The China Diaries: Day Two

I woke up at 5:00AM after a nice, long sleep. I stayed in bed until 6:00AM and then got up to shower. Apparently the hotel has no hot water in the morning. I quickly splashed myself to rinse off. This may be the first of many cold showers (or no showers at all) over the next month so no time like the present to get used to it!

I went downstairs at 6:30AM, checked out and got my 200RMB deposit back. I was planning to take the train to the Lanzhou West Station but there were a ton of cars and taxis in front of the train station. 

The lady at the hotel said it would be 20RMB to get to the West Station. I approached a lady who said it would be 50RMB. I told her that the hotel said it would 20-30RMB and she said she couldn’t do it. I decided to take the train and began walking away. The lady chased after me and agreed to 30RMB. She probably could’ve done it for 20RMB but I wasn’t about to argue for 10RMB.

I hopped in her car and she told me to wait. She wasn’t a taxi driver and she ran around the area looking for more people to go in the car with us. The amount of honking going on at 7:00AM was shocking. The roads had no lanes and drivers seemed to be making their own.

We dropped off the other two passengers at different places and they both paid 20RMB. I was starting to notice that China is a cash free country. Everyone uses WeChat to pay for things. The lady that drove me to the station asked if I was going to pay by WeChat but I told her cash. She looked at my money with her nose turned up but accepted it. 

I had to show my passport to get into the train station and put my bags through a screening process. I had a little knife with me that had a cover over it for fruit but they confiscated it. Damn.

Navigating the train station was easy. I got myself a cold coffee and a bacon and egg sandwich. The train to Zhangye was about four hours. I was the only white person on the train and people were taking triple checks and smiling and giggling.

The lady beside me on the train was very friendly. When she realized I could speak Chinese, she looked relieved! She gave me a delicious juicy peach, a tomato and two packets of cookies. I refused each time she offered but she insisted. Her and her friends keep giggling at me. Perhaps it was their first time to be this close to a foreigner?!

Security found me twice and asked to see my ID. They also inquired about where I was going. I don’t know why the security is so intense around these parts. It did say on my arrival card that I was to have my ID with me at all times as I could be asked to present it at any time. I don’t recall that happening in Shanghai or Nanjing.

I arrived in Zhangye at 12:30. My driver was waiting outside the entrance with a sign that said my name. She seemed very nervous. So nervous, in fact, that she couldn’t get her car to move forward. She put it in gear and it either did nothing or went backwards. I was wondering if we were going to go anywhere at all. She finally got it to move forward and away we went. Our first stop was the Dafo Temple. Entry fee: 40RMB. It’s in the city center and was recommended if you were in the area.

I wandered around the temple grounds for an hour and a half. It is a gorgeous old wooden temple that dates back to the 12th century. It was so dark inside it was hard to take photos. Nor were you supposed to take pictures of the Giant Buddha.

I was to meet my driver at 2:00PM but I had trouble finding her. The driver was arranged through my accommodations so I contacted them via WeChat and asked them to get in touch with her. Minutes later, I saw my driver in the distance frantically waving her arms at me. Even after I acknowledged that I saw her and starting walking towards her, she continued running and waving in a panic. She apologized a ton of times for making me wait and I told her I probably just misunderstood. The people in this part of China have extremely thick accents with a whole lot of ‘ar’s at the end of their words. They seem to understand my Chinese perfectly and I’ve had many compliments on how nice it sounds but I am having trouble understanding them a bit.

My accommodation was an hour away from the city. I was staying at the base of the Zhangye Danxia Geopark. As we pulled into the park, I could hardly contain my excitement. The area is stunning! 

I was staying at the Kaoshan Tents, which is within walking distance of the west entrance. The tent itself was awesome! It was big and extremely comfortable. They provided you with everything you could possibly need. The people working there were super friendly and they had a ton of activities to keep the guests busy and happy.

I was starving upon my arrival, so I ate and then set off to buy a ticket to the park. Entry fee: 75RMB. The ticket is good for 24 hours. There are buses that continually circle the road and you can get on and off at four different viewing points.

I made it to three out of four viewing points that day. The third viewing point was crammed packed with people. There was a whole lot of pushing and shoving going on. It was slightly annoying. The views made up for the madness. That place was unreal. The colors on those mountains were so vibrant. It was an amazing site to see and they exceeded my expectations.

I got back to my tent just after sundown. There were different colored lights on the mountains near our tents. Cute! People were enjoying an outside buffet BBQ. I went to my yurt, got my stuff together, grabbed a shower and that was it for me. I called my mom on FT and was out.

