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Published: March 23rd 2011
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Zhengzhou, the city in which I’m staying, has over 8 million people. It’s not a particularly large city by China standards and has a lot of shopping. There are several shopping malls within walking distance, a technology market not far from my apartment, and plenty of clothing and retail stores along the streets. Other than shopping and eating, Zhengzhou doesn’t have much more to offer. I like it because it’s not a town with a lot of foreigners or tourist attractions. It gives me to opportunity to be immersed in the Chinese culture. To get my tourist fix, I have plans to travel to other parts of the country. As you can see, I’ve already been to Beijing.
My next trip was to Kaifeng. It’s a small city that isn’t too far from ZZ and I’ve been told by lots of locals that I should visit. I’m not sure what the city is known for but I know that it has several Temples to visit and delicious cuisine. Alicia and I went last weekend and planned to stay one night there. We were also told that there isn’t enough to do to warrant a longer stay. Some people just go for
one day. There wasn’t much of a plan for our trip because A) we had no expectations for it and B) it was kind of thrown together last minute.
We left Saturday afternoon and took a taxi to the bus station in ZZ (11RMB) and caught a bus to Kaifeng (13RMB). The ride was about one hour and very uncomfortable. We rode in a charter bus that was completely full, very tight, and extremely warm. The seats in front of us didn’t leave any room for our long legs- I had to dangle my legs into the aisle- and the occasional breeze from the rooftop vents was the only thing saving us from heat exhaustion. Okay, okay, it wasn’t THAT bad. But it was hot. I was shocked to see that most of the Chinese kept their jackets on while Alicia and I were stripped down to our T-shirts. It was explained to me that they would rather be hot than to risk catching a cold. When we got to Kaifeng, we got a taxi from the bus station to a Home Inn (the same hotel chain that we stayed at in Beijing).
We got there and asked for a
room only to be told that they didn’t have any rooms available. There was a Chinese man was there checking in and translated for us to ask where another hotel was. She pointed us into town a few blocks. We set out on foot and passed a big park with a lake on the edge of the city (the only pictures I took of Kaifeng). I heard that Kaifeng has amazing street food so my goal for the trip was to try as much as my stomach would allow. I stopped and got this pita-like bread thing that is about 4-5 inches in diameter, deep-fried (as most delicious street food is), and had little bits of vegetables baked into it. It was alright; the seasoning on the veggies wasn’t very good but still edible. It was 3RMB (about $.50).
Alicia followed the directions that were sloppily translated to us by the hotel guest and never found the other hotel. We knew that there is a university in Kaifeng and there is a hotel there so we decided to take a taxi there. Before we did, however, we saw a woman selling these giant bread pouches stuffed with veggies and decided
DSCN0978
on the bus ride home to try it out. It tasted AMAZING and was very filling. The bread was like a large English muffin (complete with nooks and crannies!) and it was opened on one edge to make it into a pouch. It was stuffed with carrots, brussel sprouts, lettuce, sauce, and spices. Mmmm!
We got to the university and asked to check into the hotel. They took Alicia’s passport (as is customary in Chinese hotels) and then asked for mine. … … … I didn’t have it. I told her I forgot it in Zhengzhou and she kindly pushed Alicia’s passport across the counter and told us we couldn’t stay.
We quickly discussed our options. Find another hotel, have her check in alone, and I sneak in later or rush back to the bus stop and catch the last bus back to ZZ. Since we had very little expectations for the trip to begin with and actually got to try some street food already, we decided to bail. We laughed about it once we made it safely onto the bus and enjoyed the ride back. We even made it in time to meet up with our friends and go out that night for drinks. It was a fun experience and didn’t even cost us $10.00!
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