Google helped me discover i was in car 15 seat 5, which was awesome because i was at the back of the train with a window seat! So I awoke @ 5am on October 3rd, and with my planning book and backpack in tow i set out to make it to Shijiazhuang North rail station. There was nobody on the street which was awesome because it took me far less time to hail a cab than i had planned (yes i even timed this out). So, I arrived at the train station an hour early....which turns out is way to early for china.
there were only about 30 people present in the waiting room for three high speed trains all leaving within 2 hours. About 30 minutes beforehand the crew went through the doors (which were chained shut), and with 15 minutes until departure they opened the doors for us to board. The train was super long, and was much more spacious than an airplane.
It was remarkable how quickly the topography of the land changed from flat cityscape to mountains. It was really beautiful!
It also felt like it took forever for us to get up to speed. So an hour later i arrived at the main rail station in Taiyuan. When i saw the shiz north, i was like "why was i worried this place is so easy to figure out", well the taiyuan rail station was about 3 times the size of shiz north and with 10x more people. Basically i just followed the horde and hoped for the best. I had planned to buy my return ticket before leaving the station for my first temple visit but bypassed this when after 15 minutes of searching i had no idea of where the ticket windows would be, and no desire to bother asking, i would just figure it out later. So i arrived in Taiyuan at about 9:20am.
I had my notebook of what i needed to do. I was to walk across the street to the third bus stop and take bus 848 a little over 2 hours south-west of Taiyuan to Jince park and temple. So begins the trouble, there is no bus 848. There was a man flagging the buses where to pull up for people to board. so after some flailing of arms i just yelled "zai nar ba si ba?", thank god he understood. he asked "Jinci" and i nodded, and with the help of two other Chinese people i was able to determine i was to get on bus 804...so i just went with it. I literally fought my way onto the bus. Reagan high school finally came in handy, the only thing i ever learned there was how to viciously navigate a crowd. I got pushed back to the exit doors and we took off, with them open. So i stared at the ground going past me at 40 miles an hour for about 20 minutes until someone in the back was able to yell loud enough for the driver to hear them. China.
An hour and a half later i start to realize we have really left the city and are now in rural china...and how the hell am i supposed to know what stop to get off at!!! Well luckily a family behind me asked someone the same question, eventually they determined it was only 4 more stops. The father noticed i was staring intently nd then yelled in english "FOUR MORE STOPS". you know, because yelling always helps people understand lol. So the bus unloaded near the park:
So interesting entrance to say the least, but the inside was AWESOME (minus the hords of chinese tourists)
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| I forgot to reset my camera phone settings so everything is way over saturated and exposed :P |
So after 3 hours and 30kuai to much for a bowl of noodles i was on my way back into town. I got back on the same number i had taken to the temple and could see from the map above the exit door it was headed back to the railway station which was perfect for me. I plopped down in a seat...and fell asleep. Unfortunately i went nearly two stops past the one i had planned to get off at. So i wondered out into Taiyuan. My hotel online looked like it was on a super busy street so i headed near where the rest of the crowd was headed. After stopping in a large hotel i had directions to the street my hotel was supposed to be on, i found the street and spend a good 2 hours walking up and down it asking people in they new were number 38 was...of course no one did. I hopped in a taxi and he didn't know either, i showed him the hotel chain's logo and he called someone on the phone and we took off. Once again, i ended up at the wrong hotel. Luckily another bellhop was friendly enough to help me hail a cab and tell the driver where to go, which took almost 45 minutes due to all the traffic. National day holiday travel is crazy! Turns out i had walked past the hotel a few times but because it was in a multi-business building i did not immediately recognize it. The hotel was super nice, and the Chinese bed was even cushy! I knew they existed...
After a few hours of rest in the hotel i ventured out for dinner but got lost again and just ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was conveniently located catty corner from my room.
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| this was dumplings and fried rice. needless to say the shitty bowl of noodles didnt quite cut it for lunch. i was starving. |
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