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Published: October 12th 2006
China officially went on holidays from Thursday 28th September till October 7th, 2006.
*Beijing to Chengde (Home of Temples)
I decided to go to Chengde with a student of mine, Allen. I bright energetic and bubbly kid - full of confidence - who spoke english quite ok. So, we made our merry way to Chengde - 4 hours NW of Beijing.
Chengde has minimal if not any tourists - Thankfully I saw none - cause there are thousands in Beijing. For some reason I have a fear of tourists since I got here. Where ever they seem to be - prices for everything is HIGH. but where I live, is completely cheap... like i'd mentioned the beers in my town are about 2 yuan (.35cents) but in the tourist spots your paying between 15 - 30 yuan (between $3 - $6).
Chengde is known for its high array of temples which were used durng the Qing Dynasty. One particular Temple, the biggest buddah was there called "the godess of mercy with numerous hands and eyes". I have never seen anything like it. We couldn't take pictures of it, but about 5 stories high, in a massive temple. I also had the privilage to have a picture taken with a Monk.. although he got offended when I offered him money afterwards, silly me!
We then took taxis around to see the sights of the city. There were many chinese restaurants and temples. Nothing surprising so we left to go to Tangshan the next day.
* BUS RIDE TO TANGSHAN -on a JAM PACKED BUS
It all started with seeing a girl get hit by a van and dying (18 years old). It was quite traumatic, especially seeing the ambulance some and slice her top open. Case closed. That was only the begining of my trip.
We hopped on this bus to Tangshan after waiting 6 hours at the bus station in Chengde and without no knowledge of Chinese Language (not fully anyway) I have never felt soo helpless in my entire life until this bus ride. 2 hours into the trip, a cop car pulled a packed out bus over. Sirens and loud speaker on the police car. I was like, god, here we go, someones got drugs or something... who knows, im in China and i'm gonna be on the news!
So, beacause I was with my student - I thought, i'd ask to see whats wrong...
he said "oh its cause they got more people on the bus than they are licenced to carry"...
I said... "great, had to happen to this bus didnt it"... so i kept on eating my sunflower seeds thinking hope the bus deals with this within a few minutes, cause I started getting uncomfortable.
(1 hour later) I got really impatient - cause during our wait - no explanation to anyone , and during the wait. The conducter got taken by cops, the driver didnt say a word... and NO ONE WANTED to say anything. I WAS FUMING! My student saw the side of me no one would want to see. He said..."they are saying maybe 30 mins more maybe 1 hour". In the meantime, my other student wanted to pick us up from the bus station.. so the guy was going to wait. No mobile phone connection.... and NO where to go. We were in the mountain. 3 hours away from Beijing City.
This lady was laughing at me... you know the "he he he" laugh .. like i'm an idiot... so i said... "tell the lady to tell me where this bus bitch is cause I am not happy as we have people waiting for us to pick me up from the station". No answer apart from, we have to wait.
Then this lady came one of the attendants after 2 hours and 10 cigarrettes later.... I've never been stressed since I got here. But I was helpless, especially when your stuck in the mountain and nothing to say or do. I slept the rest of the 4 hours from the anger.... then, finally, we got to Tangshan, the home of the biggest earthquake in the world.
*Tangshan
We got to the Bus Station and Jasson (in the photo gallery) was waiting for me in the bus shelter... Such a great guy, he took us to a hotel and checked me in.. Really nice place. First, We had some dinner (at like 10:30pm). Jasson said, he will come back to the hotel in the morning and guide him me Tangshan cause there were things that I would like to see, like the museum and the earthquake sites (attached in gallery). Truely a difference from my other student who had very little knowledge of translations.
Jasson came - as stated on time. He first took me to the Earthquake site... this one part of the university which was knocked out was mindblowing. They have left this only site out of the whole city for view to others that want to see what happend during the time. its a protected site and really emotional. Especially when Jasson explained that his family were part of it 30 years ago and his uncle was stuck under the rubble for 3 days. I was truely moved.
City tour and Museum, which I wont get into, but I really enjoyed spending time with Jasson. He helped me alot, and get me to understand the student miind in China and a more detailed description into chinese culture.
The educational part of the trip ended in Tangshan - and i knew friends I met in Beijing earlier into my expedition of China. I was ready to RUmble, cause i needed a good hard drink!
NIGHT OUT IN BEIJING
I arrived in Beijing safe and sound, was a 2 hour trip which was amazing to be back cause I knew i was meeting up with mates i could go out for a drink with!
LB told me to meet him in the city to drop my bags and go around beijing streets and drink up... the go clubbing whereever our feet took us during the course of the day. We walked to Sanlitun (a great place for shopping and seeing some a variety of stores)... I tried to detour the tourists, but they seem to be in a vast majoirty of places in Beijing.
We went to Gulou for a good drink on a rooftop little bar, pretty cool... after that went back to have a meal at a nice Thai place called Pink Loft... great food, great ambiance, truely recommend all my friends there! I've been there before, and I love it.
After that we hit the town at the club down in town which is pretty nice and met LB's friends there.
I've made some really nice friends here... we go out with them clubbing and drinking up... i'll their pictures up as time goes on....
untill next time, this is ali, your fellow friend and correspondant... I miss you in australia..... hopefully if all goes well, i might see you soon.. speak to you soon xxx ali
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Jelena
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How funny!
Such the interesting read Ali! That is so funny about your bus delay! I know you were probably fuming but I think those are the best parts of travelling although not at the time. The are you F**ken serious I can't believe this and I am never going to get out of this bus without slapping this old Chinese woman and getting arrested! Sounds like a wonderful adventure! OH by the way so not funny about the poor girl who got hit. (RIP) What a day!