Shijiazuang and Zhengding
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2005
1
12
17
Trip End
Sep 09, 2005
Shijiazhunag and Zhengding, China
Saturday, August 27, 2005
The Lonely Planet has been wrong on numerous occasions, but my favourite error/emission, I found on arrival here. I arrived from Taiyuan (as indeed the book suggests as a good possibility) and could not find the nearby hotel (there being no street signs didn't help). Eventually I hopped in a taxi and soon discovered that there are infact two train stations in Shijiazhuang, something LP neglected to mention.
I got a little to close to the seedier side of the city - unintentionally, of course - last night. My room phone went off and a woman asked if I wanted what I thought sounded like a "message". Presuming this to be from family / friends, I said yes. She repeated the question. I repeated the answer. Then she hung up; only then did it dawn on me what she was offering. (I should have realised earlier, having been offered the same services only the night before: only that was at the door, rather than on the phone.) Fortunately, the woman never appeared. Apparently this is common in hotels throughout China.
M.
