The most amazing month ever ... the return to Zhengzhou

 Returning to Zhengzhou, I was apprehensive of what my family would think of the city that I have been calling my home for the past year. We stayed in the Novotel hotel in CBD, the new and modernised part of the city. In comparison to the main city, CBD is so much quieter, cleaner, more modern and spacious! It almost doesn’t feel like I’m in the same city when I’m in CBD! It’s the business district and I can’t help but get the feeling that only those with money live and relax there!

 We were staying on the fourteenth floor of the Hotel, the ‘business floor’ which meant we had access to free breakfast and mini bar every day!! The view of CBD was lovely from the free bar but they really needed to clean the windows!! 

                            

For the first night, we ate from the buffet in the hotel because we were too tired to go looking for food. It was expensive but good! However, I still need to learn how to eat at a buffet properly…in future I should not eat rice or bread and fill myself up on them!

On the Saturday, we had a small lie in and then set off towards the Shaolin Temple around noon. However, I forgot the amount of traffic that exists in the city. It took us nearly an hour to get out of the city only to have to travel for another two hours! Half way through our journey it started to rain. It rained….and rained…and rained…

We finally arrived at the Shaolin Temple, disheartened at the continuing rain! We put our umbrellas up and went out into the rain. We were hungry and hoped that if we ate, the rain might calm down. The only place to eat was Dico’s, China’s very own fast food chain. My sister is a vegetarian so all she could eat were chips. In China a ‘vegetarian option’ doesn’t usually exist. Also, due to my lack of Chinese, I ordered wrong/they took the wrong order and we ended up having to eat what we hadn’t ordered!

After eating, we realised that the rain had not calmed and was in fact continuing to fall hard and heavy. We were all feeling quite sad. I was especially sad because I had been looking forward to showing my family the sights that I had enjoyed there a few months before. Even the amazing night show, ‘the Shaolin Music Zen Ritual’ was cancelled due to the weather! I was disappointed!!

                                                              (The kung fu show).

We wondered if it was pointless to even pay but we did. We managed to see a martial arts show, which was held inside due to the rain! I quite enjoyed it. Some of the kung fu stunts were impressive. The loud audience in China always ruins the atmosphere of a show though. In the UK, we are used to being so silent in any performance, whether in a cinema or a theatre. In China however, it is completely normal for the audience to continue talking loudly while the show is ongoing.

                                                  (Smiling despite the weather)

We tried to see some of the temples but we didn’t last long. We took very few photos then made our way back to the hired car and the driver. My family are used to rain as we are from Wales, a country where rain exists on a regular basis. However, this rain was different!! After seeing so many amazing places around China, it was inevitable that something was bound to go wrong at some point!

The next day, our luck changed. The weather was so beautiful and hot! The bad weather the day before had cleared all the clouds and dust. The sun (which is unusual to see due to the pollution most days) shone bright in the unusual blue sky! My mum had been waiting so long to see the Longmen Grottoes and it was a perfect day to see them!

We spent a couple of hours in the hired car again being driven by the hired driver. This time, we left earlier and guess what… we still got caught in the traffic a little! I don’t think there is a time of day in Zhengzhou when there isn’t any traffic!!

The Longmen caves did not disappoint!! Obviously, it was a weekend and so the weekend and the sun had drawn out big crowds of people to the location! It was so funny watching people realise we were foreigners and come rushing over for photographs with us! My family got to experience what it’s like to be a foreign ‘VIP’ in China. It was so strange being able to see such amazing statues of Buddha’s and instead of taking pictures of these incredible monuments, Chinese people just wanted to take pictures of us!! My Dad started taking pictures of people taking pictures of us. It was very entertaining!

Here are a few photos taken of people taking pictures of us...

                                

(My Dad enjoying some VIP treatment)!

 There are as many as 100,000 statues within 1,400 caves. Some of them are tiny, others are very big. Many of the statues in the caves have unfortunately been damaged due to weather or theft. In the early 20^th century, many of the statues were beheaded or extracted entirely by collectors and ended up abroad. Others have had their faces completely destroyed due to vandalism back in the days of the cultural revolution. Therefore, many of the monuments are in ruin but are slowly being restored.

I was worried that my parents would worry about me being alone in China even more after seeing where I live. My neighbourhood is very...different in comparison to neighbourhoods in the UK. It is very Chinese! Living areas in Zhengzhou are made up of blocks. Each block has around three entrances. I can’t even guess how many people live in each block! The entrances are crowded with street food stalls and there are little shops surrounding every block. The apartments are all the same size. Whole families live in these small living areas. It’s small for me and it’s only me living here! 

To my surprise, on exiting the taxi, my family’s faces were in owe! They loved it! They couldn’t believe how Chinese my home was! They told me it was nowhere near as bad as I had been describing it to them on the phone! I was so glad that they approved of my living area! My mum was now relaxed having seen where I live!

I took them to eat at a restaurant on the corner of my building area. The food was great and my dad just couldn’t believe that six dishes of food came to the equivalent of around £5! We then went to a brewery that is also near my living area. It’s expensive there but the beer is apparently good. My dad then couldn’t believe that buying one beer cost more than our entire meal for four people! 

I'm so glad that my family got to see where I have been living for nearly a year now. I was even more glad that they liked Zhengzhou despite the pollution, ongoing construction everywhere, the noise, the amount of people and the dust.

My family went to the airport together and then went our separate ways. My parents went home and my sister and I made our way to Thailand...