Shaolin

After a short but wonderful stay in Xi'an, time came to move on. We boarded a bullet train once again and continued our journey eastward to Zhèngzhōu, the capital of Hénán (河南) province. This time the journey lasted only roughly two hours, but we got off the train at a station in the middle of nowhere. Zhèngzhōu, like most Chinese cities has two (and sometimes more) train stations, one right in the centre and the other one somewhere west, far away from the centre. Only bullet trains stop here that don't start or end in Zhèngzhōu. The peculiar thing with this station is, that it shuts a few minutes after a train arrives. If you need to go to the toilet in the station, make it quick, or else some angry personnel will whisper you something.

Not sure if there is a bus to the centre, but there are a few taxis waiting for customers. In our case, because we were the only foreigners, they had Dollar signs in their eyes and started saying some figures, like 40, 50, whatever. They didn't even ask where we wanted to go. We walked to a taxi that was parked a bit further away in order to avoid all those greedy taxi drivers, but the driver wasn't there. He saw us and came running. It was an older man who didn't speak a word of English and his taxi was shabby and filthy. I showed him the name and the address of the hotel, but he didn't seem to know the way. I fired up the GPS on my mobile phone and he rang some colleague to get instructions. He rang his colleague a few more times when we got lost. We arrived at the hotel roughly 45 minutes later and because he couldn't park in front of the entrance, he left us in a side street from where we had to walk a little with the heavy luggage. Even though the metre showed 80 Yuan, he wanted 100. After some negotiations, I understood that there is a surcharge if you get on at a train station and gave him the 100 Yuan (roughly 11.50 GBP).

The hotel with the glorious name 'The Great Wall', wasn't glorious at all. It was big though and the rooms were spacious and the decor was communist chic. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of it, neither have I any photos of the city. We asked for a strictly non smoking room and were sent to a room that smelled of smoke. So we had to go downstairs to reception again to complain and were put in another room that didn't smell. (Attention to travellers, people in Asia smoke everywhere and don't care about no smoking signs. Even if a hotel claims that it is a non smoking business, you'll find matches and ashtrays in the drawers.)

Since the city has nothing to offer besides a museum and two temples and it's dead ugly, our plan was to use it as a strategic point and go to other places in the region. That's why we looked for a hotel somewhere near the station. I'm not sure if the city attracts any foreigners and/or foreign companies, but it's hard to imagine, because there are no decent hotels, that's why we went for the above mentioned. The Lonely Planet mentions the Hilton and another one, the Jǐnjiāng Inn, that belongs to a Chinese chain. Even though the description is good, you'll be disappointed when you get there. Beware, some rooms don't have a window. A good website for hotels and tickets in China is http://english.ctrip.com/ Use this one if you are in China and you'll save yourself a lot of money, as it is a lot cheaper than any western website and has a broader hotel choice (but don't trust those 'guest' reviews written by Chinese, they are all fake).

We unpacked, took out the maps, located us and the train station and started walking. The plan was to catch a train to Kāifēng, just 1.5 hours east. Kāifēng has a city wall and many other sights, like the Iron Pagoda Park, the Guildhall, some temples and there are a Jewish and a Christian community. The city offers a riveting display of age-old charm, magnificent market food, relics from its long-vanished apogee and colourful chrysanthemums (the city flower; Kāifēng is also known as Júchéng, or ‘Chrysanthemum Town’). One reason you won’t see soaring skyscrapers is because buildings requiring deep foundations are prohibited, for fear of destroying the ancient northern Song-dynasty city below. 

All this sounds nice and exciting and we were looking forward to seeing it, despite the tiredness from the previous days and the aching bodies from the Great Wall climb. 

We found the station, bought our tickets, made it to the right waiting hall and waited and waited and waited. Departure time came, but the gate didn't open. An announcement was made over the speakers and something appeared on the screens. As it was all in Chinese, I took a photograph of the screen and posted it on the WeChat expats groups and asked for help. The announcement said that our train would be delayed. Some more announcements were made and the text on the screen changed. At this point, people stood up from their seats and together with those standing they started to leave the waiting hall. We followed them and saw that they went back to the ticket office. Some got their money back and some got tickets for other trains. We asked for our money and went for dinner. We walked around the food places in the station and went for some Chinese burgers (minced meat in a bun). I used some of the spice that was in a jar, to make my burgers spicy and tastier. I shouldn't have eaten the spice, because it made me sick.

