-climax, it was one mound in the middle of a (really quite nice) forest.
We walked from the cemetery to a road where we could get a taxi back to the hostel, and ended up back at the hostel. We decided to mail our scrolls and some other bits back home, so I took 3 books I had read and didn't want to carry any more. On arrival at the post office, I was informed one of my scrolls was too big and I couldn't send it. However, there were some very inventive and clever ladies in this post office (unlike the one at Hongshan in Urumqi (the one from where you can send parcels)), who managed to stick two boxes together and fit it. So my parcel (contents: 500; postage: 200) should arrive around the end of March.
By this point it was 6pm, and we didn't really know what to do. So we went to check out our plans to Wuhan to our trip, to see if it was feasible. Nikki needed more notebooks for her diary and I wanted postcards. Did you know there are no postcards in Qufu? Giving up on our quest for postcards (notebooks had been acquired successfully earlier), we went to eat two recommended Qufu foods - 阳关山叠 and 诗礼银杏. The first was alright, it was sort of a pancakey folded up thing. But the other one? Good GOD it was horrible. Little yellow balls (whose identity was revealed later) in a weird silvery translucent goop. I was eating the wraps while Nikki ate the goop, and she didn't like the wraps and I didn't like the goop. When she first tried the yellow things, she swore she tasted aniseed, but I didn't. But as I was eating the wrap-esque things, I suddenly got it rather strong. Fortunately I was already full, because aniseed is one of the worst anti-foods ever.
We went home and had I showered before getting into bed. Our room was cold so we'd had the a/c on heat all day, but it suddenly made a very strange noise and just stopped it, so we turned it off and went to sleep in the coldest room in the history of time.
Day 167: Episode 4
DAY 11 - TIANJIN
Bright and early we got up and took the train to Tianjin, after picking up laundry and our flight tickets to Harbin. On arrival, we got a taxi to the hostel I had written down, with a driver who had the worst retroflex I have ever heard in my life (the retroflex is where they pronounce a word as if it ends in 'r' instead of whatever it should end in, or sometimes they drop the second syllable of a two syllable word and just pronounce the first syllable, but ending in an 'r.' Completely incomprehensible. Hate it). Neither of us had any idea what he was saying most of the time. He kept suggesting we go to places other than where we wanted to go, we think, but I told him I had a reservation at the hostel (a lie), and that shut him up.
We checked in and went pretty much straight back out, to explore the main delights of Tianjin, starting with the Old Cultural Street. It's essentially a tourist trap of shops trying to look like old China. We had candy floss, and went to a jade shop. I wanted a jade rabbit on a red string (2011-2012 is the year of the rabbit, and as I'm a rabbit, that will be an unlucky year for me. So if you wear something red at all times, you're safe. And why not have something tacky like a jade rabbit on it? (And by the way, jade I always expected to be expensive, but it's really not.), and they had a really nice one here. The lady kept going on about how we were friends, and then told me 300 kuai for the rabbit. My haggling skills clearly need some work, I offered 200 (still slightly more than I'd like to pay, but I didn't want to start too low), and pulled a face, then whispered '220, we're friends.' Then immediately shook her head and whispered '200, we're friends.' Should have started at 150, the price I was hoping for. She kept on about us being friends, and told us to come back and see her - we're friends after all. After some more wandering and tour group dodging, we decided to head to 南市食品街, the food street.
Which is not so much a food street as more of a mall that's made only of food places. We went into one little place and tried the recommended local delicacies - 狗不理包子. The guidebook translates that as the son of a restauranteur baozi (steamed bun type things, there's no decent translation), but I don't buy it, as the Chinese character for character means dog not pay attention baozi. But anyway. They were not unlike regular baozi to be honest. In fact, I have no idea what makes them special.
Having eaten our fill and seen the bits of Tianjin we wanted to see (we also saw the Bell Tower on our walk, but if I'm honest, all bell towers look the same, and I no longer care if I see the, I've probably seen about 20 now). We decided to go and sample some slightly less local delicacies at 星巴克. By this point, we were absolutely knackered, so went home to go to bed. At 8pm. Life on the edge. But when we turned off the light in the hostel room, we had the opposite problem to in Shijiazhuang - it was bright enough to read.
