Mini trip to Shenzhen

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As part of the National Day holiday, schools and workplaces have a one week holiday known as the ‘National Golden week’. It’s the longest holiday period the Chinese have apart from Chinese New Year and we really want to make the most of it by going away somewhere for a holiday. The only problem is we don’t have our passports at the moment as they are still at Shunde Government for processing, meaning we are a bit limited on where we can go. Even within China, you need your passport to get the bullet trains, so we have to find somewhere easily accessible by bus. Our original plan of Hong Kong has been blown out of the water so instead we find ourselves heading to Shenzen (which is frustratingly only about 5km away from the HK border!).

Since we’ve been in China, we’ve only really been out of the comforts of our own little town once, and that was on the train, a seemingly straight forward process. This time however, we have to embark into unchartered bus territory, which we are rather nervous about as we know no one speaks English and thus we could end up anywhere…. As a precaution, we get our teaching assistants to write as a note that we can give to the taxi driver and then the train station ticket office to show where we are going. We hope we’re being well prepared (unusually not like us) so fingers crossed it works…

Our first task is to get a taxi from Shunde to the bus station, which seems straight forward enough, but there are about 5 different bus stations nearby, and you can only get a bus to Shenzhen from one of them. However, we give the taxi driver our little note which seems to do the trick and before long we are pulling up outside a huge bus depot so it’s a promising start. We jump inside and it is pretty rammed with people who will probably all be heading back home for the holidays, so the chances are our bus will also be rammed. Something we had been warned about and are not looking forward to as I don’t fancy standing for the whole journey whilst being pressed up against some sweaty man. We wait in the queue which actually goes quicker than anticipated and hand over our second hand-written note to the ticket seller. She looks at us and simply says ‘no’ quite matter of factly. We repeat back ‘no?’ in a surprised tone, praying we haven’t ended up at the wrong bus depot as she once again confirms no. However, we’ve came to realise that no doesn’t always mean no- it’s often used literally and doesn’t necessarily mean no- you just haven’t asked the right question. Sure enough she writes down the names of two places which we assume must be near Shenzen but not actually in Shenzen and this is where we can get the bus to. We’re not sure which one though, so we try and phone our boss to ask her if she has any ideas. She doesn’t know either, so we go over to the tourist information desk and get our boss to speak to the assistant in chinese to try and suss it out. Honestly, I don’t know why they can’t seem to give straight answers, as they proceed to have a 5 minute discussion about it when it would take a British person about 5 seconds to ask ‘is it here or here?’. Anyway, eventually she hands the phone back to us and we have our answer at last. The tourist assistant even offers to put the tickets through for us so we don’t need to wait in the queue again which is really nice of her. Tickets purchased, she holds up 2 fingers and indicates the number 2 to us, so we assume this is the bus stance we need to go to (although to be fair it could mean 2 tickets, 2 minutes, 2 hours, 2 buses or bus number 2). We head over anyway and show our ticket to the ticket collector who seems satisfied and asks us to wait for the bus to arrive. We’re actually front of the queue so hopefully that means we get a seat. As the bus arrives, we go to get on, but many of the people in the queue behind us start to get onto another bus right next to the one we are about to get onto. We hesitate in confusion once more, but then a younger man behind us nods and indicates we should get on the one we originally thought was correct. Here’s hoping, otherwise we may end up in Shanghai or something. We know the bus should take about an hour and a half, so if after that time we’re still in the middle of nowhere then that’s when we’ll panic. I can just envisage another repeat of the Pisa to Florence 8 hour train incident…

After the aforementioned allotted time of 90 minutes, we start to head into a big city which looks like it could be Shenzen so I start to relax. That is until we go through a police check barrier and I once again start to panic we’ve gone too far and the bus is taking us into HK, where we’ll be sent packing without our passports to hand. However, two minutes later I see a sign on the side of a building which says Shenzen on it so it must be the right place. Soon after, the bus slows down and stops outside a big building whilst the bus driver announces a destination to the passengers. We’re about to get off when we notice half of the people are still sitting on the bus so we’re once again unsure of whether to get off or not. We show our ticket to a woman sitting opposite us who studies it carefully and then shakes her head and indicates we should stay on until the next stop. I hope she’s right.

