You will see from the above description of the days travels that we spent practically the whole day on the road. We basically just wanted to get to Zhengzhou, but it was damn hard! I should tell you that by Qufu we had changed our travel plans. I'm not sure when we realised it, but we were checking our dates and decided we wanted to get to Xi'an for 6th January (the day before Chinese New Year... Chinese New Year's Eve, if you will) and by the time we were done with Qufu, it was still only 31st January. The remaining stops before Xi'an were Zhengzhou and Luoyang which we knew we wouldn't need an entire week for, so I suggested we go south to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. Liam thought it seemed like a good idea and so we decided to go to Zhengzhou, then Luoyang, then Wuhan, and finally to Xi'an. Plus we realised that after Xi'an, our planned stops were just Lanzhou, then Xining, and finally back home to Urumqi. Our teachers had originally told us that we had until Monday 3rd March, then just before we had gone had changed this date to Monday 25th February. We had been really worried that we might not fit everything in. (As it happened, we got back in time for the 25th, only to be told it had changed back to the 3rd March. Typical. Grrr.) If we were in Xi'an for 7th February and stayed even an entire week then we'd still have loads of time spare. And we weren't planning on staying a week. So we decided to add Chengdu and Chongqing in as well as Wuhan, which meant that our original travel plans had had some alterations. Even with adding Chengdu and Chongqing, if all went to plan we would still have around a week left to relax after travelling before getting back to the grindstone. So this was the state of play when we wanted to leave Qufu. But getting away was harder than we thought. The day went as follows:
When I finally dragged myself out of bed I couldn't feel my feet and according to the thermometer for the heater it was 5 degrees. Warm for outside in the winter (being used to minus 25 n all that) but not acceptable inside. I had wanted to have a shower but apparently the shower had also been making weird noises last night and Liam had switched it off without telling me. I plugged it back in, but had to wait 45 minutes for it to be ready with hot water. I spent the time trying to dry my clothes with my hairdryer and warming my feet too so I could feel my toes. What a ridiculous situation! I had two pairs of socks on that night as well. Liam got dressed under the covers because it was so damn cold. We had no residual warmth all day long!
First we went to Yanzhou by bus where there was a train station, so we could go by train to Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan and our very next stop. However, on arrival we were informed that there were no trains left to Zhengzhou. We thought we could try a bus, so we went to the long-distance bus station in Yanzhou as well. Long-distance buses from that area to Zhengzhou apparently only go from Qufu. So back we went. We got to Qufu and asked a woman at the ticket office, and without looking at her screen said that there weren't any. We frustratedly left the bus station. As we'd decided to add Wuhan to our list and it was geographically almost as logical to do Wuhan-->Zhengzhou-->Luoyang-->Xi'an as our intended plan of Zhengzhou-->Luoyang-->Wuhan-->Xi'an, we thought we should ask for tickets to Wuhan. Just then we noticed a ticket office which sold tickets for trains going from the station in Yanzhou, and thought we might as well try it. After a fashion the gormless girl there told us there were none to Zhengzhou (which we already knew, but it's always worth checking two, three, four times in China because of the lack of organisation), or Wuhan, which we hadn't thought to check when we were actually in Yanzhou. So we thought we could try the long-distance bus station once more, this time for tickets to Wuhan. We went to a different window this time and re-tried Zhengzhou first. The woman in this one actually bothered to check her screen and said that there were indeed tickets to Zhengzhou. What?! Ah well, we'd take what we could get! Our bus was due to leave in ten minutes, so we tried to get through the gate, but the two women there said we should sit down inside the station and wait for those ten minutes. We went out the front for some air, but when we tried to get back in a guard stopped us and asked to see our tickets. He told us that they were not 'suitable', which really could mean anything in this country, and then took us back to the ticket window. We were finally let in to the great secret - buses to Zhengzhou were all cancelled because of the weather. We expect the first woman had known this so hadn't had to check her screen, but she could have told us why! The second woman must have not known, and as for the two girls checking the tickets, well I'm pretty sure they knew but couldn't even be bothered to try to make themselves understood as happens all the time in China. They had no tickets to Wuhan either but they said we could go to Jining. Jining is in the south-west