DAY 12 - TIANJIN => HARBIN
At ridiculous o'clock (about 4), we got up, got ready and checked out to get a taxi to the airport for our 7am flight. Not much fun. There were other white people on the plane, which was WEIRD, but what disconcerted me more was that the airline was called OK Air! Wonderful. Just sounds like the plane is going to drop out of the sky, doesn't it?
Having landed in one piece, we got the shuttle bus to the train station, where we were greeted in the standard Chinese way: shouts of "Hello! Taxi!" (although taxi is more often pronounced like taxes, which I don't want, or tackus, which just sounds funny.) Difference is, this was entirely in Russian. Harbin is in Heilongjiang province, on the border with Russia in the far north east of the country, and there's a large Russian population there. I refuse to get in taxis where the driver runs up and starts hitting my arm and shouting at me, trying to rip me off, (and regularly whistling and making other dog-calling noises - I realise I'm white, so look different, but I am in fact still a human) so we walked around the corner and got in the taxi of a guy who was just sitting quietly in his car. At the hostel, we dumped our bags and went straight out.
We started with buying our tickets to Changchun, then tried to get a bus to Central Avenue. Not as easy at it sounds. At the bus stops were people telling you which bus to get, as the signs were apparently all wrong. After a small road crossing hiccup (we managed to end up further from where we wanted to be), we were offered assistance by a young Chinese girl. She took us on the bus which stoped a short distance away and walked us to the street.
We were very grateful, then she went on our merry way and decided to check the book to see if there was anywhere good to eat there. At which point the girl came back and led us to the restaurant we had chosen, although we knew that it was around 20 yards away. We went in, and there was some confusion over how many were in our party - was she with us? Grateful though we were, we hoped not. We sat down, the two of us, and ordered. While we were perusing the menu, she pointed out chips, which I assumed meant "you're white, you eat these." Then she went and sat by the door, moving between there and right behind our table for quite some time. The Russian food was nice, although I was quite confused to be told they had no hot water, so we couldn't have the tea we ordered.
When we finished eating we sat for a while, as most of the things we wanted to do were better after dark. We also didn't know what to do about the girl. But after around 20 minutes of us sitting doing nothing, she just left. We walked the streets for a while, then went to look at the river, to se if there was anything interesting there. There was.
First, a 10 kuai ice slide which was really rather good fun. From the bottom, which was the river, we saw small seat trpe contraptions which you used two big sticks to propel on the ice. The guys renting them out were incapable of speech, which got a sarcastic comment from me and an angry shout from Nikki. Eventually, we worked out that they wanted 50 kuai as a deposit, and went for a whirl. After a few minutes though, we were well and truly frozen. Cue ten minutes of trying to get back to the 'desk,' as it was up a very slight slope. Nikki even crashed into a stall in the process, which amused me a lot. On our return, we tried to get our 30 kuai each back. He gave us ten. Together. So we shouted at him, and we got ten each. I asked if it was 20 for Chinese people and 40 for foreigners. He laughed, and then told the Chinese people nearby that it was indeed 20 for Chinese people, 40 for foreigners. So Nikki shouted a lot. Then grabbed our money, which he accepted. Nikki then promptly slipped and fell on the ice, and couldn't get up.
We walked along the river a little and came to another slide, which we decided to try. It was 30 kuai, but instead of 1 go, you got 30 minutes of goes. And it was way more fun than the first one. It was on a <strike>tyre</strike> <strike>dingy</strike> round-thing, and the horrible horrible man kicked us down the slope, so we love him. Toward the end, the evil balacavaed (is that a word?) man starting spinning us too, which was terrifying for the first few seconds, but immense fun.
After that, we were quite cold so walked towards the cable car across the river, stopping to buy a warm drink (of Sprite...only in China) on the way. We could have walked over the river, and as we both hate cable cars, it would have been a much better idea. But we're not very wise. It was at this point I realised I had forgotten my Student Card, so I paid double what Nikki did.
In the cab;e car, after much fearful giggling and kchchkchkkchchhhkchh which was smoother than normal, some random Chinese people in one going t'other way waved, so we waved back. Then waved at the solitary passenger in the next one. From the cable car, we saw something that looked rather fun - driving on the solid ice. They had a load of cars and a race track for you to drive round.
