Slightly cleaner than average Chinese train sleeper car

After reading through some of our polls people have participated in throughout the site, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the information.  A while back we found that right after food, getting around in a foreign country was one of ATC readers biggest fears.  Here is a short list of, in my opinion, the easiest countries to travel through and get around.

Keep in mind we have been through China, Mongolia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, The Republic of Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, and Puerto Rico – leaving out some countries and islands that shouldn’t qualify for either their size or the length of time we spent in them.

• Turkey – Turkey was, by far without a doubt, the easiest place to get around.  If you wanted to fly you usually could and ticket prices were reasonable.  However, what we loved the most was the bus system and local public transportation.  There were usually about 8 or 10 different companies at each station and they were all competing and therefore, keeping the prices reasonable and allowing for a variety of schedules.  Moreover, they served tea, coffee, juice, pop, and snakes throughout the drive.  Local transportation in cities was also pretty reasonable and easy to navigate.  English was usually spoken at most terminals we went through.

• China – Unfortunately, although China will always be my favorite country to travel through via public transportation I had to give them #2 because of the absolute chaos that usually ensues during every planning process, ticket purchase, and multiple bus transfers you are usually forced to take.  Most ticketing experiences were all conducted in Chinese as no one ever used English.  Also, since train and large bus transportation was state run, no one would help us so we had to push to the front of lines and speak beyond beginners Chinese to get anything done.  However, China’s has awesome sleeper trains, buses, as well as their huge network of schedules for all types of transportation as well as subway systems in the very large cities and dirt cheap taxi rides.
  

  Lauren and a Monk

• Bulgaria – Our train from Istanbul to Bulgaria  easily was the nicest, cleanest, and comfortable cabin we have ever been.  It was right on time and had really friendly attendants as well as immaculate bathrooms.  Intercity trains were easy to come by and the networked bus system was relatively straight forward and reasonably priced.

Stay tuned for – The Most Difficult Countries / Places to Get Around

Arrival in Ashgabat

Originally, the trip was planned as a Shanghai to Ashgabat adventure. Well, we have an announcement to make—we have decided to keep on going. Since this was our original destination, here are some updates on the stats so far.

Total miles by land: 13,136 miles by land
Number of countries visited: 4
Total amount spent: $882 per person
Number of days on the road: 43
Amount spend per day based on total amount and days on the road: $20.50
Total number of currencies used/traded: 6 (RMB, KZT, USD, UZS, TMM, AZM)
Number of lost items: 3 (Mike’s sandals, Mike USB, Lauren cell phone (later recovered!)
Number of mosquito bites: Lauren 14 and two bee stings, Mike 6
Number of bouts of food poisoning: Lauren two, Mike one
Bribes paid: Two (Kazakhstan)
Number of trains taken: 7
Number of border checks: 6
Number of crappy batteries gone through: 6
Number of cities seen: 10
Number of buses taken: 5
Number of pictures taken: 3,800 (14.3 GB), 95 in Shanghai, 56 + 77 + 43 on the rail, 259 in Urumqi, 422 in Kashgar, 96 in Yarkand, 307 at Lake Karakul and Tashkurgan, 100 in Almaty, 394 in Tashkent, 142 Chorsu Lake, 661 in Samarkand, 647 in Bukhara, 523 in Khiva, 378 at Urgench Fortresses
Number of cars taken: 29 (cabs, mostly)
Number of guesthouses/hostels: 10
Number of hotels: 1
Number of other American travelers we’ve met: 3 (two traveling male friends starting law school soon and one very interesting woman traveling solo for over a year

Step one:  Leave with too much stuff in your bags and pull every muscle in your back and neck.

Step two: Backpack to post office to mail a laptop and other stuff that is too heavy. Why did Mike pack a history textbook?

police

Step three:  Hail a cab during rush hour on the Chinese May 1st holiday.

Step four: Share a bottle of Jamison with friends.

Step five:  Forget to eat dinner while consuming Jamison.

Step six: Try to hail a cab again during rush hour and then bribe the driver to drive on the sidewalk to get us to the train station.

Step seven: After bribe attempt, realize that your train leaves at 6:25 not 6:45.

Step eight: Arrive at train station at 7:00 and sit on bag with beer until police blow whistles in your face for loitering.

Step nine:  Laugh when girlfriend gets in whistle blowing contest with the police using your emergency whistle.

