Forget about it, it's China Town

Well Zhengzhou wasn't any warmer I can tell you that now. As for the train journey, well that was just joy in a cabin. Me, a middle aged man (who snored) and two mothers with their children; and by the way, the train trip wasn't 18 hours, it was 22.

Before the journey had started, as I walked to the train station from the internet cafe, I bumped in to an American. Not just an ordinary American, but one of those "Aren't I great teaching English in China" self righteous types (that I seem to meet a lot), who started chatting with me (he was alright actually, I just had to put up with a fat yank family this morning). He asked me if I wanted to go anywhere for food, I declined to go and went on to the train station. I now wished that I had gone to have dinner with him, I was bored, cold and in a room full of irate chinese people who wanted to get home for their holidays!! Children screaming, beggars scrounging, the chinese new year panic was starting to really get on my tits. Then a nice young couple came over to chat to me. The girl from Japan and the boy from S. Korea, they were practicing their english on me. They were very good, as were some chinese medical students who came over to practice their English. After being their Guinea pig for a while, the panic came to fever pitch when the gates were opened for the ticked check and boarding of the train. The transport person said something (which I obviously didn't understand), and all of a sudden people started moving in all directions. Using my new best friends, I asked what was going on, they told me to follow them. I did, and the panic was over, to get on the train.

The people in my cabin were a nightmare, as were the facilities on this train. The reading lights didn't work, there was no heating (for the top bunk), the children kept crying. These 2 mums, 2 children got on my nerves, didn't care about the fact that there was someone else in the cabin. Enough about that, it was shit. Looking out the window, the Chinese landscape in a spectacle. Cave dwellings in the hills with doors, windows etc. that are still in use. Huge valleys, frozen rivers, arid land. At this time of year, China is at its most dry, as the heat come in the next few weeks, the ice will be melted and the rivers replenished. But, there is problem of drought in some regions here as a result of this. There were also lots of shanty towns, people outside their house made from bits of wood sitting around a fire. But eventually, I made it to Zhengzhou. Went to a hotel (the friendship hotel), got some food, went to sleep.

In Zhengzhou, the main thing to go and see is the Shaolin Monastery. So, that's exactly what I decided to do. I got up to late for the tour, so I made my own way there via buses and taxi's (probably still cheaper than the tour). It was f*cking freezing on Shaolin Si (the mountain on which the monastery is found), people coming up to you saying "you like fung fu" actioning a few moves to which I declined because they were harassing me. Off I went to see the temple first off. Just like any other temple i've seen really. So I walked further on, more temple kind of stuff. Where are these guys who are meant to be solid? I got to this place where I got offered to go up the mountain on a cable car. I thought, why not. From now on, I'm never getting in a cable car on my own again. It's ok when there are lots of other people using the thing, but when you are the only car, on China's longest cable car ride, it's a bit foreboding. Going at 4m/s 500 feet above a cragged rocked valley, freezing cold, it did offer some amazing views of the valley. Once I got down from there, time to go to the Shaolin Monk show. Dudes were there breaking metal bars over their heads, all kinds of stuff. What I really wanted to know was why, if they were so tough, weren't they out all over the place showing off like they do in the summer. Conclusion: bunch of puffs, no wonder China are rubbish at rugby!! After that, dodgy bus back to ZhangZhou, which dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. Taxi, hotel, sleep.

Got up, needed to get a train ticket to get to Xi'an. Got up early to get an early train. I didn't get an early train, I got a late train. 9:45pm it was leaving, I had 10 hours to kill. I walked all around the city, looked in shops, got back to the train station at 3:30 pm. Went to the waiting lounge (soft seated, not for the scum), had a mug of tea, adjusted my itinerary and had a sleep. I got woken by a woman from the train company, who showed me to my train and cabin. Splendid. While I was walking around Zhangzhou, there were some odd things that I saw. The highlight of which was an old man, trousers half way down, pants a quarter of the way down openly scratching himself. Nice. In the cabin (excellent cabin) of the train this time were 3 other men. They were fine and we all got to sleep fine (someone's feet stank though).

Got to Xi'an at 7:30 am, got met by someone from a hotel at the train station. Went along with them, room was clean and tidy. We had a chat, and he sorted out a tour for me for the next day and my flight to Chengdu the following day. Marvelous. All going to plan. I had a little sleep then went for a walk around the city. It still had its original city walls, and lots of old buildings. But there is only one reason to come to this place, and that was to go and see the terracotta warriors. That had to wait for tomorrow.

The tour began at 9am. We went to some tombs, another jade shop (a better one though), a strange tour of the 7 wonders of the world, lunch, a museum or 2 then on to the terracotta warriors. It was a great sight, it has to be said. Pictures don't really show how much of a find this thing was. I bought a book, took photo's, and was thoroughly impressed. The tour left, and I actually got dropped off at my hotel. Had an early night as I was flying the next day.

The dude who organized all this for me, also organized a car to take me to the airport for a 1/3 of the taxi fee. Great. Got to the airport in plenty of time. Plane got delayed 20 minutes. Plane arrived early to make up time. Great. Got a bus to my hotel. Sorted, last bed in the place. I did some Laundry, found my mobile had stopped working, and organized a couple of activities for the following day. These were a visit to the Giant Panda Research Base and a Sichuan chinese cookery lesson. Brilliant, food, then bed.

Got up at 7am (earliest I've got up this trip) and got ready for the Panda Base. It was awesome, seeing real life Giant Panda's feeding on Bamboo, climbing, shitting. Pity they didn't attack a family of loud Americans who were along for the ride. We also visited some Red Panda's, which looked like Raccoons. They were quite cool. Nice color, may make a good coat, or bag, may taste nice as well. Oh yeah, there's this restaurant in Beijing where you can get food the emperor used to eat, like turtle and stuff. Anyway, it was great.

At 1:30 I went to my cookery lesson. I got shown how to cook 5 different Sichuan regional dishes. They were:
- Sweet and Sour Pork Loin
- Gongbao Chicken
- Crisp rice with vegetable sauce
- Fish Flavored eggplant
- 3 shredded vegetable mix salad.

I ate the first two, and had some of the salad. I tell you what, they like the chilli, garlic and ginger in their food here. In Sichuan lots of the food is flash fried, and with lots of chilli and garlic. I still can't get the smell of my hands, it was delicious though. They gave me the recipe's to all the dishes, and I left. One thing that stuck out, was that all the chopping was done just using a (meat) cleaver. I wasn't particularly used to this (I have never used a cleaver before) and the chef was sniggering a little bit at my unfinely fine chopped garlic, vegetables etc..

All of today's activities only cost me about 10 quid, great. Going to go and see the great Buddha in LeShan tomorrow, another early morning start. Should be impressive though, then it's on to somewhere else.

Later.

P.S. It's not only freezing now, it's raining too. Come on Singapore!!