Little Trouble in Big China

Hello,

Since I wrote last, not a great deal has happened. All I've had is a couple of wasted days which I shall tell you all about now.

The day after I last spoke to you, I went on a walk around Nanjing hoping to eventually end up going to the top of Zijin Shan mountain. After walking around Nanjing for several hours (about 8 or 9) I had visited a park that would probably be superb in the summer. But, as it was winter, there were no "flowers" as such to see. It was a sunny day however, so it was quite a pleasant excursion.

So, I tried to find where this f*cking cable car was that was going to take me up the mountain. My god, I could kill lonely planet, the book is f*cking useless. It's two years out of date, and as China is in a production and development boom, most of the road maps they have given are very much out of date. So I thought, in the morning before I go trekking to this mountain, it would be better for me to find this "foreign language bookshop" that they had on the map. Off I went. Did it have foreign language maps........no. Foreign language books.............no. It didn't have foreign anything. So all I had to go by was this map that was full of errors.

After 8 hours I decided to give it up as a bad job, I was hungry, my eyes were getting tired from the smog of the cars and decided to head home. Then I got lost for another couple of hours, but eventually got back. Relaxed, had some noodles and planned what I was going to do the next day.

I woke up in the morning and knew that I needed cash to get the train to Ji Nan. Of course, no bank in a 3 mile radius took visa. I thought about cashing travelers cheques, but i want to keep those for an emergency. So I thought, screw this, I'll go somewhere, a couple of hours away that would be cheap to get to. So I checked out and went to the bus station. If I was traveling with someone else, this probably wouldn't have been a problem. But here, there doesn't seem to be a queuing system. I was in this crowd of shouting Chinese people as they forced their way to the desk that was dispensing tickets. I was getting pulled all over the place. I thought, I'll walk over to the train station and everything will be different. Wrong, worse. No English anywhere, no information desk, just dirt from the new station they were building and beggars. After this I consulted my lonely planet. I should have listened to them, and booked tickets a day or so in advance.

After that, pissed off at myself for wasting time and energy, I went back in to Nanjing and booked in to the Nanjing hotel. These were marvelous, they could do enough to help me. It was a 4 star hotel and they gave me a discounted rate that came to about 20 quid for the night. It was 2 pounds more expensive than the budget accommodation I had been staying in. It was a lovely room. I asked them if they could sort out a plane ticket for me to go to Beijing tomorrow. They did, and it came in at about 40 pounds, 5 pounds more than a sleeper train and hell of a lot more secure.

So it was sorted. I went and got some noodles and mineral water from the shop and went to sleep.

In the morning, still needing cash, I went to the bank of China that accepted Visa. Got my cash, went back to the hotel, checked out and they put me on a minibus to the airport (40 minutes away) for 50p. Checked in at the airport. But of a bumpy ride in the plane, there was also a meal given on board. Some kind of meat, with nuts and rice. It was quite pleasant.

Bus then to this area in Beijing where a hostel was recommended, and that is where I am now. Just saw a strange insect go down a drain, looked like a cockroach or something, so I've taken all my stuff off the floor. Anyway. Things are looking up now that I'm in the capital city. I shall probably be here for the next 5 days or so, then journey south to get my plane out of Hong Kong in three weeks time.

One thing strikes me as weird here, people spit everywhere. The food manners is something to be desired as well. This guy sitting next to me on the plane was just hocking up and spitting on to the floor all the time, as were other men. I'm glad the women don't do it.

The smog seems to be getting to me a bit as well, as does the dust from all these new developments. It's strange, lots of the building here are like those in the ex-USSR but with an oriental flavor. Depressing all the same, just with slightly curved roofs.

Well I'm off to get some food, then it's on to the Forbidden City tomorrow, where the guide tape is narrated by Roger Moore apparently. Woo hoo.


P.S. As I am writing this, it's about minus 6 degrees outside. Sometimes I wish I picked somewhere warmer to go first. Damn fool.