Step ten: Convert to Buddhism after they exchange tickets for the train for the following day for free.

Step eleven:  Check into hostel in the city in which you have lived for the last year and a half.

Step twelve:  Get lost in that same city looking for friends who are still drinking from the Jamison incident, and find them at local all-you-can-drink brewery to discuss the tenants of libertarianism and wind energy.

Step thirteen:  End up at a classy bar in travel pants that zip off in three different places to have someone tell you that you really need to get your life together…after noticing aforementioned zip-off pants.

Step fourteen:  “I’m sure something else will happen so lets leave this one open.”

Travel tip:  You can exchange your train tickets!  I never knew you could do this.  You definitely could not do this in the states, at least for free.  Perhaps we just looked that pathetic.  Go to window 13 at the shanghai ticket office to exchange your tickets.

We leave China today. Here is a list of the top ten things we’ll really miss about China:

• Drinking in Public. While this may seem like a silly thing to miss, in reality being able to drink outdoors is a fun experience. Sitting in the park with a beer is much nicer than sitting there with a Frisbee. We also think the cops in the USA should focus on bigger problems. Naturally, we’re still against drinking and driving, but drinking and walking– we think most people can handle that.
• Cheap food. Surprisingly, food in Shanghai is extremely expensive and diverse. You can find fine dining here to rival New York, but the prices are comparable. What we’ll miss is the street food. For 2RMB you can get a whole stick of lamb meat. At 2am, there is nothing better than lamb kebab.
  

  Window Washers

• Diversity. In the year we lived in Shanghai we were friends with Americans, Brits, Frenchmen, Russians, Ecuadorians, Finnish, Germans, Turkish, Swiss, Chinese, folks from Aruba and more. In a year of living in Saint Paul, MN, we were friends with only Americans. We will really miss the diversity here and it was great fun knowing people from all over the world.
• Travel. Moving around within China is easy. The train system is set up to move millions, and is clean and efficient. There are endless possibilities for travel here and whenever we had time we jumped on a train or boat out of the city with endless destination options. Even with only a free weekend, there were unexplored water towns near Shanghai for a quick escape.
• Work. While the rest of the world is feeling the crunch of the financial crisis the expats in China are doing alright. While I was laid off from my bank job, there were other opportunities for me in China. Meanwhile, I was unemployed in the USA with literally no options or prospects. I will miss the ease associated with job hunting in China.
• Transportation. In Shanghai, getting around was a cinch. The elaborate subway network could get you nearly anywhere in the city for 4RMB. Meanwhile, a plethora of buses honked around on the main streets which you could jump on for 2RMB each way. If all else fails there are cabs dotting the entire city for 11RMB to start and going up to about 30RMB for a trip across the entire town in rush hour traffic. Much easier than owning a car.
• Bartering. While this annoys many expats, I loved bartering. I like setting the price of an item in my mind and then thinking, “I’ll pay anything up to this number for this item.” Thinking like that helped me to prioritize what I needed versus what I wanted. I even enjoy the exchanges between the seller and the buyer with each playing their part as if rehearsed.
• Our Guards. We lived in two apartments in Shanghai and both had an amazing group of guards who protected
  

  Pudong, Shanghai

  the building entrance and doorways. In our first apartment we brought the guards gifts on Chinese holidays. They were always happy to see us and fun to be around. In our second apartment we dropped off beer one evening for them and they never stopped smiling and waving at us after.

• Our Ayi. An Ayi is a cleaning lady. Ours was named Xiao Xu, from Anhui province. She was a very sweet lady who was recommended to us from friends. She was the most patient person I have ever met and she listened to me fumble through my Chinese trying to talk to her and then patiently, and slowly, responded. How she didn’t slap me in the face with the wet mop after the thousandth time I mispronounced something is beyond me.
• Expat lifestyle. This is definitely a great lifestyle. We had a great little apartment in a great area surrounded by easy transportation, cheap and yummy local food, a maze of pubs, endless activities and sights and a modernizing and growing city to watch. Meanwhile, we made decent money and had some amazing friends.

So, as we chug away on our train today, it will be a bitter sweet good-bye as we remember the things we’ll miss, but look forward to the excitement of the road ahead.