of the province therefore closer to Zhengzhou than Qufu. Even if we had to city-hop, which is actually quite fun in its own right, we'd make it to Zhengzhou by nightfall if it killed us! The bus to Jining got there without issue and then we had to buy tickets to Zhengzhou. We went to the ticket booth and were told that there were none. Fortunately for us, two women sitting at the back of the booth shouted out to their colleague reminding her of something. She turned back to us and said "oh yes, there is in fact a bus that leaves in 20 minutes if that's okay?" Erm... okay? That was ideal! We got our tickets and in no time we were on the coach, which was practically empty. Aside from the two of us, there were only 3 other passengers, then one got off before we even left the station! Clearly the bus was so empty because they kept telling everyone there weren't any! So the four of us set of in our full-sized coach to Zhengzhou. Somewhere along we picked up a family of six, who must all have been inbred, cloned, or otherwise closely related because I have never seen 6 people who look so alike. As we'd been on a little rickety minibus that day where people had been standing up between Qufu and Yanzhou (ah, that pointless excursion) because they kept cramming them on, it was strange to have so much space to ourselves. I feel I've said this fifty times before, but what I didn't understand is how people know how to get on these buses. There seemed to be designated places but they seemed to be like '3rd tree from the pigsty' or something because in the rural villages there's no other signs, and we used to always get them in the big city stops. I have learnt now that you really can just flag them where you want.
It was a surprisingly pleasant journey through the countryside of first Shandong and then into that of Henan. It was our first bus that crossed province lines, other than the one that took us to Tangkou (the place of which we do not speak) and that had been a minibus anyway. Any time we try a new type of Chinese transport we get inordinately excited. We got to see some interesting bustling little towns that Catherine would have loved to immerse herself in, and some rundown old hamlets too. I was looking out the window at the people and I thought that their lives were so different to mine. I pointed out to Liam that I found the 'fu' character that they'd pasted on their doors for New Year particularly poignant; fu is hung up so that the new year will bring in prosperity and good luck. But I thought that what these people would be hoping for in the new year would be so very different to what a rich businessman might desire - he'd want another million RMB, they would want enough food to feed their families. It is when travelling through parts of China like this that the rich-poor divide becomes so startlingly obvious. Having said that, we were seeing little villages which were still in themselves a world away from the conditions in country hamlets. It was a nice contrast to watch the sunset over the trees and farming fields in Shandong Province. The sights out the window made the journey far less tedious than it threatened to be.
We arrived in Zhengzhou that evening and I got a little pitta pocket from a street vendor filled with spicy chilli and crispy vegetable. We walked for ages to find a hotel Liam had noted down but clearly went the wrong way. It should have been close to the bus station. We re-traced our steps but eventually got too bored and bothered by the weight of our bags on our backs and flagged down a taxi. In the end the hotel was just around the corner from where we'd hailed!
It was quite expensive by the standards we'd been paying during our travels, but was a really nice chain called the Home Inn. All the staff had clean fitting uniforms (!) and the room was not falling to pieces (!!!). The entire bathroom was canary yellow which was a bit of an eyesore, but what a way to wake yourself up in the morning.
We couldn't be bothered to go far so decided to have dinner in the in-hotel restaurant. We ordered a speciality: duck cubes in bread style ('pancake' they called it) pockets which were printed with the impression of the double happiness character (denotes marriage and eternal happiness etc); nice touch. You fill the pocket with scrummy duck and scoff away. We also had some fried baicai. While travelling I tried to take a photo of every single dinner we ate (as far as I remember I got them all as well) and as I took a photo of this one the waitress had a bit of a tizz. Maybe she thought I was trying to steal their signature dish?
After dinner there was nothing for it but to go to bed and sleep sleep sleep. And in such a comfortable bed, too. Shame about the bathroom.
Yanzhou: typical small-town China.
The hubbub in the streets in a village somewhere in Shandong Province.
A different yet highly similar village. This is the true face of China, behind the towering skyscrapers and Forbidden Cities that the tourists all see.
Sunset in the countryside of Henan Province
Dinner! Duck cubes in pancakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment