If you ever think to yourself, “hey, I think it’ll be rad to
travel to this random city on my own where no one speaks English and try to
figure things out without having any service/wifi on your phone”, you should
probably rethink your plans…. Let’s just start from the very beginning.
In order to get to Beijing, I had to buy a train ticket from
the station in Zibo. Initially, it looks like I could just send in an email and
get it, but that didn’t seem to work out. So, I took the long and hot walk over
to the train station and stood in line. Little did I think about how I was
going to convey which ticket on which day and what time I wanted. Let’s just
say, I very much did not look through a lot of obstacles. Anyways, so I’m at
the train station and PRAISE, there’s a Chinese guy that speaks PERFECT English. I seriously could not
have been any more fortunate. I told him want I wanted, but within the time I
looked up the ticket and when I bought it, the one I wanted was sold out.
Therefore, I was left with the cheap train ride leaving at 5am that lasted 8hrs
instead of 2hrs, but hey, I got to Beijing eventually. The whole time though, I
was nervous about possibly missing my stop. Luckily, I got off at the right
place, after sitting for an entire 8hrs either sleeping, or doing word/number
problems.
My troubles began right from the start. Getting off the
train, I had absolutely no idea how
to leave the train station. It was outdoors and encompassing a huge part of the
town. I didn’t know where the station ended and the city started. After walking
for a bit, I jumped in a cab (who overcharged me by wayyyy too much). I had the
address written out in Chinese and showed it to him. However, he still somehow
took me to the wrong street. I got out regardless because it would’ve been too
difficult to somehow convey to him that it wasn’t right. So after that
overpriced cab ride, I then went walking and walking. I was advised on which
bus to take so I hopped on. Turns out, it took me way out of the way. I stayed
on it for a minute trying to figure out my best route. The money collector lady
on the bus told me which buses I needed to take, and they were like … long-time
buses. I was confused about that. I got off, and went walking again.
Yes, this whole time, I have my purse, my overstuffed
backpack, and my Pooh Bear pillow pet. Because I was in a different province,
my SIM card that First Leap gave me wasn’t working. So I didn’t have operating
phone service. Fast forward to three miles of walking later… The Super 8 hotel
which I booked (and already paid for) wasn’t in the location that it said it
was in. I went back and forth along the street trying to find it and was unable
to. I asked different officials on the roads trying to figure it out. We then
realized that it was actually more than an hour drive away. So, the website was
wrong.
I continued to walk around aimlessly trying to find somewhere to stay. I found a different
Super 8 and was trying to see if I could transfer my reservation to there. My
phone was at 5% and I still didn’t have a plan. Luckily, they had wifi and I
was able to connect and contact my parents back home. They then called to see
if this Super 8 had any openings. They were all booked. They found a different
Super 8 that was 4 miles away and booked me a room. I had one of the workers
write the hotel down in Chinese so I could hand it to my driver. Finally, I had
a plan! Or so I thought….
I made it to the new Super 8. They didn’t have my
reservation. They couldn’t find it. Neither could I speak Chinese nor them
English. After over an hour of trying to figure out where my reservation was
(with my dad on the phone with the Super 8 supervisor), we discovered that they
couldn’t find it because they refuse to service foreigners. Yea, you read that
right. Straight of refuse. Because
they don’t accept foreigners, they weren’t able to accept my reservation, even
though I got an email saying that it was confirmed. Racist humans.
Because of this whole misunderstanding, Super 8 said to just
find any random hotel for the night and they would reimburse us. Alright, sweet
deal, right? Wrong. Now the problem was finding a hotel that wasn’t entirely
booked and that would accept me as a foreigner. I walked around trying every
hotel I could see (and believe me, there were a lot). None of them were
available. After loads of trekking throughout town (still with the massive
backpack), I finally found a Sheraton hotel that would accept me. Had I had to
pay for it by myself, the price was WAYYYY
out of the question. But since Super 8 was paying (because they messed up), why not take it?
All of the workers at the Sheraton were able to speak
English. I was granted my own double twin room with a stellar bathroom, shower,
and tub. The first thing I did when I arrived was went straight to the shower.
They even provided every toiletry needed, as well as a verrrry comfortable bathrobe.
After arriving to Beijing at 2:30, I finally was able to
rest in my very comfortable Sheraton bed at 11pm. This definitely was not how I
was planning to “take in the city” on my first day here. Fortunately, my tour
the next day was scheduled and looked like it would all go perfectly well!
(Next post will be about The Great Wall and The Forbidden City). Yes, I know
this was a long post, but it was an incredibly
long day of unfortunate events. Moral of the story: Don’t book the cheapest
hotel, always have an extra phone battery, appreciate your parents, and don’t
go alone to an unknown place with an unknown language and no map.