Our apartment

As we pack up our apartment I’m reminded of when we first moved to China and began looking for a place to live. The process of apartment hunting in China is vastly different than in the States. Here, you find a local agent in the area you want to live and go to their office. You describe what you want in an apartment to the tiniest detail. While you wait (“would you like more tea, sir?”) they search online listings and their own reserve of available housing. After a half hour or so of searching and phone calls the realtor puts on his or her jacket and you march of, always on foot, to view the apartment. You arrive at the apartment and it is in shambles. In the US, realtors ensure the house is looking its very best before they show it. In China, you must see potential instead of beauty. One apartment we saw was so filthy we left footprints in the grime and dust as we perused the layout. Another apartment we viewed was covered in moldy, dirty dishes and overturned furniture. It was as if the residents quickly packed a few belongings and ran out in a hurry.

We saw about ten apartments before we found one we liked. We were shown several apartments that did not meet our criteria because the realtor gets paid by how many times he can show a place. Once you express interest the landlord and the realtor begin to scream at each other over price, additional fixtures, cleaning, etc. After an initial bartering phase the realtor reports that the lowest the landlord will go is, for example, 5,000RMB. You act offended and counter, naturally, with 4,000RMB. The landlord pretends not to hear you. Once the realtor turns and gives the counter-offer to the landlord he or she erupts in a stream of rationalizations for the 5,000RMB price. Eventually (after much bartering) the price is settled around 4,300RMB with a few extras like a cleaning crew to sweep through and a replacement chair for the office.

Now comes the tricky part. Money needs to be exchanged on the spot or else the landlord will not hold the apartment. Usually one month rent is put on the table. The realtor takes the money to appease both parties. The whole process takes less than half an hour. A move in date is set and when the happy day arrives the realtor emerges with contracts, candies, your deposit and a big smile – the realtor’s fee is one month’s rent split between the landlord and the renter.

There are, of course, apartment postings on craigslist and other expat sites. But usually these are more expensive and it is a bit harder to find someone who will sign on the spot. We recommend playing along with local custom and finding a local realtor. If a realtor does not find you an apartment you like you do not owe them anything. They only get paid if they please you, and the landlords whose apartments they show. The downside is that the realtor has no incentive to help you barter down the price, as he is merely helping to lower his commission.

For a two bedroom in Shanghai on a subway line we paid 4,300RMB a month. The

place was western in style with a tub, fully-stocked kitchen, wrap around sofa and big screen and an office. Our last apartment in China was tiny, with a fold our bed and a kitchen that stretched into our laps in the living room at a price of 3,000RMB a month. Our first apartment in Beijing had no toilet and a sink that spewed brown liquid and tiny insects but cost only 1,200RMB a month. So, you can find something at every price range here.

Hua Shan Hospital

There are several mixed reviews about Chinese hospitals and myths about “socialized medicine,” but I deemed it necessary to mention a few things about our Chinese hospital experiences.  Over the course of the few years we have lived here, one in Beijing and over a year in Shanghai, we have each been to the hospital a few times.  In China, you don’t go to your family practitioner unless you have a really good expat medical package.  Let’s face it, that pretty much rules 95% of all expats out because of the keywords good expat medical package.

In Beijing our experience at Ren Min Yi Yuan (People’s Hospital) was acceptable.  There are many reviews about how dirty the hospitals are and that they would never go back.  However, if you are on a fixed budget the expat clinics cost upwards of $150 USD just to see a physician.  This does not include any treatment  or medicine.  Moreover, you will have to return for a checkup and to receive any results from testing – which will easily cost you at least another $100USD (about 700 RMB).

These are Chinese hospitals.  Expect there to be no soap in the bathrooms, IV racks next to the toilets, and people smoking in the hallways.  Ren Min Hospital was pretty dirty and there were workers carrying cement bags through the hallways, in which there were people on cots with IVs in their arms.  However if you can learn to look past these aspects, which are are part of living in China, you may notice the positives.  Below is a bullet list of my most recent experience and costs at Hua Shan Hospital in Shanghai.

Without going into too much detail about the idiotic events that led to this hospital visit, lets just say – I hurt my foot bad enough to warrant a trip to see if it was broken.  Being in no mood to start off our trek through Central Asia with a broken foot, we headed off for Hua Shan Hospital.  In a previous visit we had learned that one of the upper floors was host to a foreign clinic and we were immediately directed there.  The costs were astronomical and x-rays would not be available for several days – they would call you at home and you would come back.  For a cheaper and more efficient experience proceed immediately to what I believe was the “门诊”，men zhen or “outpatient clinic,” and talk to the attendants there.  The most difficult aspect of this approach is if you do not speak any Chinese, however basic Chinese will be enough to communicate what hurts, where, and for how long.  Moreover, you will find that most of the doctors actually speak English quite well.

• Outpatient Clinic Registration – 25 RMB
• Proceed to Station 1 (Patient- Doctor Consultation) – Here you meet with the doctor and explain what happened and he / she will prescribe a certain test and direct you to the next station.  In this case an X-ray was in order.
• Payment Counter – 70 RMB - First you need to pay for your X-ray in advance
• 4th Floor X-Ray Lab – Go have your treatment or test (X-ray)
• Doctor Examination – Wait about 20 minutes for your X-ray to fully develop and then you show it to the original doctor you saw in station 1.
• Prescription Payment – 15 RMB – Luckily, it was not a break and he simply prescribed some pain medication.
• Hospital Pharmacy – Go to the 2nd floor and pickup your prescription from the” 门诊” ‘men zhen’ counter upstairs.  This is a special window at which there should be no line of people where you can pick up your prescription at walk away.

Every time I go to Chinese hospitals I am amazed at the efficiency and speed at which everything is completed.  There was practically no wait and we were out of there in a little over an hour.

Total price:  110 RMB – Which is only $16.10 for an outpatient doctor’s consultation, X-ray, analysis, and pain killer prescription.  The alternative is to go to the foreign clinic upstairs and pay 700 RMB and another 315 RMB for an X-ray.  This is without insurance of course and the foreign clinic has nice dry walled interiors, comfortable chairs, and English fluent doctors.  I personally prefer the 1 hour $16 USD method over the $148.63 USD method that includes a day or two wait sometimes for results.  Once again, if you can look past the fact that the building and cleanliness standards may not be the same, the efficiency, speed, and cost make up for these other irrelevant short-comings in my mind.  The medical equipment used is top of the line and has usually purchased overseas.

If you need to go to any one of these hospitals the addresses are:

Beijing:  Ren Min Yiyuan (Part of Peking University) – 北京大学人民医院 – 北京市西城区西直门南大街11号 – Beijing Shi Xi Cheng Qu, Xi Zhi Men, Nan Da Jie, No. 11

Shanghai – Hua Shan Yiyuan – 乌鲁木齐中路12号 近长乐路 – No.12, Wulumuqi Zhong Lu, Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Changle Lu

Is this what is looks like? I wouldn't know.

This is apparently what a visa to Uzbekistan looks like, but I wouldn’t know.  It has officially been 3 weeks since we began our endeavor to get an Uzbek visa.  Although we are two Americans trying to get visas into Uzbekistan in China, we have come across some abnormal difficulties.  We have been informed by several people that, of all Central Asian visas, Uzbekistan would be the most difficult to obtain.

Three weeks ago, we discovered the location of the Uzbekistan consulate in Shanghai – or so we thought.  When Lauren arrived, she discovered that it was boarded up and that the office had not been there for over two years.  So not only were all of the government websites wrong, they had not been updated for two years.  The following week, as we were preparing to go to Beijing to go the the actually embassy to get the visas, we found some new information.  After calling over 7 different phone numbers, a man with a very think Uzbekistan accent answered the phone.  I got the address from him and we jumped in a cab down to the same Chinese government building you go to get your red work permit.

We met with man in the visa office, an extension of his office attached to a windowed door with a slot to place paperwork through.  He told us it would be difficult getting visas as the relationship between the United States and Uzbekistan has diminished slightly over the last few years.  This, I assume, has been because of the United States stance against Uzbekistan’s’ human rights following the Andijan Massacre in 2005.  We were then informed that we qualified to be lucky participants in the “new and reformed” visa procedures involving Internet approval before we bring in our visa applications.  We went home immediately and then applied through the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, which gave us authorization numbers.  I called the visa official again telling him we had been approved with authorization numbers and all, but he assured me that he would be notified by the ministry and would contact us once he could issue us the visas.

Over the course of the week, I called him practically everyday until on Friday, we were told to come back in and reapply the old way.  Having wasted two weeks, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we were offered a formal apology and submitted our applications and copies of our passports.  That was now also a week ago.  We will be persistent and continue to contact him tomorrow, but we have to get them next week so we can apply for transit visas through Kazakhstan.  We will be getting visas for Turkmenistan once we arrive in Tashkent.  More to come on the Central Asia visa saga and we will provide updates as they occur.  If you are interested in going to Central Asia, we strongly encourage you to start your application process at least a month and 1/2 in advance, if not 2 whole months.  We are optimistic that the other visa will be easier over the next week or so.

