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Published: October 18th 2009
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KaiFeng, Henan China
KaiFeng is a small yet old city in the eastern Henan Province in China. It’s only about an hour and a half from Xuzhou on the fast train. In May, we, along with another friend of ours, decided to take a trip there.
Honestly, the only reason we went there was because our friend, Jane, was taking care of the tickets and had done all the research already. So with Jane as our tour guide, we took off hoping for the best, but expecting nothing special.
We got to Kaifeng during the day and immediately realized that this town is not accustomed to foreigners. It took a little while, but we came upon our destination. When we went to check in, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel was only 60 RMB per night! That works out to about $8/night. Giddy with Jane’s extraordinary savings skills, we went to our room only to find that it was EXACTLY what a 60 RMB hotel room would look like. The walls were painted with squashed mosquitoes. The bed lamps were broken and falling off. The room had a half full bucket of water in the
middle of the room and it smelled of mold. The bathrooms were shared but since we were the only ones on the floor, we’d have them to ourselves. The only problem was that hot water was only available for 2 hours a day and we had missed the window. So in our awful room we sat dirty and stinky. But it couldn’t dampen our spirits. We were just glad to have saved a lot of money and eager to explore the city.
The next day went a lot better than our first night. The city as it turns out, has a great history. It was one of the 7 great ancient capitals of China. Along with the history, it offers some sweet sights. One of the first ones we saw was “The Iron Pagoda”. It’s a masterpiece of the Song Dynasty. With 13 stories, it is the longest pagoda in China. We paid the 10 kwai to climb to the top and out of the three of us; I was the only one who made it. Not only is the stairway space extremely narrow, but the steps are uneven. It was incredibly humid and dark.
It took me about
30 minutes to get to the top. We had to stop after each flight to make sure no one was coming down because it was too narrow for two people to cross. About 10 minutes into the climb, my entire shirt was full of sweat due to the heat and humidity. When I got to the top, I almost cried at the sigh. The top of the pagoda was a bigger disappointment than Mike Tyson’s career. It didn’t end with a scenic view, only a wall at the end indicating the conclusion of my hell-voyage. I had to stare at the wall and turn around and hope to make it back to the ground before I pass out from dehydration.
Once on the ground, we were all way too tired to move so like the good westerners, we bought some coke and sat on the grass for a good half an hour. My wife bought us some chicken flavored chips (that’s all they had) and we became instant entertainment for the locals who don’t get to see foreigners. One family sat down close to us and a grandmother even brought her baby over to play with us.
As painful
as the Iron Pagoda climb was, the surrounding park and lake were just as beautiful. We stayed there for a few hours enjoying the views and being the general entertainment to the dozens of people who hadn’t experienced foreigners before.
The next day, we decided to go to the “Po Pagoda”. Though not nearly as gigantic as its brethren, it is important none the less. Where the Iron Pagoda is long and constricted, this is more wide and spacious. It is decorated with thousands of Buddha carvings both on inside and out. It’s interesting to note that almost all of them have had their faces vandalized during the Cultural Revolution.
The city wall was another adventure we had. As it turns out, the current city wall was built on top of an “ancient city wall” that was destroyed by floods. The “Night Market” was possibly my favorite place in all of Kaifeng. It offers endless shopping and eating. Anything from Nans to live crabs can be found here. The prices are cheap and the people are very friendly. It was an amazing experience and I would recommend the city if only for the night market.
The city
of Kaifeng itself is an incredible place to visit. Please, don’t spend more than a weekend there, but you should definitely visit it at least once. It has history and charm unlike many of the touristy places around the east coast of China. The best thing about Kaifeng is that it has no foreigners. If you live in China, or want to see the real China, you will really appreciate this fact.
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