Wo hui Zhengzhou

I have returned to Zhengzhou after my successful trip to Xi'an with Tom. We left on Thursday night at 7:30 from the central bus station in Zhengzhou. The journey was less than perfect, we broke down twice and our fellow travellers were more noisy asleep than awake. However the major gripe with the whole thing was that we arrived at 3:40 in the morning. This was down to our misunderstanding when we bought the tickets and meant that we not only had to find some beds at this ungodly hour but attempt to communicate with the weary taxi driver in broken Chinese. We arrived at the Shuyuan Youth hostel to find that, in typical Chinese style, that the front desk was massively overstaffed despite the early hour. We ended up with two beds in a four-bed dorm that was already occupied by a Kiwi couple. Our arrival, accompanied by the switching on of the rooms bright strip light (not by us but by one of the hotel staff as we said 'Don't worry about the l...'), must have severely disrupted their sleep so we were doubly grateful when they warned us that they were leaving early so we could shotgun their beds. This was necessary as the hostel was extremely busy and we had been told that we would have to find somewhere else to sleep.

So with accommodation sorted, Tom and I ventured out into this new city. Xi'an was, for me, a breath of fresh air. Firstly it was raining, which was a welcome contrast to the overly dry climate of Henan. Secondly, in Xi'an they have embraced their traditional architecture, and even the new buildings attempt to emulate it to some extent. Added to this much of the old remains. Being the most famous of the inland cities, apart from the capital, there are far more tourists on the streets, and for this reason Tom and I did not cause anywhere near the stir that we would cause in Zhengzhou.

On the first day, we cycled around the city walls which was nice after our cramped bus journey. We then went to the Muslim quarter for some lunch. The food was very good and we shared the table with a young Chinese couple who let us taste some of their dishes. It was not such a novel experience as I have eaten in a Xinjang restaurant in Zhengzhou a number of times. However the Muslim quarter is very cool. First there is the big market, which although a bit 'touristy', had a few interesting trinkets. Then there is the Great Mosque, a large building in the Chinese style built around three court yards. We somehow managed to avoid paying an entrance fee and were lucky to catch the afternoon prayer. On the way out of the Muslim Quarter, I sampled some of the sweets, none of which had a completely unexpected taste, but all of which, after the initial shock, were delicious. Later in the afternoon we briefly visited the Bell and Drum Towers, which if I'm honest were almost exactly the same and therefore equally dull. We spent that evening chatting with some of the younger hostel guests about their travel experiences while drinking the slightly overpriced beer in the basement bar.

Saturday was our day to visit the terracotta warriors (Bing Mayong in Chinese). We immediately discarded any thoughts of an organised tour and decided it would be both more economically sound and more impressive to take the public bus. This meant standing in a frighteningly long queue at the train/bus station, that was actually deceptively quick, followed by a forty minute ride in a double decker to the dig site. The warriors were discovered in 1974 by a peasant farmer digging the well. His thankless task today is to sit in a shop at the shop everyday and sign books for tourists. Tom and I did not go in, but I have an image of a small man with one over-developed wrist. The warriors themselves were everything that we expected, neither better nor worse. Unfortunately the impressiveness wears off after a while and one notices the ridiculous high tourist prices (a bottle of water cost ten times the price of one in Zhengzhou). Using our out of date student cards and vehemently refusing any offers of tours or guides, Tom and I managed to do the whole thing for less than 45 RMB (about three quid).

On our return that evening we decided to go for a stroll outside of the old walls, to get away from the crowds. On this walk, we were accosted by a man speaking to us in Chinese who we initially thought was trying to sell us something. We were mistaken, we walked with him for about quarter of an hour and had a simple, but interesting, conversation on the subject of 'currencies of the world'. We returned to the hostel in time to go and get some food, and were dismayed to find that yet again all of the guests were eating western food in the overpriced 'Traveller's Cafe' (some eating pizza and chips [oh the shame]). Defiantly Tom and I went out in search of an alleyway (where the best and cheapest food is invariably available) and discovered a cool street restaurant where we tucked into two plates of Chao Bing (fried shredded pancake [chao as in 'chao mein']) , sharing a table with a middle-aged couple from England who had quit their jobs as teachers and had been travelling for seven months. On returning to the hostel we finally managed to drag away two English lads from Nottingham, with the unintentional aid of the American traveller singing 'oom-bop' on the open-mic) to explore the night life of Xi'an. We listened to a live band in the incredibly smokey 'Bar-Moonkey' before wandering around 'Bar 1+1". This bar was a veritable labyrinth, I imagine to make the task of escaping the extortionate prices as difficult as possible, and looked like one of the flashy places out of CSI Miami. We ended up wandering the streets, bottles of Tsingdao in hand, checking out the night food markets and stuffing ourselves with kebabs and dumplings. Good Times.

We had allocated the next morning to shop in the market. We were on the hunt for trinkets that where neither too expensive nor complete crap (excuse my yingyu). In the end we each purchased some cool 'old' combination locks that used symbols instead of numbers and Tom bought a chess set. We were pretty pleased with our heartless bargaining and it seem to draw admirable glances from fellow travellers (many of whom, I imagine had just paid four times what we had for the same items). The stall-holders would immediately set an extortionate price which we would attempt to cut but about 75%. The ultimate weapon is the 'walk away' which one must perform to it's completion a few times so that other vendors do not think you are bluffing.

At two thirty we went to the train station. We managed to wangle our way into the soft-seat lounge, similar to the first-class lounge in an airport, and had no problem in catching our train. The journey was long, but relatively smooth. Chinese trains appear to stop for about ten minute in each station, giving one plenty of time to get out, stretch one's legs and purchase a drink. The afternoon was very hot and the train was not air-conditioned, however this was not a problem as long as the train was moving. We arrived around midnight, took a shared taxi to my apartment before saying our goodbyes. I am extremely glad that we decided to risk the long trip on this busy weekend as we had an excellent time.

Now I am back to work, I feel refreshed and have a new found energy. This week I will be buying my bicycle for Pakistan, which is exciting my inner child. Also today it has been raining all day, which frankly, has been marvelous. I am looking forward to fresh new city in the morning. Also, a certain amount of schadenfreude has led to me enjoying the glum faces on the Chinese populous as their city is given a spring clean.

On a completely irrelevant note, today I ate an ice cream believing it to contain blueberries. It turned out to be made with sweet kidney beans and was actually quite nice.