Zhengzhou is attractively described by the Rough Guide to China as the most important railway terminal in the country – and as such ‘hard to avoid’. Well, I suspect it’s true – afterall we used it as a stop off to break up the journey for a few days between Louyang and Nanjing on the way to Shanghai – but it’s a little unfair on the place. It’s actually quite a nice, lively, pleasant town. We spent a nice day or so wandering around, especially as there is a Haagen Das Café you can stop off in when you feel like a rest!
One drawback is that although Zhengzhou is modern, leafy and pleasant, has good supplies of chocolate and ice-cream, unfortunately it doesn’t have many good coffee shops. We tried what we thought was a safe café for lunch, only to discover a sandwich that was a little like the Indian interpretation of Chinese food – pretty dire. A shame as it’s nice to have simple western food from time to time, no matter how much you like Chinese.
Moving on from Zhengzhou was interesting too. The rail station is huge, but actually really modern. We got the tickets a few days before we left by trying to write down destinations in Chinese symbols along with dates of travel, times and train numbers. Unfortunately we got served by a really unpleasant woman who was evidently unimpressed by our efforts, and just jabbered at us in incomprehensible (and very very fast) Chinese – not even trying to be helpful. So when the tickets came back with the right date but the wrong time of departure and train number we feared the worst. Especially as Zhengzhou is a long way from Nanjing and we had been hoping to get what we thought was the only fast train of the day. Instead we suspected we were going to be stuck on wooden seats for about 10 hours in a packed, unreserved smoking carriage. Not great. But we were really lucky – we ended up on what was effectively a Shinkansen bullet train! We whizzed off at over 100mph in great comfort, guzzling instant noodles made with the boiling water that’s always supplied freely, just like the locals do. Not bad as the trip only cost £15 each and covered over 500km!
Anyway, we are now in Nanjing, which also seems nice, apart from the fact that it hasn’t stopped raining since we arrived. Just like home :)
One drawback is that although Zhengzhou is modern, leafy and pleasant, has good supplies of chocolate and ice-cream, unfortunately it doesn’t have many good coffee shops. We tried what we thought was a safe café for lunch, only to discover a sandwich that was a little like the Indian interpretation of Chinese food – pretty dire. A shame as it’s nice to have simple western food from time to time, no matter how much you like Chinese.
Moving on from Zhengzhou was interesting too. The rail station is huge, but actually really modern. We got the tickets a few days before we left by trying to write down destinations in Chinese symbols along with dates of travel, times and train numbers. Unfortunately we got served by a really unpleasant woman who was evidently unimpressed by our efforts, and just jabbered at us in incomprehensible (and very very fast) Chinese – not even trying to be helpful. So when the tickets came back with the right date but the wrong time of departure and train number we feared the worst. Especially as Zhengzhou is a long way from Nanjing and we had been hoping to get what we thought was the only fast train of the day. Instead we suspected we were going to be stuck on wooden seats for about 10 hours in a packed, unreserved smoking carriage. Not great. But we were really lucky – we ended up on what was effectively a Shinkansen bullet train! We whizzed off at over 100mph in great comfort, guzzling instant noodles made with the boiling water that’s always supplied freely, just like the locals do. Not bad as the trip only cost £15 each and covered over 500km!
Anyway, we are now in Nanjing, which also seems nice, apart from the fact that it hasn’t stopped raining since we arrived. Just like home :)
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