Eventually we landed, and went to go and see the snow sculpture competition, where again I was thrilled to be privileged to pay double what Nikki paid. The sculptures were stupidly good, and in 30 minutes we'd seen practucakky akk if them, so we got the free bus to the thing we wanted to see most - the world famous ice festival. Which was so good I could just wee. But after having seen just over half the sculptures, the -30 was getting to me, so we went for a 20 kuai instant hot chocolate. Which helped, but didn't fully thaw me. But still, we managed to see the rest of the sculptures, and Nikki bought some tat. Then we began the walk to the city centre, as the Cathedral of St Sophia was at the end of the road, but as we've noticed on rather a few occasions, the guidebook is wrong. At the end of the huge bridge, we got a taxi (they weren't allowed to stop on the bridge you see), but the driver didn't know where he was going. We got there in the end though, only for Nikki's last batteries to die. Cut to a length (10 minute) search for bateries. Photos taken and some oohing and aahing at the pretty church done, we had dinner and went home to bed.
But the taxi driver didn't take us to where we wanted to be (Xuefu lu 4 dao, for those in the know), but rather, dropped us at Heilongjiang Daxue, about a 15 minute walk away. But it wasn't so bad, as we'd thawed over dinner and in the taxi.
We started with buying our tickets to Changchun, then tried to get a bus to Central Avenue. Not as easy at it sounds. At the bus stops were people telling you which bus to get, as the signs were apparently all wrong. After a small road crossing hiccup (we managed to end up further from where we wanted to be), we were offered assistance by a young Chinese girl. She took us on the bus which stoped a short distance away and walked us to the street.
We were very grateful, then she went on our merry way and decided to check the book to see if there was anywhere good to eat there. At which point the girl came back and led us to the restaurant we had chosen, although we knew that it was around 20 yards away. We went in, and there was some confusion over how many were in our party - was she with us? Grateful though we were, we hoped not. We sat down, the two of us, and ordered. While we were perusing the menu, she pointed out chips, which I assumed meant "you're white, you eat these." Then she went and sat by the door, moving between there and right behind our table for quite some time. The Russian food was nice, although I was quite confused to be told they had no hot water, so we couldn't have the tea we ordered.
When we finished eating we sat for a while, as most of the things we wanted to do were better after dark. We also didn't know what to do about the girl. But after around 20 minutes of us sitting doing nothing, she just left. We walked the streets for a while, then went to look at the river, to se if there was anything interesting there. There was.
First, a 10 kuai ice slide which was really rather good fun. From the bottom, which was the river, we saw small seat trpe contraptions which you used two big sticks to propel on the ice. The guys renting them out were incapable of speech, which got a sarcastic comment from me and an angry shout from Nikki. Eventually, we worked out that they wanted 50 kuai as a deposit, and went for a whirl. After a few minutes though, we were well and truly frozen. Cue ten minutes of trying to get back to the 'desk,' as it was up a very slight slope. Nikki even crashed into a stall in the process, which amused me a lot. On our return, we tried to get our 30 kuai each back. He gave us ten. Together. So we shouted at him, and we got ten each. I asked if it was 20 for Chinese people and 40 for foreigners. He laughed, and then told the Chinese people nearby that it was indeed 20 for Chinese people, 40 for foreigners. So Nikki shouted a lot. Then grabbed our money, which he accepted. Nikki then promptly slipped and fell on the ice, and couldn't get up.
We walked along the river a little and came to another slide, which we decided to try. It was 30 kuai, but instead of 1 go, you got 30 minutes of goes. And it was way more fun than the first one. It was on a <strike>tyre</strike> <strike>dingy</strike> round-thing, and the horrible horrible man kicked us down the slope, so we love him. Toward the end, the evil balacavaed (is that a word?) man starting spinning us too, which was terrifying for the first few seconds, but immense fun.
After that, we were quite cold so walked towards the cable car across the river, stopping to buy a warm drink (of Sprite...only in China) on the way. We could have walked over the river, and as we both hate cable cars, it would have been a much better idea. But we're not very wise. It was at this point I realised I had forgotten my Student Card, so I paid double what Nikki did.
In the cab;e car, after much fearful giggling and kchchkchkkchchhhkchh which was smoother than normal, some random Chinese people in one going t'other way waved, so we waved back. Then waved at the solitary passenger in the next one. From the cable car, we saw something that looked rather fun - driving on the solid ice. They had a load of cars and a race track for you to drive round.