A few days ago our kitchen sink began to leak and we had quite the adventure as the landlord’s mother and several other randoms arrived to ‘fix’ the problem. So, when the back of the toilet at our Chinese rental apartment began to run we bean to panic. Obviously the float was broken. I poked around inside the back trying to remember what my grandfather had taught me about plumbing. The pieces are completely different here and the floating thing that stops the water is a non-existent part of the Chinese design.

I called the landlord and asked him to have a plumber come over, but not to send the whole crew of voyeurs this time. Naturally he responded that the whole army of curious bystanders would arrive between 8 and 9 the following morning.

At 7am I sat bolt upright in bed. Last time they came over the plumber flooded the floor near an outlet and nearly killed three people via electrocution. All night I had horrible dreams about people frying. I went into the bathroom, unplugged everything and went back to bed.

At 8:30 there was a knock at the door and two strangers and the landlord filed past me and into the kitchen. I redirected them to the bathroom and the three of them starred at the back of the toilet. Chinese usually use squat pots, so the site of the upright was a bit confusing for the plumber. I could empathize.

Half an hour later the three emerged, turned off the water to the apartment and left to buy a new part. I went into the bathroom. They had flooded the entire floor and mopped it up with a towel into the tub. At least I knew what to expect this time! Apparently flooding is part of the process.

I left the apartment after talking with the landlord who explained they would be back at 3pm. In a building with no water 6 hours is a long time. I went to breakfast with a friend, ran some errands and returned at 2pm to find the problem fixed. Part two was much better than the nearly lethal part one!

-Posted by Lauren.

On Friday our sink began to leak, we cleaned up the mess and contacted our landlord. The landlord (who speaks amazing English and is hilariously named Peter Pan) was supposed to arrive Sunday evening. He declined at the last moment and changed the sink-fixing appointment to the next morning when his elderly mother would accompany the plumber to the house.

At 9:30 on the dot the grandma arrived with a small contingent of spectators and a plumber direct out of high school. She introduced me as “the foreigner! Look, she can speak!” to which her elderly comrades began to roar in laughter and sing in unison “ting by dong! ting bu dong!”

Meanwhile, the boy began by saying that it was only a small leak, and putting a bucket under it and then emptying the contents daily would suffice. Why had I woken him up so early for an un-urgent problem?

While I was talking with the plumber about our differing opinions of severity, the grandmother was going through the drawers in the bathroom, pulling out odd objects  (floss, whats this?) and commenting on things were disorganized. Her compatriots followed closely behind her as she inspected every item in every private drawer in the bathroom, laughing periodically.

After checking on the grandma after one particularly loud roaring laughter session (they had discovered Mike’s cologne and were spraying it on each other) I went to watch the kid fiddle around with the M.C Escher mess that was the piping under the sink. Having just read A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking, Mike believed the arrangement under the sink was ‘infinitely illogical’ or the ’singularity within a black hole where no light can be found.’ The kid filled both sinks with water and then watched them slowly drain. He squatted down and pulled out a wood saw and then proceeded to saw through the plastic piping at a rather odd juncture. Suddenly, water began to pour from the pipes (the sinks were, after all).

The grandma dropped my toothbrush and her accomplices put down mike’s razor and hair trimmer and together they ran into the kitchen, by the time they got there the room was flooded in a solid inch or more of dirty dish water. I sprinted to the circuit breaker and madly flipped all the switches. Our kitchen, being a black hole of logic, has wires, outlets and plugs along the floor.

By the time I got back into the kitchen they were all laughing and using our towles to mop up the water and then ring out the towels into the sink, which then drained on to the floor. I burts into laughter so uncontrolable I teared up at one point. After my laughing attach had subsided I brough in a bucket to ring the towles into. Together the grandma, her accomplace (with several of my toohpicks protruding from his pocket) and I began to ring out towels into the bucket together. The grandma, by now, had collected every towel in the apartment for the effort, and a large pile of colorful towels covered in rust, moldy food and sink water was leaning up against an outlet in the corner of the kitchen. Would we all have been electrocuted had the power been on? I found myself analyzing everyone’s shoes. Were they rubbery enough? How does that work exactly?