15 minutes later we’re motoring through the city and come to a stop inside another big bus depot where the remaining passengers get off so we do too. Right across from us there is a huge sign which reads Shenzen railway station so I breathe a sigh of relief- I can’t believe we made it! Now we just need to figure out where our hotel is… We wander into the railway station to look for the metro system when we happen to walk by a sign with our hotel signposted on it- what are the chances! We head out to the exit suggested, but then the signs disappear again. We ask for directions in a nearby hotel who point us the right way and before we know it we are there. What a stroke of genius booking somewhere so close to the bus station without even realising it. The hotel itself is really nice inside and looks a lot posher than places that we usually stay.

We plonk our stuff and go out in search of some food as we are starving having only ate a fried egg and a chinese bread dumpling for breakfast 5 hours ago (the chinese equivalent of a ‘fry up’). It’s started to rain so we hurry to find somewhere so we can avoid the worst of it. As we walk along the road, we spot an old homeless man lying at the side with his pet monkey. And people still stare at US! Luckily there’s an array of little curbside restaurants offering pretty much anything you could imagine to eat nearby our hotel. Only problem is most of the menus are still written in Chinese so we have no idea what anything is. Hunger wins over knowledge and we stop at a little canteen with a dim sum stand outside. When they realise we are western (not exactly hard to tell considering we are chalk white and Greg is about 5 feet taller than everyone) he brings us over a menu which has English translations. I say translations in the loosest sense of the word, as most of it doesn’t make much sense anyway (dragon’s breath egg anyone?). We attempt to order some of the more seemingly ‘normal’ dishes on the menu but the guy shakes his head to suggest they don’t have it. We point to a few more things and he does the same. Greg eventually asks ‘well, what do you have?!’ to which he points at an item that apparently has pork and rice so we agree on that along with some dim sum too. The dim sum arrives rapidly and is a delicious (if not absolutely scalding hot with molten liquid inside) sticky steamed dumpling filled with pork and spring onion, which we devour within about 2 minutes. Unfortunately we then wait another 20 minutes for the pork dish as the waiter forgets about it. Eventually it arrives and I soon realise it is pork belly fat accompanied with seaweed and rice and my face drops. Greg is ecstatic though and proceeds to polish the whole lot off while I pick at bits of plain sticky rice. Never mind, the dim sum more than makes up for it. Afterwards we go for a wander and stop at a little side street shop for an ice-cream to finish off the meal. We must have looked a right sight to the locals as us two westerners are stood up a side alley eating ice-creams in the rain.

Back at the hotel, we decide to go for a dip in the swimming pool- one of the main reasons we booked this particular hotel. Never mind the fact it’s still slightly raining- we want our money’s worth. Greg notices they have free kimono style dressing gowns in the wardrobe, so we put on our swimming gear and the dressing gowns on top and head in search of the pool. Turns out we have to walk right through reception and then out the other side of the hotel, so we look rather daft as we saunter through the lobby with everyone staring at us even more so than usual. When we get to the pool, we find out we can’t use it unless we have swimming caps on (which you need to buy and therefore we don’t go) so we have to walk straight back through the lobby 2 minutes later, with beetroot faces. In the end we opt for a low key night and sit in the hotel room with some movies and a beer instead.

Day 2

Today is a ‘doing day’ and after much deliberation, we decide to visit a place called ‘Splendid China’. It is apparently a tourist attraction which is filled with miniature replicas of famous Chinese buildings and historical sights alongside information on ancient Chinese culture and traditions. First things first though we need some breakfast, which I’m slightly concerned about considering the fact that Chinese people usually eat what they would normally eat for dinner at breakfast too, and I don’t fancy dim sum first thing in the morning. And it’s not like we can just grab a sandwich from the supermarket! In the end we decide to go to walmart anyway to see if there’s anything we can grab, and to pick up some fruit and yoghurt at the very least. In the end we spot two roll like things at the hot food counter, so figure these will do us just fine. It’s like a doughy muffin type roll which has been (from what I can deduce) steamed then fried and then filled with different things. I have one filled with egg and ham (so basically a chinese version of an egg mcmuffin) and Greg opts for one with beef and chillis (a braver man than me). Job done we head onto the subway to find this place Splendid China.

