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Published: August 16th 2019
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Last night Leslie and I went for a stroll along one of the arms of the big junction next to the hotel. There were some big government offices but nothing of too much interest. Then we spotted the Sheraton on the other side of the 12 lane road. Normally they have a pleasant bar, sometimes a spectacular one, so we bunched up with some locals and crossed over. I used the wing mirror of a swanky car to put some lipstick on in an attempt to smarten up. We swanned in and showed them the word beer on my phone. They indicated a bar on the ground floor so I changed it for roof bar. Sheraton Club, they said. We pointed upwards enthusiastically and the guy came to the lift with us and used his pass to activate it. Once on the 26th floor it was like stepping into a smart lounge, practically deserted except for a couple of Chinese guys rat arsed with the table covered in bottles. Nobody came near us to take our order so I scouted about and decided it was a free bar with free food for the people who were staying on that floor. We
asked the waitress if we could have a beer and admitted we weren’t guests and she shushed us and brought 2 beers and 2 pottery mugs to drink out of. Result! We didn’t push our luck by asking for more.
Today was a travel day for both of us. Leslie came to the station with me although it was a bit early for him. First time on a train for both of us so we could suss it out together. It only took 15mins by taxi. I couldn’t get a picture of the outside of the station but it was huuuuuge! We first went through security where they checked our tickets and passports and we put everything through the scanners. Inside it is one big open space with all the boarding gates and seating next to them. You don’t go into a separate waiting area like in some stations. You find your train number and time on the board and then know which gate to go to. Our tickets had these printed on at the top right so we knew beforehand, but it was good to check that the same information was at the gate. The Shanghai trains all
go from gates 22-32, so I’d seen in a video. Mine was 24A. All the A gates are on one side and it tells you which coaches use that one, so mine was for coaches 1-8 as I was in first class, coach 2. It was fine, but nothing wildly exciting. Business class is more expensive and comfortable.
We went upstairs for a coffee and there was a lot of construction going on next door, with kind of blue dust over everything. See pic. The coffee was good but she asked for 50RMB and I had no idea how much that was. Then she said no, 40, so it was £2.50 each. I’d expected cheaper. A queue was starting to form so I joined it and we were let down onto the platform about 10mins before the train. There are markings which say where to wait for each coach and it was a bit of a bunfight getting on as the coach was full. I had the worst seat, an aisle and wall next to us instead of a window so I could see nothing at all. The window seats are A and F, like on a plane. We
53D26CE2-B971-4689-A600-6827C4010523.
Departure board in Zhengzhou East Train Station got free water and a little bag of snacks. One was a meaty, bendy square, nasty! There is enough luggage storage at the ends of the coach and overhead, and a good amount of foot space, a foot rest and a table in the arm of the chair. Loos also, no worse than on English trains.
If you need food you can buy it off a trolley or order it from one of the attendants wearing 1950s usherette uniforms, or you can go and buy a prison tray of food from the canteen. I had taken sandwiches from breakfast, I was sorted. The 5 hours went really quickly and it was exactly on time. There were 5 or 6 stops. All the announcements were in Chinese but you could read the display at the ends of the coach which gave the next destination and outside temperature, 38 degrees.
I wasn’t looking forward to the end of the journey and having to get a taxi. My itinerary said it would take 70mins to get to the hotel. For every day I have an individual sheet with all the addresses in English and Chinese, to show to the taxi driver.
It works really well. The taxi queue was easy to locate and was very long but shuffled along continuously so took about 15 minutes. There is an attendant at the front of the line who waves you towards the next taxi to stop. I showed the guy the address and he nodded, no problem, also when I said ‘fapiaou, qing’. I was dreading how much it would be but the meter ticked along and it was just under an hour along lots of elevated dual carriageways. The price was £15.40.
The hotel is another monolith, also the Wyndham, like the last one. Many receptionists and one guy with a bit of English. This time I remembered to ask for non-smoking and a high floor, disappointing to be only on the 10th of 32, but mustn’t grumble as the view of the bridge and river is very nice and the room and bathroom both palatial.
Only one night, no point in unpacking, so I thought I might go into the centre on the metro, but after faffing about getting the vpn to connect and walking up to the metro (a bit of a hike, very humid) I just couldn’t
face it so found a local cafe type place and had some dinner for £1.65. Fried rice with salad, watermelon and tea included. The menu was all in Chinese so I took a photo of one of their pictures in the window and showed it. Walked back on the opposite side to the hotel where there is a line of little restaurants full of locals, they looked fun, and then a shabby row of very poor housing, washing outside, people sitting on the street.
Early start humping all my bags to work tomorrow morning, then a change of hotel at 1pm by taxi and a different centre for the afternoon and the next day, then the most complicated part of my 3 weeks will be done.
I’m loving being here, it’s so much better than I expected.
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