Eventually we landed, and went to go and see the snow sculpture competition, where again I was thrilled to be privileged to pay double what Nikki paid. The sculptures were stupidly good, and in 30 minutes we'd seen practucakky akk if them, so we got the free bus to the thing we wanted to see most - the world famous ice festival. Which was so good I could just wee. But after having seen just over half the sculptures, the -30 was getting to me, so we went for a 20 kuai instant hot chocolate. Which helped, but didn't fully thaw me. But still, we managed to see the rest of the sculptures, and Nikki bought some tat. Then we began the walk to the city centre, as the Cathedral of St Sophia was at the end of the road, but as we've noticed on rather a few occasions, the guidebook is wrong. At the end of the huge bridge, we got a taxi (they weren't allowed to stop on the bridge you see), but the driver didn't know where he was going. We got there in the end though, only for Nikki's last batteries to die. Cut to a length (10 minute) search for bateries. Photos taken and some oohing and aahing at the pretty church done, we had dinner and went home to bed.
But the taxi driver didn't take us to where we wanted to be (Xuefu lu 4 dao, for those in the know), but rather, dropped us at Heilongjiang Daxue, about a 15 minute walk away. But it wasn't so bad, as we'd thawed over dinner and in the taxi.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Day 165: Episode 3
DAY 7 - TAIYUAN => PINGYAO
So, we got to the Taiyuan and went to the ticket office. Or rather, we joined the 200 yard long line. Literally. Seeing how slowly the line was moving, we decided to try the bus. On arrival at the bus station, we discovered that on account of snow, there were no buses running. People in a taxi offered to take us for 600. Fat chance. So it was back to the long queue at the train station. Only now, it was longer. Like, an hour. In the freezing cold. After earning some chilblains, we were randomly pushed to the front of the queue. Well, I say the queue, the first queue was a queue to join the queue to get into the ticket office, where you joined another queue. We eventually got tickets for a train, but no seats. Two hours? Not so bad, we think. But it was so crowded I could barely breathe. How naive I was, that was not crowded (see day 18). Anyway.
Eventually, we got there, where a seriously obnoxious man kept saying "Hello!" and "How many (hotel)?" I don't know about any other white people. but one room is one hotel is usually enough for me. Turns out, he was from the Harmony Guesthouse, where we had considered staying as well. We got our tickets to Shijiazhuang, and went to find a taxi to the YHA China place. But as we walked along the road, the obnoxious man followed us. We told we we couldn't speak English, but that didn't stop him. Eventually, we found a taxi, but the driver informed us that taxis weren't allowed into the old part of the city (true). He suggested we get in the nagging man's rickshaw, but there was a bigger chance of a duck farting in church than us going with him. This annoying man being the same one that actually got into our taxi, snatched my book out of my hand to read it, and seeing that I had written down his hostel, got even more obnoxious. I was so close to removing his face when an unlicensed black cab pulled up next to us. We paid him 20 kuai and he drove us as close as he could to the hostel, and walked us the rest of the way. The good thing about unlicensed taxis - they can take you into the bits taxis aren't allowed in. But of course, it was a complete rip off. We didn't care though.
The hostel was brilliant, really old traditional house. We went out to eat some traditional local food - we had these big flat noodles (cold) with a tomatoey spicey dip, some cold cured beef thing, and a hot chicken dish. All lovely, names all forgotten now. After eating, we went to bed as it was rather late and we had to be up early to see Pingyao before the train to Shijiazhuang. Quite excitingly, our bed was a Kang - a traditional old style brick bed with a fire underneath (although ours didn't have a fire).
DAY 8 - PINGYAO => SHIJIAZHUANG
In the morning, we once again slept in until 8, but got ready quickly and went out to see the sights.
We did the town tower, which was considerably less magnificent than the book made out (it said that climbing the town tower and listening to the sounds of the city below was a memorable experience - it was worth it, but not the best bit). Then, the city walls, which apparently look like a turtle, earning the city the nickname "turtle city." Clearly, these people have never seen a turtle. On the city walls, I made my first ever snow angel. And last, as it was so cold. Not much to say about the walls really, although while walking we discussed 4th year, and I think I might take French now and just work a lot. And Nikki's thinking about not taking a second year out. All this got us rather excited about studying, which makes a nice change :D
After the walls, it was lunchtime, definitely. We tried a few places on the main south street, but they were all either stupidly expensive or smelled really strongly of varnish. We settled on our hostel in the end, and decided to go for western food, because we could. So we had toast, followed by a Cajun Chicken sub for me and a Lasagna for Nikki. It was nummy. And the coffee was good. Yay.
