I'm a little sad to be leaving Kaifeng behind. We had a really lovely time in the city being the only Western-looking foreigners walking around. It really started with the adventure of actually taking the train from Xi'An to Kaifeng. While I was at the Warriors on the 28th, NW had called me up to inform me that all of the 40 RMB train tickets to Kaifeng had been sold out and that all that were left were the 70 RMB ones which she had bought. I guess we sort of assumed that with the price jump we might have gotten a nicer train.
Ah. Right. Let me explain that first I guess. In China, there are different classes of trains and different classes within the different trains. The nicest ones are the Z or G trains (G stands for Gaotie) and are usually the bullet trains that will go at around 300-400 km/hr. Because Z or G or C trains usually shorten distances and run shorter distances anyways, they don't usually have sleeper cabins but instead just have first and second class. As a point of reference, second class on a G train is probably nicer than economy class on most commercial airplanes. The next best train is the D trains. They're usually super nice but run longer distances and are somewhat slower than the bullet trains. You'll usually see them doing the Xi'An-Beijing, Beijing-Xi'An, Beijing-Shanghai, or Shanghai-Beijing routes. I think there's also a D train that does Beijing-Hong Kong but I might be wrong. Anyways, D trains will have sleeper berths as well as seating. Some D trains have 3 classes of sleeper cabins (2-berth cabin soft sleeper, 4-berth cabin soft sleeper, and then the 6-berth hard-sleeper). Then there's the T trains that also run from Xi'An-Beijing and they'll only have two kinds of sleepers (soft sleeper and hard sleeper) and unlettered trains.
So back to the story....
So we both sort of figured that since we paid more for the tickets we might get a nicer train, but our tickets were marked just with a number for the train. We still kind of hoped it would be okay. We had heard from NW's friend Alina that there was a new Gaotie (bullet train) running from Xi'An to Luoyang and we were hoping that maybe, maybe, we'd bought those tickets.
No such luck.
We boarded the modest-looking train only to be met by about 100 Chinese people staring at us as we dragged our super-heavy luggage through the 2nd-class compartment. Some guys were nice enough to help us get it up on the rack. We sat down in our modest seating and tried to ignore all the stares. About an hour into the ride, we began to chat with the people sitting across from us and the guy sitting next to us. They were really surprised that we could speak Chinese. They were really impressed with NW in particular because of her fluency (by that point, I could understand 95% of a conversation but couldn't really answer back). It turns out that one of the guys across from us was going as far as Zhengzhou (the capital of Henan Province) and the other 3 people were all going all the way down to Hangzhou! Pretty ballsy....in a way. Haha. They proudly informed us that the Xi'An-Hangzhou route was 24 hours long. NW and are were impressed by the fact that they planned to stick it out entirely on the hard seats (2nd class seating). We talked about a ton of other stuff too, mostly Chinese History and comparing China with America (they tried to bait us into taking a side while NW and I diplomatically insisted that both countries have their good things and their bad things). At some point, NW got asked how old she was. Just to clarify, in China, this conversation usually goes this way:
Chinese Person: So how old are you?
Foreign Woman: 22.
Chinese Person: Ah! Very good! So do you have a boyfriend?
Foreign Woman: Yes.
Chinese Person: Ah! Very good! Western or Chinese?
Foreign Woman: Western.
Chinese Person: Oh, you don't like Chinese men?
Foreign Woman: No. No. It isn't that. I just met him back home.
Chinese Person: Would you ever consider marrying a Chinese man?
Foreign Woman: I mean, I have nothing against it -
Chinese Person: Ah! Perfect! You should come over for dinner at my house sometime! My son/nephew/cousin/whatever is 23 and very good-looking. You two would be a good match!
*facepalm*
NW, being used to it, laughed it off. Said she had a lovely boyfriend back home that was Asian if that was any comfort to them. The rest of the group laughed it off too.
As we approached Kaifeng, we befriended a girl sitting nearby. She and her friend insisted on giving us a ride to our hotel once we arrived. They said they didn't want us to get ripped-off. We decided to trust them. They did, in fact, drop us off at the door of our hotel which when we arrived felt immense remorse for because the hotel was clearly a very very very nice 5-star luxury hotel (we'd lucked out on Expedia on a great deal) and we felt a bit like ridiculous foreigners. We kept apologizing for the hotel, insisting that we didn't know it would be this nice. They were nice and gracious about it though. They gave us their cell numbers and insisted that we call them up if we got lost or needed guides for the city. We waived them off and then checked in to the hotel.
Can I gush for a bit about how nice of a hotel it was? Because it was ridiculously nice.
The room was probably as big as the average American kitchen and living room put together and we had bathroom with separate rooms for the shower and a tub. Our view was spectacular too! We had a view of a man-made lake and a bunch of Tings. We fell asleep on the very comfy beds almost immediately. Here's our view:
The next day we woke up bright and early, marched ourselves down to the dining hall for a very good breakfast buffet and headed out. NW went to visit the Kaifeng City Museum as I decided to spend my morning visiting a Daoist temple and the nearby Buddhist temple. The Daoist Temple refused me entrance so I just decided to go to up to the Buddhist temple and spend the morning there.
Best. Decision. Ever.