Eventually the kid sealed the pipe with an inordinate amount of caulking (and wads of damp toilet paper which the grandma’s accomplice had suggested), he then tied the weighted-down pipe to another weighted-down pipe to releave some of the stress. He walked out of the house in an embaressed huff as did Grandma’s sidekick when he realized he might have to help if he lingered. She was left to finish cleaning up the mess alone but smiling. I went in and helped her ring out towels and clean up under the sink.

Priority now: wash towels

Hilarity level: 7

-Posted by Lauren.

We returned today from a four day trip to HuangShan, Yellow Mountain, in Anhui province, China.

On Friday the 13th we boarded the nightly slow train to Anhui at 10:00pm. We were in a crowded sleeper car with about seventy other adventurers on their way to the mountain. Everyone was wearing hiking boots and had Canon cameras around their necks. Since it had been raining the past few weeks, everyone had a rain jacket strapped to their bags. We settled in and fell promptly asleep after a few games of cribbage, and listened to the sounds of our fellow cabin mates playing poker until the early morning.

At 5:00am I woke to the sounds of laughter- our cabin mates were gambling again already. I pulled out my book and read for a while before descending from the top bunk (they are three high in mini rooms of 6 beds) and found a seat along the hall where I watched the scenery change from the flat, coastal farmland around Shanghai to the rolling, rocky hills of Anhui province. We arrived at the HuangShan train station at 10:00am.

After buying our return tickets to Shanghai for the following Monday evening, we were accosted by dozens of men and women eager to sell us anything we might desire. One such promiser was a middle-aged woman who offered a ride to the base of the mountain for 15Rmb. We agreed, as this is how things are generally done around China, and hopped in the back of her 6 person mini-van. Ten minutes later the van had 10 people in it and we were bumping along at 70 miles an hour. An elderly woman with purple hair tapped Mike on the shoulder every few minutes asking his age, or my occupation, or his dental plans, or if I wanted a boy or girl child. The van stopped in a town at the base of the mountain, but several hours hike from the start of the mountain trails. We got in another mini van, the driver of which was quite possibly drunk, and took off down a winding road of switchbacks until we finally arrived, mid vomit, at the entrance to the Nine Dragon Falls. Though this was not the gate we had asked to be taken to, the falls looked beautiful so we went in after the ticket lady (all of 14) assured us we could connect with a seldom used trail to the main route.

The falls defied beauty and went into the realm of nirvana. We were alone on the trails, which were often little more than a few granite stones pointing the way, and we stopped often to feel the water, take pictures or explore areas off the path. By 2pm we were hardly half way to the halfway point, and sped up our pace a bit as we hiked through endless bamboo forests. Around 3pm we stepped off the granite path and onto a black-top road, shocked to discover that there was an auto-route up the mountain. Also at this intersection was a cable car that would deliver people and cargo to the base of the summit. As the sun was going to set soon, we hopped a ride on the cable car for 10USD.

The cable car ride was, in a word, magical. From the bamboo and palm tree waterfalls and turquoise ponds the lift heaved us up into a frozen paradise, where trees looked like crystal and sidewalks looked like glass. When we stepped off the lift a surreal feeling fell over us, and there was a long silence as we walked around touching the ice and rubbing our hands together.

We explored the various peaks around the summit until well into the evening, and then discovered that the hotels on the summit cost more than I make in a month. We walked out of each hotel a little more worried until a plump little man approached us and said “100 Rmb hostel?” to which we replied, “YES!”

The room was a cement square with a cement roof and cement floor. Four wooden beds lined the walls. In all, it was smaller than the compartment on our overnight train and had no bathroom, running water or heat. It was negative 3. We bought the whole room, which was 300Rmb, and then put all the blankets on one bed to try to keep warm. A party of hikers bought out the rest of the building and stayed up all night gambling and screaming, singing and drinking. We lay awake all night shivering, cursing and then laughing. It was easy to get out of that bed and that cement coffin of a hostel to go see the sunrise at 5:30am.

The sun peaked out over the hills and light flooded the valley in waves of orange, red and then blue. It was beautiful, except for the hundreds of other spectators who were screaming, waving bells and trying to hear their own echoes in the early morning valleys.

After a nice breakfast at the spendy hotel we packed our bags, big adieu to the stout cement square owner and set off for a day of summiting the various peaks of HuangShan.

-Posted by Lauren.