It’s actually really easy to find as there is a metro line which stops right outside the park. We buy our tickets and head inside, where we can see from the programme (which they happen to have in English too thankfully) a horseback show is just about to start. It’s situated in an arena at the back of the park, and we feel like celebrities as everyone seems to have a look at us as we walk by, and one man even blatantly gets his camera out and takes a picture of us. As Greg says, when he gets home and shows his photos to his relatives, he must be like “so here’s a picture of the theme park, oh and here’s one of some white people”. Anyway, the show is actually really good and the actors on the horses are awesome. Afterwards we take a wander around and get lost looking for the miniature version of the Great Wall of China. Surely it’s the biggest tourist attraction in the whole of China so it shouldn’t be difficult to spot? Why do theme parks never have an easy to follow lay out? And why do signs point you in the direction of something only for all the signs to then disappear 2 minutes later? We eventually manage to find it, and it’s cool to see, but slightly underwhelming at first. I thought it would be a much larger, mini version (if that makes sense!) when in fact it’s only about 3 foot high – I had images of us being able to walk along it for some reason. It’s still really impressive at how they’ve constructed it with so much detail. We meander through the rest of the park and its after 4pm by the time we leave.

On the way back we decide to stop of at a metro stop in the city centre so we can explore a bit more and get something to eat as we are now perished after only having our mcmuffin earlier. The metro station is huge and there are about 6 different exits, so we end up wandering back and forth through the station trying to figure out where the shopping centre is. In the end we take a guess and end up in an underground pathway filled with tea shops and little food places on each side. We decide to have something to eat while we’re here so saunter over to a stand which smells delicious inside. We ask the guy if he speaks English (he doesn’t) and if he has an English menu (he doesn’t). Once again we try some pointing and hand signals only to be met with nervous laughter. He tries to rope in a nearby customer to help with the translation but she’s about as much use as a plastic bag with a big hole in the bottom. We don’t want to admit defeat and walk away so literally point to something on the menu and hope for the best. It works out fine as he brings us over a delicious fried pancake type bread filled with chives, mayonnaise and egg (I soooo need to go to the gym when we get back to Shunde!). I am addicted to pearl milk tea, so order myself one to wash it all down and then I’m a happy chappy go lappy again.

We have a quick wander round the mall but decide it’s not as good as the one we have at home, so catch the metro back to the hotel. Having spent so much on tickets for the park and the metro, we decide to have something cheap for dinner, and once again find ourselves in a small little canteen along the road. No English menus again (this really surprises me as I thought Shenzhen was more Westernised, especially being so near to HK), but at least this time we have pictures, so I order what I assume is pork with rice and lots of chillies, and Greg orders another similar looking dish. For once in our lives the dish actually arrives looking like the picture. I think its pork, even though the texture is really soft, but the main thing is it tastes good so we try not to think too much about it and wolf it down with our chopsticks. Not bad for 1.50 each! We buy a few tsing taos from Walmart and then sit amongst the hustle and bustle and drink them whilst listening to a homeless, amputee singing band (they were actually quite good) and doing a bit of people spotting, one of our favourite past times.

Day 3

Another action packed day ahead of us today as we decide to take a visit to Shenzhen zoo. It was a toss up between there or the beach, but the weather has been a bit unpredictable the last 2 days and Greg also really wants to go see the tigers so decision made. This time we know we need to get a bus there as it’s quite far outside the city and there’s no nearby metro, so it could be another Crystal maze challenge. We make our way towards the bus station and end up in the middle of complete chaos with people here, there and everywhere. It’s national day and every tom, dick and harry (or should that be Wang, Ting and Lee) have decided to go on their holidays, so it’s a nightmare to try and navigate our way around. To make matters worse, the bus station is HUGE and across 2 levels. We can’t even find a place to buy tickets so we start getting a bit flustered, and then slightly mad, until we’ve nearly reached boiling point as we walk back and forth about 5 times. I can tell we’re close to having the mother of all arguments and are just about to sack it off when out of the blue we walk by a bus stance that happens to be signposted in clear English ‘zoo’. Someone up there must like us (or just couldn’t be bothered with the nuclear fall out from a Nikki/Greg argument). We queue up as the buss arrives, but only problem is we still don’t have tickets. I try and ask a young girl next to me where we can buy them and she smiles and giggles then replies in Chinese. I don’t know why I still insist on these measures and why don’t I buy a chinese translation dictionary instead? Anyway, we get on and no one else seems to be showing tickets, so we hope for the best, and if all fails, then we’ll just play the dumb tourist. As it turns out, you simply buy the ticket on the bus so problem solved! It’s only 60p each, which seems a total bargain considering a taxi would have cost about 20 quid.

