Arrive in Zhengzhou finally

Trip Start Oct 01, 2007
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Trip End Dec 20, 2007


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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The hard sleeper we ventured on for our journey from Xian to Zhengzhou was one of the worst nights on this adventure so far!  Six bunks per partition on a carriage - no curtain to divide the sleeping area from the bustling corridor.  The toilet is officially the worst either of us had ever seen.  Its just a hole in the floor (you can see the tracks below!) and not a single person could aim properly due to the continual breaking by the train driver.  The stench was atrocious! The noise combined with the idiots on the top bunks who constantly dropped their dinner on our heads meant neither of us got any sleep.

We arrived in Zhengzhou at around 6:30am but had to wait till 10am before we could rendezvous with our contact due to the lack of buses at that time in the morning.  This area was a bit of a shock as we were the only foreigners at the entire train station.  Hardly anyone spoke English and those that did just new the usual "hello, buy cigarettes?".  The Internet cafe by the side of the train station helped bide our time.

We managed to get our train tickets for Shanghai - with the use of sign language, pointing and Bob writing in Chinese what we wanted.  Once the tickets were obtained we caught the number 1 bus to the bus station just past the first petrol station we saw.  We then got on the blue bus that took us all to the University where we were staying.

After sampling food at the local canteen and a quick nap, we went to the 'English Corner'.  This is a little cafe area where everyone who enters has to speak in English.  Its where the students get to practice outside of the class room with teachers and guests. We were instantly mobbed by half a dozen students all interested in whether or not we liked Chinese food and could use chopsticks.  Must have been the topic of the day.  Those that had a more advanced vocabulary inquired about of journey and what life was like in England - seems our country has a reputation of continually raining and that news even reached the remote parts of China! 

After what seemed hours of interrogation on English weather, we were rescued by some of the teachers and whisked away off campus (where the students couldn't go) to a pleasant cafe.  Here we sampled some of local cuisine and copious amounts of beer whilst sat on seats suspended from the sealing.  Not sure if it was the beer or the swinging that made it almost impossible to use chopsticks.
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