I had a bit of trouble sleeping. I was struggling with what I thought might have been a cold and a sore throat. It was very dry there and the tents sit at almost 1,800m. Perhaps the way I was feeling had to do with the elevation. I was certainly looking forward to the next day’s activities!

The China Diaries: Day One

The day started off at 10am with a private driver to the airport. I was flying with Hainan Airlines to Lanzhou, China in Gansu Province. I found the check in counter quickly and didn’t have to wait in line. While waiting for my backpack to clear the screening process, a lady came running over to tell me that there was a problem with the name on my ticket and that I needed to wait. They pulled my bag off. First hiccup of the trip and I wasn’t even out of the Taoyuan airport.

My plane ticket wasn’t showing my middle name, which is both on my passport and my permanent residency card. She made the name change in Taipei but was concerned about the other two flights I had on the same itinerary. The lady at the airport said that they are very strict in Lanzhou and they may not let me on the next flight if my name isn't the same. Time will tell.

The flight to Lanzhou was about four hours. Once we landed, we needed to take a bus to the tiny terminal. Upon entering, there were a ton of intense security guards telling everyone to remove their hats and their glasses. I had my sunglasses on the top of my head and the guard pointed at them and said very loudly in English, “NO!”

One guard approached me and asked me in English where I came from. I told him Taiwan. He directed me to the immigration line along with everyone else. As I was making my way into one of the lines, another guard pulled me aside and looked at my ticket and my entry and exit card which I had filled out on the plane. He nodded and directed me to continue on. Another guard came over and pulled me aside and asked to look at my passport. He had a list on a clipboard and was comparing my passport to something on that list. Once he was satisfied, he sent me back to the line. Again, another guard came over to look at my passport. He yelled to another guy in Chinese and all I really understood was something about a Canadian passport. By this time, I was trying to keep my cool. The guard handed me my passport and motioned for me to go and see another guard. Out of the line I went again. This final guy took me to a place where I needed to give them fingerprints and that seemed to be the end of it.

When I got to the immigration officer the first question he asked was if I could speak Chinese. When I responded yes, he struck up quite the conversation. He asked me why I was there, where I was going, where I was staying and where I studied Chinese. He then proceeded to tell me that my Chinese was good, in fact, much better than some people in China. Ha!

I was with him for about ten minutes before he finally let me through. Never have I been so thankful to get through immigration and be on my way. I am dreading my departure, especially knowing that my ticket doesn’t have my full name on it.

The terminal we were at was very tiny and there were no stores and no one was there selling phone cards. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about Wifi, I didn't have a plan B. My research had suggested that there was a train into the city but I only saw signs for a bus to the train station. It was 30RMB. 

I went up to the lady and smiled and told her in Chinese that I wanted to go to the train station. She gave me the sourest look ever. She asked me if I was able to pay with Weixin, which is WeChat. I have WeChat but it's not set up to make payments so I handed her a 100RMB bill. She looked terribly inconvenienced. She made a big deal about having to ask the people beside her if they had any change. Come on, lady! I can’t be the only one using money here!

The bus came about fifteen minutes later and took almost 1.5 hours to get to the train station. There was zero English on the bus and I was thankful I could understand the announcements. I got off at my stop and made my way towards the station. My hotel was supposed to be right across the street. I was looking for the Lanzhou Hualian Hotel. After looking up and down the street, I went into a hotel called the Lanzhou Mansion to ask where my hotel was. This was it, of course! Nowhere did it say the Lanzhou Hualien Hotel.

A welcome elephant waiting on my bed

Check in was quick and all of my train tickets for my trip were waiting for me at the front desk. Phew! The room was small but cute and comfortable. I went back out to see if I could find a phone card as I couldn't get onto the Wifi in the hotel. I had no luck even after asking the ladies at the hotel.

I did have an SMS from my phone carrier in Taiwan advertising data in China. It was a free call, so I called to see if they could hook me up. I was able to get 5GB of data for seven days for NT$888. Last year when I was in Shanghai, I got a phone card for 300RMB (NT$1,350) for 6GB for six days. It’s actually cheaper to go through my carrier.

The night was uneventful. I took a hot shower, charged my computer and my phone and went to bed. I was exhausted from the small challenges of the day. I am sure those are the first of more to come. I needed to be up at 6am so that I could get ready and catch my early morning train to Zhangye! Sleep came quickly and I was looking forward to what the next day had to offer!