What to know about traveling in China – Part 4

Travel in China is sometimes frustrating but the rewards are great! The first time I traveled to China was my first trip overseas. I hadn’t taken the precautions of removing my rings on the plane and one of my fingers swelled so bad that I couldn’t remove the ring. I wandered around the airport in Beijing, while waiting for my flight to Zhengzhou, looking for someone who could help. Alas, I found no one. I was surprised that many of the people didn’t speak English at all but found out later that some probably could but many just don’t feel comfortable enough.

The first, and most important, lesson that I learned on my trip was that my traveler’s checks were useless. Most banks did not want to cash them and the ones that did had strict regulations and were in the real large cities like Beijing. On subsequent trips I brought cash and my ATM card because ATMs were available in most cities.

I arrived in Zhengzhou, finger throbbing, after about twenty-three hours of being on the “road”. Some friends of mine were teaching English there so they picked me up at the airport and we went to find someone to cut my ring off. China doesn’t have jewelers like the United States so there was no help available from that standpoint. We ended up going to a hospital and a doctor cut the ring off with bandage scissors. Actually, he bent and twisted it until it broke. All in all, it was a very painful experience. He acted as though he didn’t speak English but after it was done we found out that he, indeed, did.

My friends had decided that we should go to Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors that night. So we went to eat some mutton stew-type of dish and then boarded the train. Zhengzhou is a major railway hub and you can get virtually anywhere from there on a train. We had a sleeper but it was not a first class sleeper, it was the sleeper cars that most of the Chinese take when they have a long trip. Each area has six bunks with three on each side and your ticket decides which bunk is yours. You may have people that you don’t know in your little room and the room has no door. The train ride was very interesting. One of the things that it is very important to know is to put on shoes before walking to the bathroom. I wore my socks instead of shoes and ended up with them very wet and nasty. They ended up in the trash! You see the toilet is a hole in the train floor and so people miss due to the jarring ride. Need I say more?

On trains in China, you