We walked back to the hotel and passed by a little street with some food stalls. The food there looked much better than the food at the train station. Such a pity that we had already had dinner! We also went to something like a bakery. The funny thing is that those shops are called bakeries, even though they sell no bread. The sell cake and sweets. We took something from the shelf that looked like bread and asked the young lady behind the counter if it was sweet, but as she didn't understand a word of English, she gave us a sweet smile and reminded me of my dear friend Mi, who also gives me her sweetest smile when she doesn't understand. So I fired up Baidu Translate (Google is banned in China) and asked again. Of course it was sweet. Food in China is either sweet or spicy.

By the time we arrived at the hotel, I was feeling weak. The night was a nightmare and I guess I was suffering from another food poisoning. The planned trip to Luòyáng and the Lóngmén Caves the next day didn't take place, as I spent all day in bed. It was late afternoon when I started feeling slightly better and went out in search of food. I needed something western to treat myself, but find it in a city like Zhèngzhōu! We couldn't find any food places at all. We walked around for a long time and all we saw was banks, clothes shops, mini markets, shops with booze, but no restaurants. Then we discovered a small restaurant where we had some noodles and vegetables. We should have gone to the train station to the McDonald's. I hate to say it, but McD has saved my life more than one times. 

I wasn't entirely fine the following morning, but I didn't want to waste another day of our holiday, so we asked the reception to call us a taxi. A few minutes later a taxi with a female driver appeared in front of the entrance. Unlike most male taxi drivers who get Dollar signs in their eyes when they see westerners and think 'Jackpot'!, this lady drove us the shortest way, was very friendly and couldn't take her eyes off the rearview mirror. She had a shy smile on her face and showed us the way to the ticket office of the bus station when we arrived at the station. 

Our plan was to go to the Shaolin. Since there is no train or direct bus to the Shaolin temple, the best way of getting there is to take the bus to Dēngfēng. The journey lasts about an hour and a half and costs something like 3 pounds one way per person. There are frequent buses and there's no need to book in advance. The buses are a bit shabby, but worth the experience. Dēngfēng is for China a little town and indeed, it feels like a village, but it has 630.000 inhabitants. From there you take a mini-bus to the Shaolin. The mini-bus journey lasts roughly 40 minutes and it costs 5 Yuan (60p). I recommend you sit somewhere in the back and watch how much the Chinese pay and pay the same. On our way back to Dēngfēng in the evening, the ticket lady on the bus wanted to charge us more, but I told her that we paid 5 Yuan each in the morning and she walked off with our 10 Yuan instead of the 15 she had asked for. Of course you could always take a taxi, but be aware that the drivers might try to rip you off.

There is an admission of 100 yuan per person to walk around the enormous Shaolin site. Inside you will see some temples, a cave, a pagoda forest, monks walking around, kids and other people learning kung fu and you can take one of the two cable cars at an extra cost to go up the mountains and visit some temples and enjoy the view. There are some walking paths if you like hiking. We didn't go to the cave, because some Chinese who came from there told us that it's not worth it. You can learn kung fu and spend some days there if you like. The training looks very hard though. If you plan to visit the site, come early because it closes at 5 or 6pm and you will need the time to walk around and see as much as possible.

The following morning we travelled back to Shanghai by bullet train in first class. Not as glamorous as it sounds. 

Shaolin by the entrance

The square outside where the ticket office, a fast food restaurant and some shops are.

Gate

You are here. Where?

Pagoda forest

One of those funny signs you find in China.

Cable car 

Temple at the top

Public toilets at the Dēngfēng bus station. Notice that there are no doors and the walls are not really high. There's no warm or hot water or soap to wash your hands and nothing to dry them. That's standard in China. Always bring your own tissues and don't expect privacy or cleanliness or any sort of western standards.  

Don't expect to find toilet paper... This is where you do your small and big business. All goes into the drain and flows from cubicle to cubicle to the end of it. That is, if water flushes through the drain. If not, your business stays where it is for a while until the next flush.

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