After about 45 minutes (just as we’re settling in) the bus stops and the bus driver starts yelling something and everyone starts to get off the bus. We begin to panic as we are in the middle of a little dusty town with no zoo in sight, and we have no idea how to ask directions. Fortunately though, he’s indicating for us to swap buses onto the bus behind, so panic averted. After another 30 minutes we finally reach the zoo and breath a sigh of relief that we made it to yet another place without a single bit of English- either we’re insanely lucky or just simply insane.

The sun has finally came out and all of a sudden it is really hot as we start walking around the park. I suggest we head straight for the tiger enclosure, as we’d be gutted if we missed it. Turns out we arrive just in time to see the tigers being fed, and get some good footage of tigers jumping right in front of us to snatch pieces of meat. The only downside is it’s so crowded as everyone tries to get a front row seat, and I’m soon being elbowed by a little old chinese women who’s about 100. After the show, we walk up to the main tiger enclosure and see that we can do a trip in a ‘cage on wheels’ through the tiger enclosure for a fiver each. It’s too good to refuse, so health and safety aside, we sign up immediately and wait our turn to get up close and personal with the little furry creatures. Soon enough we’re being transported through the enclosure and the tour guide passes out to everyone big kebab skewers with raw chicken speared onto the end. I can’t believe what happens next as our caged van is suddenly surrounded on all sides by about 10 tigers who are jumping up onto the cage (which is only about 20cm from where we are sitting). There’s no double safety cage feature here- the tour guide simply advises us ‘not to touch’, which I think is quite a reasonable ask! We dangle our skewers of meat out the side of the cage and tigers seem to jump out of nowhere right in front of us to grab the meat which you can feel being ripped from the end. Their face (and more importantly teeth) is literally a few inches away from us and Greg even gets sprayed with big cat drool at one point. Wonder if our travel insurance would cover us for this… Before we know it we are on the move again and transported back out of the enclosure. I think that is probably one of the most insane things we have ever done, and certainly worth a fiver. Can you imagine that back home?

We spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the rest of the enclosures which are interesting, albeit sometimes rather small but we had expected as much. The biggest disappointment is the pandas. There’s only two and they are inside a smallish dim glass cage, and don’t seem too happy.

Sightseeing done we head back out towards the buses which could be interesting, as we have no idea where to get it from, or where we are going to. We keep an eye out for the same bus we got on to get here, and sure enough one comes along sooner rather than later and we get on. Buying a ticket is fun once again but manage to show the ticket conductor where we are going by pointing to our subway map which seems sufficient, and we arrive back without a hitch.

We are really hot and sweaty after our day at the zoo so decide we should once again try out the swimming pool at the hotel, swimming cap or no swimming cap, as it would be a shame not to use it while we’re here. We take money with us just in case (we grudgingly agree we will buy a cap if we need to) but we also take our free shower caps with us too in the hope they will suffice as a ‘swimming cap’. We get changed and realise the temperature has dipped rather drastically now that the sun has gone down, but persevere anyway. We don our shower caps looking like a pair of absolute numpties and dive in to what is possibly the most freezing pool ever. We’ve only been in for about 2 minutes when the woman from reception calls us over and explains we will need to buy proper swimming caps if we want to swim. We tell her we didn’t realise (oh there’s that dumb tourist routine again) and get out to head back for a hot shower instead. Well, it was worth it.

After our nice shower, we get ready and then head out for some more city exploration. On the lift on the way down, we get talking to an American man who clocks we are Scottish (he thinks I have red hair for some reason). Greg asks him if he lives here or is just visiting, and he explains he is actually here looking for a chinese wife. He’s been setting up ‘meetings’ and going out for dinner to see if he is compatible with various women. Each to their own I suppose.

We take a walk around for a while before realising that we are really hungry, so we head to another restaurant to play our favourite guessing game. We choose dim sim as a definite as we pretty much know what we’re getting, and then a noodle dish which looks like it has slices of beef on top. The chinese food symbol on the menu looks like the symbol for beef so I’m quietly confident. When it arrives we’re happy as the dim sum is delicious and the other dish turns out to be beef with noodles in a beef broth. Satisfied once more, we head off into the night, past our little monkey man friend and back to the hotel for a few more beers.

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