I woke up at 5:00AM but didn’t feel like going out for sunrise. I had a hot coffee in bed and decided to wait for the free breakfast at 7:30AM. It wasn’t bad yesterday and I had a long train ride in the afternoon. I started packing some of my things to prepare for my departure.
The breakfast buffet was almost the same as yesterday's and I found myself eating the same things. I headed out right after breakfast to have a look around the old city of Datong. There is a 14-meter high wall that surrounds the ancient city of Datong and one can walk on it for about 7KM. I wanted to walk around part of it and see the city from up there.
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| A map of the Datong City Wall |
The contrast between new and old was quite amazing. The buildings in the ancient city have been restored and they look like old China. Beyond the wall are tall, modern residential buildings, shops, stores and malls. I wandered around one quarter of the wall, which took no time at all. After I came down, I walked around the old city which was full of temples and towers. It's a very unique place!
Around 11:00AM, I headed back to the hotel for a quick rest. I had a 1:25PM train back to Beijing. I took a shower and finished packing up my stuff. I was taking inventory of the food I had for the train ride back. In all my walking that morning, I did not find one supermarket or convenience store.
I had three bananas, an apple and the small snacks from the hotel. I hoped that would be enough to last me until I got to Beijing. The first three hours of my train ride went OK. I had two seats to myself and the lady across from me also had both seats. It made for much more room. For some reason, the lady across from me was unimpressed. When she sat down, I smiled and nodded to her out of courtesy and she said a few things in a snappy manner and the last thing she said was that I pushed her. That part I understood.
Getting on the trains here, along with most other things, is always about pushing. She was an older lady and looked like a peasant so she should know this about her country already, yes? I mean, it’s not like I intentionally pushed her, if I even pushed her at all. I was being pushed and needed to push in order to get on the train. I was going to start up with her in Chinese to tell her this but I decided playing ignorant would be the best way to go. Not worth it.
She glared at me for the first part of the trip and watched everything I did which was quite annoying. I ate my apple and when I went to put it in the garbage can, I came back and knocked her knee by accident. Well! It was like the world was ending. She started muttered in an unfriendly manner so I just clapped my hands together, half bowed and said sorry in English. I can’t imagine anything I would’ve said at the point would’ve changed her opinion about my white face.
She got off at the halfway point between Datong and Beijing. It was obviously a bigger city as a ton of people boarded the train. So much for all that space. At least the mean lady who kept glaring at me was gone. The train got very loud, hot and uncomfortable. Three more hours turned into four as the train was delayed. I reached Beijing at 8:00PM. I was exhausted and starving. I got my things and headed out to get in a taxi.
I showed the taxi driver where I wanted to go and all he said was he didn’t know. So, I asked him in Chinese if he knew where the hotel and again all he said was that he didn’t know. So I asked him if he could read Chinese, as it seems that a number of taxi drivers in China don’t and I think I offended him. He starting yelling at me that he didn’t know where the hotel was yet here he was driving away. I asked him where he was going if he didn’t know where the hotel was and again he was yelling something I didn’t understand and still driving. I again said to him if he doesn’t know where the hotel is why is he driving and where is he going and that perhaps he should stop driving. He then told me that I would have to tell him where to go and that’s when I told him I don’t live there and I wasn’t sure where to go. That was his job.
I should’ve just asked him to stop and get out of the taxi but I found the address on Google Maps and told him he could use the GPS but it was in English. He asked me why it wasn’t in Chinese and I answered the obvious that I am not Chinese. Duh. I started guiding him according to the English instructions. I then told him I had Baidu Maps, which is the Google Maps equivalent in China, but he said he didn’t know how to use it. How is it that he is a taxi driver?
I got him to get me very near the hotel but when we got to the actual hutong, which is a very narrow lane, there was a police station set up so I didn’t tell him to turn. I then told him we passed the street so I asked him to stop the taxi and I got out and walked the ten minutes to the hotel. He was an ass.
I got to the hotel and gave the guy behind the counter my passport. By this time it was close to 8:40PM and I could see that their restaurant closed at 9:00PM. Eating was becoming less and less of an option as the time ticked away. The guy asked me for my reservation number and then proceeded to tell me that the hotel had changed management and my reservation had been canceled. I showed him the email I had gotten four days prior that told me to get ready for my stay there. He was confused but said they didn’t have a room for me.
He said they had a sister hotel but they also had no rooms. He called another hotel which did have a room but it was 600RMB for a triple. I asked him to help me check for other hotels in the area and he did but it was time consuming so I told him I’d take the place for 600RMB. I asked him to call me a taxi and let them know where I needed to go as I’d just had an argument with my last taxi driver trying to find the hotel and I didn’t want a repeat of that.
I waited and waited and he finally told me there were no taxis. It was well after 9:00PM at this point. I asked him to write down the name of the address in Chinese so that I could go out to the main road and flag a taxi down. The first driver had no idea where the new hotel was nor did he know the address so I had let him go.
Quite some time later, a white unmarked car pulled up beside me and asked me if I needed a taxi. It was a new car with a nice looking young guy in it. I backed up a bit and relooked at his car and asked him if he was a taxi. He said he was and showed me the ‘empty car’ sign that all the taxis in China use. I was still a bit hesitant but also feeling desperate at the same time. I had been standing outside for almost fifteen minutes. I showed him the address and he put it into his phone. We compared maps on our phones so I knew he knew where I needed to go. I asked him about a meter and he showed me another phone, which indeed had a meter app. I got in his car and hoped for the best. I tracked his route to make sure he was going the right way. My thought was that if he got off track, there are so many lights in Beijing, that I’d grab my bag and hop out of his car. People are everywhere in Beijing, so it wouldn’t take much to make a stink and have someone hear me.
He took me where I needed to go and my phone was dying so I turned it off. We had a nice conversation about Beijing and Taiwan and I could tell he would do no harm. He dropped me off at what he thought was the hotel. It wasn’t. It was like this day was never going to end.
I turned my GPS back on and followed it five minutes over to the hotel. It was close to 10:30PM. I paid the 600RMB and went up to the room. The hotel was gross. There was thick carpet on the floor that looked like it hadn’t been vacuumed in weeks. The bedding was clean but the room was dodgy, dark and old. I was so exhausted; I couldn’t be bothered to care much.
I took a hot shower and plopped myself on the bed. It seemed to be slanted. What a perfect way to end this day. Also, on the train ride I could feel a head cold coming on. I felt a bit feverish, was sneezing a lot and my nose was sore and runny. I ate a banana, took an allergy pill and decided to go to bed. I had pre-booked a ticket for the Forbidden City the following day but as I was waiting to fall asleep, it felt like the last thing I wanted to do.
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