Qinhuangdao Part 1
I’ve always been a fan of the phrase, “fail to plan… plan to
fail”. In any adventure I’ve been on, in any class I’ve been in, in pretty much
anything I’ve done in my life I’ve spent a good amount of time writing lists,
comparing versions and accounts to best identify the truth, weighing up
different options and basing my conclusion on fact.
Well, for everything that didn’t go g terribly wrong, the
terribly wrong events in my life were, as above, due to lack of considering,
review, insight and study. Had I concluded that dying my hair purple would
result in my having to leave school and re-dye it (on my own dime mind you!) I
might have chosen a less pertinent colour, had I considered following my elder
brother Brett (three years senior) down the steep granite rock face on a bike
may result blood, tears and grazes…
given my limited experience in such adventures, my 32 year elbows would have
less of the shiny edges it has today, and had I considered the possibility of
sliding across pavement on my face resulting in 12 stitches in my inner upper
lip, I may not have held to the back of a car while donning my purple roller
blades.
So you see, planning has been kind to me and I’ve considered
it an ally against the eventuation of unfortunate events. I planned to go to
UWA… got there, did that. Planned to live in the UK and do a spot of
travelling, all went marvellously well. Planned to live in Melbourne… then
planned to get my TEFL… oh the planning and oh the things. My itinerary for a
short Bali escape was detailed to within a hair of a minute, and what an
adventurous and successful trip that was… I mean, until the volcano erupted and
I couldn’t get off the island… and then…
I planned to work in Asia…
Then… I moved to China.
Maybe Bali had been a hint?
China is not Google friendly. It is not Western Logic
friendly. It has its own laws and rules and logic, none of which I have been
made privy to… And yet – I feel safe in the planning of things, and so, when I
was told I’d have to work a few weekend in a row, but would have four week days
off in lieu, I jumped on to the computer, snatched up the Lonely Planet Guide
to China and started to come up with a time conscious and financially viable
mini trip for one.
I’m still on an internship and therefore on internship pay
(it aint pretty!), but it is a wondrous thing in terms of learning how to be
frugal which has never been a strong suit of mine. So on the pennies, or kwai,
I had remaining I decided to go close by with a hope of seeing, if not
smelling, if not FEELING the ocean… the edge of things.
I said to my housemate, “I just don’t know, Robyn… whether the
travel or the planning to travel is more fun”, she rolled her eyes and
continued about her business.
I’ve now realised that in China, planning to travel and
travelling are two separate things that have no correlation with one another
and should be considered as independent activities. I have learned to be… and
those who know me will gasp with shock…be adaptable and… heaven forbid,
flexible! An itinerary is more a suggestion, like laws in China, than a
stone-chiselled plan.
But that is now, and this was then… yes, I am doing this a
bit backwards!
I identified Qinhuandao as my first point of call, two
nights there with day trips to Bei Hai He and Shanhaiguan. Only an hour to
Qinhuangdao, then ten minutes to each of my day trips. The train costs were
reasonable and the hotel (three stars!!! Hopefully a nice shower!) seemed
perfectly situated between the train station and the main part of town and
within my price range. What luck!
Fiona – its Winter…
a whisper of logic and warning…
After the issues I’d had with booking.com I thought they’d
finally gotten their act together and ensured there were clearly displayed
commentary on Chinese hotels that only take mainland Chinese guests. They must
have taken on-board my previous emails and suggestions? Ofcourse they had… So I
knew without a shadow of a doubt that I’d have no future issues with hotel
bookings through them, thank goodness, one less thing to stress about.
Qinhuangdao was more of a stop-by town, not somewhere I’d
spend much time, just an in between sleeping location. As a tourist location
though it was bound to have some nice eateries, a few bars and hopefully a
reasonable atmosphere for a visiting tourist.
Fiona – its Winter
Did you hear a strange whisper? Odd…
At this point I’d usually give a quick run-down of the town
/ city’s history, but even on travelchina.com it is implied that Qinhuangdao is
where you go to stay to get to the places surrounding it.
Personally I had two rather different reactions to the town:
1.
Why do you hate me
2.
Delightful eating options and walking area
The emotions attached to each response are directly related
to the experience immediately preceding.
But, one thing at a time… Early wake up, backpack packed,
laptop? No need! There will be WIFI in my 3 star hotel. I dashed from the front
of the school and hailed down a passing number 19 Bus and sat at the edge of my
seat in anticipation and excitement for a couple of days away, a spot of nature
and, hopefully, some fresh non-polluted air.
Standing in line I felt confident that my Chinese Characters
intimating my travel requirements were up to scratch. Other Chinese
passengers-to-be stared at, and one smelled… , me. They looked over my shoulder
to see my passport and grunted when they noticed my little slip of hand written
paper. One person pocked the paper, smiled at me and with a thumbs up gave me
what I imagine was a ‘well done!’.