After eating, we went to Rishengchang, the first bank in China. We saw some old things of which we weren't allowed to take photos, and some old things of which we were allowed to take photos. As computers are all out to get me, I can't actually get the photos on to the internet at the moment, so you can see when I get back to Urumqi. We then found a Tat Emporium and got our names written on grains of rice. The woman just used a pen. A PEN. No magnifying glass or anything. So I got my Chinese name on one side and Pingyao 2008 on the other. Nice and tacky. Nikki got one too, and some cloth shoes (one of the recommended buys in Pingyao). Then, it was off to the train station to go to Shijiazhuang.
The train to Shijiazhuang was cold, cramped and just generally unpleasant. Oh, and six and a half hours long. There was also considerably more talking about us than I would have liked, but that's the Chinese for you.
We got off the train at Shijiazhuang North, and for the train to Beijing we had to be at Shijiazhuang station. So we got a taxi there, bought our tickets for a frightfully early train (7am), and went to the "youth hostel" across the road. Why it was called a Youth Hostel is beyond me, it was clearly just an average hotel. We were checked in by Slowcoach McSlow, and went up to our room on the 10th floor. After about 134 days of struggling with the lock, we got in (at least no one could break in). We put the key in the slot for power, and turned on the lights. Or rather, turned on the bathroom light. The other lights didn't come on. Oh well, we'll turn on the bedside lamp then. No? Okay, the floor standing lamp. Still no? How about the desk lamp? Not that either? We had no light. By this point, it was gone midnight, and I had stopped caring, so we used my camera screen for light, and just went to bed, in the dark.
As soon as we lay down, the announcements from the train station started. And didn't stop. 6 hours later and feeling somewhat less than refreshed and raring to go, we got up and went to catch our train to Beijing, grateful to leave Hebei (the province of which Shijiazhuang is the capital) behind.
At this point I should probably explain something - there are a lot of places we go where we don't actually do anything. This is because there's either nothing to do (Shijiazhuang being one of them - it's known only for it's coal mining and industry), or we're using it to break up stupidly long journeys (of which some more will come). Just so you don't think we're awful tourists.
DAY 9 - SHIJIAZHUANG => BEIJING
In the waiting room at the train station, we saw Sir Staresalot, Miss Curious, the Duke of Noseyville and Lady Neverseenawhiteperson. One girl stared so much I was on the point of shouting at her when we were allowed to get on the train. The train was really nice, and apart from Mr Can'tholdaphonecallwithoutshouting, annoyance free. We accidentally bought toys on the train. Oops. 2 hours and 40 minutes later, we arrived at Beijing West. We jumped straight into a taxi and headed for the Templeside (where we stayed when we first got to Beijing).
On arrival, they seemed very surprised to see guests there, and we were then directed to Shop 2, but not before seeing the kittens (who are now not so much kittens, more cats). We decided to stay in a dorm for financial reasons (60 compared to 200), and the place was really quiet, and so it was alright. We dumped our things and went pretty much straight out.
We wanted to basically to Tian'anmen Square and the things around it, the Lama Temple, the Confucius temple and the Drum and Bell towers. But first, some western in the form of Subway (yes, the sandwich place). Which was far. Bobby (the guy that owns the hostel) said we could get the metro there, but we couldn't find the station, so we just got a taxi (it was quite near Tian'an Men actually, so it was alright). The Subway was brilliant, not quite like in the west, but it was real bread and nummy fillings :D
We then went to the Friendship Store to buy books, but the collection was poor, and the books were not in great condition, most of them quite dirty and some with folded pages, ripped corners etc. And it was expensive. Having bought two tomes, we decided we had earned a break, so we went to Baskin Robbins, which was part of a little coffee place owned by a really nice Italian man. I had ice cream and coffee, and it was possibly the best coffee I've ever had. So if you're in Beijing, do visit the little shop next to the Friendship Store. Right, so then we went back to tourism.
