Back in my Chinese Home
Trip Start
Aug 23, 2008
1
26
Trip End
Dec 12, 2008
Chengde, China
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Well my trip started very early on Saturday morning, Like 4 am early! yeah I had to get up that early so that I could be all ready to go and at the train station at 6am to get on my train. Well Chris being the sweet guy that he is even made sure that i got up so that i wouldn't miss my train. Well i got up and hit the first snag of my trip... getting out of the building. Well you see every night at 11 or 12 (depending on the night) people are locked out of the building. Sadly this means that we are locked into the building. Normally i don't really care but Saturday morning i did. I very sorryfully (is that a word) woke up the caretaker of the building and had her open the door. So then i was really on my trip! ^^
Well I got in a cab and told the cabbie where i wanted to go. He took me straight to the station. I arrived with time to spare on the departure of my train. But since it wasn't even six in the morning the entire station was more than a little dead. Well, once we were able to get on the train i did. Then i curled up on my chair and slept on and off for the 4.5 hours it took to get to Chengde by train.
Well I arrived at the station in Chengde without a hitch (once i got on the train i'm not sure what could have really gone wrong but oh well i was thrilled to be back in the city.) Then I had my cabbie call the hotel to get the Chinese name of where I was spending the night (i really need to figure out if there is a way to get Chinese addresses on Expidia.com because i keep booking with them forgetting that i'll need to call the hotel for the Chinese name.) Got to the hotel and checked in once again hitch less. At this point i was struck with total disbelief that i was really in the city. It has been over a year since i was last there and i was in my hotel looking at the same apartment that i had seen from my homestay's apartment a year ago. and you know what else? I GOT THERE ALL BY MYSELF!!!!
Well after i had calmed down enough to really believe i was there, i started to feel really hungry. So off i went to lunch! Well lunch and as it turned out dinner was at KFC (yeah i know bad american.) Well I got my food and tried to find a table to fit at quickly so that i could get to the real reason i had come the temples. Well there were no places to sit and eat so i was just standing nibbling on my fries when a Chinese invited me to come take their extra seat. Well i did and we just sat and talked in Chinese until i was done eating my lunch. Then i left KFC walked two blocks and ducked my head into the apartment part of the Agricultural Bank of China. My hope was to run into some of my old host family that i have lost contact with in the year it has been since i was there. No such luck. Oh well i jumped on the bus and went down to see the temples that I had come to see.
I started the temples at Puning Temple. I started here because it was the furthest temple that wanted to go to. It was also in the right directions to see the rest of the temples i wanted to see on the trip. This temple is famous for the giant carved buddha in the back. They claim that it is the largest wooden Buddha in the world. I really do like this temple because it is really pretty but at the same time the exit is totally a tourist trap which really annoys me.
After i was done At Puning Temple I walked down half a block to Puyou Temple. This was a strange temple to see. Mostly because there is no actual temple still standing. When you walk in all you see are the jade statues of the used to be temple. The statues are really different than normal temples in how they are carved. They did not look like any of the other statues i have seen before. Then again since it was a Qing dynasty building and all the statues look strange that might have something to do with it.
Next I jumped back on the bus and headed back in the direction of town. I got off on the stop for Xumi Fushuo Temple. I did not wander around the temple very much. This was in part because my foot was beginning to hurt and in part because I ran into a bunch of Peking University students (all of them being foreigners) The temple reminded me a lot of its neighbor because they both are more like walking through a garden than walking through a temple. I was really pretty and once again i saw the elephants that guard the house like the lions do most everywhere else. After this because my foot had started to really hurt i decided to head back into town.
On the way back into town I stopped at the paper cutting studio in order to pick out a framed picture to take home. Well I found the design that i wanted but they didn't have it framed so they agreed to frame it for me at a decent charge. Oh well its looks a lot better than if i had tried to do it myself back at home. While i was there the owner gave me a vcd of Chengde which i still haven't gotten around to watching. I was also able to finally buy my set of the 4 ancient gods. They are of course paper cut outs of the seals that i saw in Xi'an. Once they had finished framing the cut out I went to leave the owner and the master paper cutter stopped me and tried to give me a ton of apples i only took one.
After that I went back to town. There is one small problem i have going to Chengde alone. That would be the fact that i know all these amazing places to eat because i had a homestay family there but these are all places that would would go with several people not alone. Oh well. I ended back at KFC where i got take out. Then i went back to my hotel ate dinner while watching CCTV 9 (the english news station here).
Sunday i woke up bright and early and went to the Mountain Resort. I got my ticket into the park and went in. The first thing i saw going into the park was a group of old people doing what looked like sword Tai Chi no clue what it is really called. It was really cool to watch though. I just wandered around the park for a little while. It took me almost no time to remember why I loved going to the parks on the weekend. People were everywhere doing a world of different things. Of course some were just walking around but others were doing tai chi, some were practicing traditional chinese instruments, and of course there were the sword dancers i already mentioned.
When i was done at the park I wandered to my last temple for the trip. This is the Daoist temple that Yen Nei and I spent an afternoon looking for a year ago. It was cool. I really liked when i ducked out of the main courtyard and found a collection of stones that seemed to just on until they reached the nearby building. Once i was done at the temple i went back to my hotel to get my stuff and head for the train. Well i tried to get into my room and failed. I went downstairs. It turns out that because i was supposed to be checking out in 40 min my key would not get me into my room... um well they finally let me into my room when i explained that i knew i had to check out but my stuff was still in the room.
Well I checked out of my hotel got in a cab and went to the station. I chilled out and texted with Chris on my Chinese cell phone (note to self need more minutes... again). Then I boarded my train got shoved to the window by the group of Chinese people i met. Then I chilled out and read my book.
About an hour into the train ride i started to study for my Chinese quiz on Monday. Then the person sitting across from me offered to help me. I gladly took the help to learn the stroke order for new words. Then we just started talking in Chinese. This trip made me feel a lot better about my Chinese.