Twenty minutes later, I was through the line, tickets in
hand and butterflies fluttering about in my belly. Making my way through
security, my passport reviewed, my ticket stamped, a sneaky bite at KFC and all
of a sudden I was comfortably sat on the train watching the scenes of the next zombie
apocalypse zip past the window (ie high rise apartments standing empty across
fields of dry and deserlet land, seemingly Ieft behind after the most recent Chernobyl
incident).
Can you believe? Are you shocked? It’s all going so well!
I jumped off the train (at the right stop!) and found my way
to the taxi rank and provided them a hand written paper with the name of my
hotel in Chinese characters (I may mention the personal writing of Chinese
characters now and again because it took me a good hour or so to write all of
this down! And, when it worked… I may have been slightly impressed with
myself!)
Please note that on this trip I decided not to recharge my
mobile, so the only time I had access to Google maps or otherwise was if I
found a McDonalds or Starbucks (not as commonplace as one would hope at times).
I say I did this as a bit of a test to see if I could travel
without the net immediately accessible, to be honest;
a)
The budget was already exceptionally tight for
this mini trip
b)
I didn’t have any cash in my bank account so couldn’t
top up online
c)
Last time I tried to top up at Unicom in person,
all of the staff ran away from me…
My driver dropped me off at my hotel… weirdly, it didn’t look
like a hotel, three star or otherwise. The address was correct, so I snuck
through the door that seemed like it would lead more to an electrical devises
store than a hotel.
To my right… was an electrical store… to the left, darkness,
and straight ahead, three steps up was what appeared to be a make-shift hotel
reception.
I made my way up, the lady behind the counter looked
terrified, her colleague looked at me and simply said, quite sternly, “NO”…
I took out my Booking.com confirmation and also my hand
written Chinese characters document that said “I have booked a room here for two
nights” or “There was a monkey in the garden, can he be lunch?”.
After some tooing and froing and me not leaving (much to
their distaste) a guest of the hotel joined the general clash of language,
frustration and charade and explained that, no – I could not stay here, that
this was only for mainland Chinese people, I would need to walk down the road
and find the international hotel.
I hate to admit that I turned on my heel and swiftly exited
the building without so much as a thank you… I didn’t feel the level of
customer service deserved a thank you – a departure from the general rule that
even when one is slapped directly in the face, the appropriate response is… ‘well,
thank you’.
So, I stormed down the street, my feet slapping the pavement
as if it were the pavements fault. I wrote strongly worded emails to
booking.com in my mind, demanding reparations and a general improvement in
their service. I blinked back the stinging tears of frustration…
I continued my wander, wishing I’d not been so daft as to
not recharge my phone so I could use GOOGLE to work out where the heck I could
spend the night, when I came upon a building stating “International Hotel of
Qinhuangdao”, sweet relief. Atleast I’d be able to explain my circumstances in
English and hopefully get a discount on a room, all would be well, my itinerary
would survive.
“Hi! Oh, I’ve just been up the end of the street, I booked a
couple of nights with them but apparently they don’t take…”
The girl looked at me, I only just noticed, in a
flabberghasted way. I looked around the lobby, it was swanky, marble floors and
a chandelier, here was even a Christmas display in the foyer… but apparently,
no English.
The girl waved me to follow her, and so I did… she took me
to a room within the foyer and asked “you want to print something?”, I looked
through the window she was indicating at only to find many a 1990’s computer
and attached printer…
“No?” I said, with desperation in my voice, my face showing
everything including angst, stress and hope… hope that she might find someone
to help me.
We returned to the desk and I took out my Confirmation of
Reservation letter for the hotel I’d just been turned away from… obviously the
girl, and her colleague read this and indicated I was in the wrong place.
I tried to express that, yes, I knew I was in the wrong
place, but the right place wouldn’t let me stay… so I needed to stay with them.
Next, a rather hard looking woman stormed onto the scene,
iphone at the ready – she thrust it toward my mouth and with some hand waving
and eye shifting, indicated that I should speak into the phone and then we
would go from there.
A VERY long story short, I obtained a room for a rather exorbitant
price. Apparently breakfast was included but I wasn’t privy to the how and
where and when to be able to take advantage of this.
The room itself, at first glance, looked quite fancy. Faux
marble in the bathroom, goodness the shower head looked AMAZING! When you’ve
lived with a shower that has every intention of shooting you in the eye and
never has the good manners to remain at a constant temperature, you appreciate
a good shower wherever you can get one!