We got the subway to Qianmen, the gate at the bottom of Tian'an Men square. We didn't know which of the two gates we saw was Qianmen at first, as we didn't know that the name refers to TWO gates. It's actually a nickname for the gate, and I've forgotten the real name. It used to be the south central point on the old city walls. It's made up of the Gate Tower (climbable) and the Arrow Tower (not). After crossing the road 1346089 times to try to get good photos (sun kept getting in the way), and after much confusion, we found the ticket office to climb the gate tower. But not the entrance. We walked a quarter of the way round, where we saw the path going through the tower, then half way round again, then back a bit, and eventually found it. We accidentally skipped the security check (says a lot about the security check I feel), and climbed. It was slightly disappointing actually, all museum and the top floor was a Rip Off Merchants. You couldn't see out from the top either.
So off we toddled to Mao's mausoleum. But apparently, that closes at noon. So we decided to come back the next day, and see the Hall of People and the Museum of the Revolution. Both closed (until 2008...when in 2008?). So we went to Tian'anmen, which was covered in scaffolding last time, but climbable this time. We bought tickets, but the guy wouldn't accept our student cards, saying they were foreign student cards. Last I checked, Xinjiang was in China. Annoyed me somewhat, as the student ticket was a third of the price of the standard ticket, but whatever. We went to climb...but first, we had to check our bags apparently. But then, you couldn't leave anything valuable in your bag. So I had to check in an empty bag (but for some tissues and an empty bottle). We climbed up, took some photos across Tian'anmen square, and saw some propaganda. All of this to a soundtrack of "Hello! Five yuan!" Last time, they were all selling Mao watches, which at the time I thought was awful, but now slightly wish I'd bought. But this time, it was all Olympics stuff. Which I don't want.
We got back our empty bags and went to check out Wangfujing street, big for food and night markets apparently. But there wasn't much of that (read: any of that). So we toddled off to the Foreign Languages Bookstore (I'm desperate for reading material here), where I spent far too much on books, but it's okay, they're cheaper than in the west.
Laden with books, we headed back to the hostel in spite of the early hour. But it wasn't quite that simple. We took the subway to what we assumed was the nearest stop. Turned out not to be. Took us an hour to walk back to the hostel from there nearly. But it was okay, we got to see the Financial District. We ordered dinner and sat down to watch a DVD with a Canadian guy called Simon, who was in our dorm. First, Evan Almighty, but on my review (one of the worst films I've ever seen), we decided to change it. Da Vinci Code - poor quality, only in Chinese but the sound was so quiet that I don't know if I could have followed it. We switched again to Swordfish, cliche ridden thriller, but alright. The ending was annoying though, left me with quite a few questions. Anyway, Beijing, important, DVDs I've watched, not.
DAY 10 - BEIJING
After sleep disturbed by the late arrival of a Swedish girl and the very early departure of Simon, we got up, had breakfast with an Australian couple (Amy and...I never did find out his name), and set off to see Mao's mausoleum. We got there at 12:01, just as they shut the gates. So we'll see it in summer.
So to the Lama Temple. Which was surprisingly hard to find, unless we were just being really thick. We saw the largest Buddha carved from a single piece of Sandalwood (26m), and a lot of generic temple things. Once you've seen as many temples as I have recently, they all look the same and you begin to stop caring. So we went to the Confucius temple, about which I have equally little to say. I did get really quite angry that they had translated the word for the UK to England though. Morons.
We wanted to see the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, as apparently they're good sights to see, but not as touristy as other things in Beijing. After walking rather a long way, I had the sneaking suspicion we had gone too far south. So we searched out a map, and indeed we had. So we righted ourselves, and went off to them. Arriving at 5pm on the dot. When they closed the doors. Quite annoying really. Well, we can see them in summer too (when we get to Beijing just in time for the Olympics (I must say, I intend to be very far away from the UK for London 2012).
As they were last on our list for the day, we went in search of coffee and real pastries at the nice Italian man's store. Having demolished a chocolate croissant and a coffee, and armed with take-out pastries and Nikki's warm french bread, we went to the Restaurant of the Gods: Quanjude (not a translation by the way, the name means something like complete assembling of morals (correct me if I'm wrong)). After eating so much duck I thought I would vomit, we walked (read: slowly waddled) to the subway to head home, and even managed to get off at the right stop this time).
And I've already written far too much, and must go and see some Wuhan now. So I'll write more in Xi'an probably (heading there on the train tonight, just in time for Spring Festival).
(an aside: I just ran a spellcheck on this, and I notice I spell Confucius wrong every time. Why his name if Confucius is beyond me, the Chinese is pronounced Kong Zi).
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