I basically just spent the morning admiring their temples and pagodas and sitting around the Pool of Infinite Freedom just meditating. It was just such a peaceful place...the wind blew through the carved bamboo behind me as the goldfish swam around the pool in front. The city, the stress of daily life seemed far away. Despite being in the middle of a bustling city, the temple was peacefully quiet. I bought a prayer ribbon for myself and tied it on to one of the railings near the pool.
I recited a quiet prayer for Japan - for the wellbeing of all of its people and for the protection of my new friends there.
I sat near the pool for a long time - probably about an hour or so - before deciding that I should walk around some more. Some of the Buddhist monks had been already alerted to my presence. I'd smiled and bowed slightly in respect as they passed me by meditating by the pool. I didn't speak to any of them until right before I entered the room where they kept their Buddha of a Thousand Arms and a Thousand Eyes (which is quite spectacular in its own right) where I ran into a pair of younger monks who were intrigued by my presence. They asked me where I was from, how old I was, and if I was alone. Actually, they asked me if I was Xinjiang (people from the westmost part of China which most Chinese people are not that fond of - and interestingly enough, they'll probably ask you if you're Xinjiang if you're a foreigner and can speak Chinese because all a lot of the Chinese population knows about Xinjiang people is that they're not supposed to look quite like most ethnically Han Chinese and are supposed to be able to speak Mandarin) and I corrected them by saying I was a westerner from the USA and South America. They were really intrigued about what I was doing at a Buddhist temple so far inland on my own and how I had learned such great Chinese. I told them that I had a great admiration and respect for Buddhism and Buddhist traditions and had heard that their temple was especially beautiful. I said I had learned Chinese at Qingdao University. They seemed very pleased with this answer and allowed me to pass. By the time I'd reached the gift shop after looking at all the pavillions in the temple, Buddhist Monks were approaching me everywhere I went. Word had spread quite fast that there was a nice foreigner roaming the grounds and they all wanted to talk to me. This is how my back-up plan was born and how one of the more interesting interactions of my life came to be.
Basically what happened was I got the "how old are you?" conversation from a couple of monks. But instead of it being their son/nephew/whatever they offered to set me up with a very nice young, 23-year-old Buddhist man.
I laughed at that. I told them that even though I appreciated the offer, I was only passing through China and would be going back to America within a week's time.
Their answer to that?
"Oh that's not a problem! Just take him with you!"
Which caused all of us to burst out laughing at the prospect of it. I joked about stuffing him into my luggage and how proud my parents would be of me bringing home a nice Buddhist husband. Haha.
They said that they were joking of course, but still said "Well, if you ever want a Chinese boyfriend, you should come back and we'll be happy to arrange it!"
I said that I would keep that offer in mind for the future as I exited the store, resolving to get some more meditation time near the Pool of Infinite Freedom.
And so now I figure, if all else fails...there's always the possibility of finding a nice Buddhist husband in Kaifeng. Hahaha.
As I was on my second round of meditation by the pool, NW called me up and told me she had left the museum and that we should go find some lunch somewhere. I said goodbye to a monk hanging around the pool and then left the complex.
I met NW outside of the temple and we ducked into a restaurant some 20 minutes afterwards. After a pleasant lunch, we continued on to Longqing Park which is essentially the old Imperial Palace in Kaifeng. It is really really pretty, but less than spectacular when compared to the Forbidden City in Beijing.
This is also where NW had her embarrassing moment with a deaf girl which you can read about here. We didn't do much except walk about for a bit and enjoy the scenery.
Here are a few pix of Longqing Park:
After the park, we went to see the famous Iron Pagoda (鐵塔 - Tiětǎ) at Youguo Temple (a different Buddhist temple than the one I went to). I must say, that was pretty spectacular. The pagoda itself isn't made of iron but bricks that have been painted with a special glaze that makes it look like iron. The incredible thing about this pagoda (besides it being very very beautiful and very very cool) is that it has been around for almost 1000 years and has survived 38 earthquakes, 6 floods, and a quite a fair share of wars and invasions. Pretty neat, huh?
NW decided that she was going to climb up through the insides. I decided against it mostly because my ankle hated me by this point in the day and wouldn't take kindly to me making it climb the pagoda. I hung out around the gardens until she came down to inform me there wasn't much at the top besides a small Buddha and some candles anyways.
We left Longqing Park on the plan of looking for dinner. We decided that we would have dinner by just picking up random stuff off vendor carts at the night market but would precede this outing by ducking into the nearest Halal place and splitting a portion of Xiaolongbao (the soupy dumplings) since it wasn't quite night yet.
After an hour of eating soupy dumplings and a side of beer/tea we ventured out to the night market. THE FOOD WAS SO GOOD. OMG.
We ate some crepe-like thing that I forget what it was called, and NW also ate a bing (flatbread) with pork in it. It looked really good....we also bought some Huasheng bing (peanut cakes) that are a specialty in Kaifeng. We also got so see how they were made. Which basically consisted of two very strong Chinese guys pounding on this hot mixture of peanuts and sugar until it became sort of a phyllo-dough type thing.
SO GOOD.
After we had eaten our fill of night market snacks, we hailed a cab back to the hotel where NW promptly proceeded to go soak in the tub while I sent out emails on my computer. The day was finished off by watching Revolutionary Road on HBO and then passing out for the night. :D
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