There was a bay window, yes, it looked out on an apartment
block, but the sun was shining that day, so even without a view, I could sit
for moments and enjoy a wee bit of Vitamin D on a knee, an elbow and a right
foot. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed simply sitting in the sun.
I’ve said it once and I will say it again… I should have
some here when I was still a smoker. Smoking is still an OK, almost a given, in
hotels, in restaurants – even in the public loo. I’ve seen ladies doing what
needs to be done while having a smoke at the same time. I believe had I still
been a smoker it wouldn’t worry me so much, also, I’d have LOVED to have smoked
in a fancy restaurant, to not have to go outside when staying at a hotel…
Unfortunately, its been a good few years since I quit the
white stick of delight and now the scent of it makes me feel nauseous at best…
lets not discuss at worst.
I tried to sort out the WIFI in the room, considered the
shower and popped open a bottle of wine that I’d brought from home. I took a sip and glanced outside… the sun was
still up and although not on the itinerary I decided to go for a wander, maybe
identify where I could go for dinner.
Maybe in Summer this is the place to be, but Winter, not so
much. I headed toward the ‘Peoples Square’, along the way I saw a grocery
centre, a couple of restaurants (I think) and then a walkway with leafless
trees and a mural at the end.
This didn’t seem a place I’d return to.
I headed back to the hotel. In my room holding my mobile
above my head, with my right foot at a right angle and my left foot arching
toward the non-functional TV I Googled the best places to eat in Qinhuangdao…
if nothing else was going to go right today, I was atleast determined to have a
delicious meal.
It showed a street, about 15 minutes walk from the hotel,
there were a plethora of eateries ranging in KING KONG THAI, to Noodle Hut, and so many other theme orientated eateries that I could imagine rammed during the summer months with keen punters, but
I went for Kings Life – a large restaurant that went to town with Disneyesque
castle furniture including lanterns and wooden seats and chandeliers and a
rather hearty menu ON AN IPAD! My first ipad menu! What will it be like in five
years? MENTAL.
So, I settled for the Kings Life… I mean, how could I not?
It was an attempt at the European medieval in China… juxtaposition that’s just been waiting to
happen!
And pleased as punch I was, sat in a wee crook with my own
faux chandelier, smiling waiters and… PIZZA, and not just pizza… yes, can you
believe… they had SEA FOOD PIZZA. Sadly I couldn’t do my usual half and half –
not a thing yet in China, am sure Dominos will sort that out in the next decade
– but tickle me pink when I was eating prawns and muscles and things I assume
were from the ocean but I could not identify on sight, draped in cheese and
steaming hot with a glass of red and , well, pretending you’re actually on the
set of Outlander, if not in Highland Scotland itself!
My dinner was such a delight that I suddenly felt rebooted
and decided to take a wander around the town / city (not sure which is correct…
I was told off the other day for calling Tangshan a big city, when infact it
small, however seems three times the size and population of Perth, implying
Perth is a village? It’s a strange old world!).
So, many a thankyou to the staff and I headed out into the
night… a shining night, almost without pollution. To my right I saw something
that looked like an artistic tribute to some kind of space expedition – my
interpretation at any rate! I was intrigued and so continued toward this and
came across an acropolis looking structure in the Chinese way, lit with
changing florescent lighting.
I continued on and
began to hear music and singing and… stomping?
Stomping?
As I came to the breach of the stairs I saw what must have
been over 100 people dancing in unison to the beat of a song coming from (I don’t
know where the sound was coming from… one of those Chinese secrets I expect!).
They swept their arms together this way, then that way. In their purple
uniforms they moved right and left and turned and bowed and turned again.
I didn’t want to stare so continued on and took in some
bronze statues of Confuscious (I imagine) and other historical Chinese
characters.
The night still being young I carried on to take in the lake
across the way. Even in the complete darkness there were groups exercising,
couples wandering, children playing.
Unlike where I’ve lived before the public parks are not all
lit up throughout most of the evening, it’s a bit of… goodluck to you, if you
fall… you fall… I am still considering my thoughts on this, no one wants a
Nanny State, but at the same time, when it gets dark at 5pm, you don’t finish
work til 6pm, you want to go for a wander without falling and drowning in the
lake.
Having said that, this really shows the difference in the
Nanny States I’ve always lived in… cars stop when the red light goes to ensure
people don’t get run over… here, there is a red light, but cars can still drive
and its really up to the pedestrian to ensure they don’t get run over…
Where we get fined for Jay-Walking, it’s a part of life in
China. Personally I feel I deserve a proper gold metal each time I successfully
cross the road, Indiana Jones aint got nothing on me!
Either way, it was beautiful walking around the lake, it was
so cold that there was a thin layer of ice over the water which created a
beautiful reflection of the lights from the town itself. It was silent and
peaceful and everything I needed in that moment.
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