Day 162: Zhangye – Day 1
Since we had an early train to catch, we asked the hotel to pack us a breakfast. We arranged for their free shuttle to take us to the Dunhuang Train station at 6:30AM – plenty of time for our 7:40AM train to Zhangye. This is the most luxurious train ride of our trip – soft sleeper seats for a 6hr ride. While it is impossible to book an entire 4-person car, we closed the door to the compartment so that people would fill up other seats before joining us as a last resort. Luckily for us, this route doesn’t have high demand for sleeper berths (most people probably save their money and just book seats for the daytime trip), so we had the entire compartment to ourselves! We loved the privacy, and enjoyed the peace and quiet to work on our laptops and even take a little nap before reaching our stop.
At the Dunhuang Train Station for our first train ride in China
Waiting to board our train – even though everything is in Chinese, it’s surprisingly easy to confirm our departure time on the schedule (luckily numbers are in Western characters)
We lucked out – we have a sleeper compartment all to ourselves! We breakout our packed breakfast from the hotel and enjoy the privacy
It’s a 6hr ride from Dunhuang to Zhangye – plenty of time to work on the blog and even take a nap
Barren desert landscape outside the train window – not much scenery to distract us
When we got to Zhangye, we quickly found a taxi driver at the station to take us to our hotel (although we had to insist that he use his meter). Using his Baidu Translation App, he asked us what our plans were for the next day. “You go to Daxia?” he asked. We were on the fence regarding hiring a taxi driver verses figuring out buses for the various places we wanted to visit during our three days in Zhangye, so we started negotiating with him. He pulled out a booklet of attractions in Zhangye and we finally got his best price for a full day exploring two sections of the Daxia Geopark as well as the Kangle Grasslands for RMB 350. We wanted to ask hotel for advise before committing, so we took his phone number and promised to call him that night.
Turns out, our hotel ended up being useless when it came to providing any kind of help in organizing travel plans. Despite their listing on Booking.com – which states that the employees SPEAK ENGLISH – neither of the receptionists nor any of the staff we encountered during our 3-night stay spoke any English. Insead, they either pointed to a card with common phrases or used Baidu online. Later that night when we discovered that the other hotel guests were flagrantly disregarding the many NO SMOKING signs, we tried to switch rooms to one further away from the elevator, where they all liked to loudly congregate around the ashtray (WHY does the hotel provide ashtrays when they have a NO SMOKING POLICY?!?), but after 20min of trying to explain the problem we gave up. Lindsay resorted to repeatedly moving the ashtray into the stairwell, much to the consternation of the hotel maid.
Checking into the Liangmo Hotel, where (despite their Booking.com advertisment) they DO NOT speak English, and instead use Baidu online translate or point to a card with common phrases. We are really pissed off as the ONLY reason Igor booked this hotel is because they claimed to speak English. LIARS.
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Zhangye city on foot, checking out the main attraction – the Great Buddha Temple – before looking for take-out dinner on the way back. For some reason we had bad luck finding a grocery store, or even a mini-mart with a decent raman selection, so we ended up with a sad dinner of overly spicy and greasy noodles and sweet bread. However, we did wander into the Youyou Youth Hostel and discovered that the receptionist there spoke fantastic English! Not only that, but he had written instructions for how to catch buses to each of the major attractions in the area as well as a price list for hiring taxis. We shamelessly took photos of all his information, promising to leave him a glowing TripAdvisor review – for once, Igor admitted that a hostel would have been a superior accommodation.
Once we compared the hostel’s prices to the quote our taxi driver had given us earlier, we decided the taxi driver’s price seemed fair, so we texted him (in Chinese, using some tricky Copy & Paste skillz!) confirming the itinerary and pick-up time for the next morning.
The Great Buddha Temple in Zhangye
Fancy incense burning outside the temple
The unrestored exterior of the Great Buddha Temple
Beautiful Qing-dynasty murals and freaky statues inside the temple
The huge, 35m-long sleeping Buddha inside the Zhangye temple
Walking around the temple grounds just before closing, we get a quick glimpse of the Ming-dynasty white clay stupa in the rear of the complex
Prayer ribbons cover a rope at the rear of the temple grounds
Distracted by an adorable puppy on our back to the hotel. We made much needed stop at the pharmacy to try and replenish our stock of Imodium. A hilarious interaction ensues, where Igor and Lindsay try to use a combination of Google translate, hand gestures and poopy noises to explain we need anti-diarrhea medication (we are going to kill it at Charades when we get home). Unfortunately, they don’t have any medication with the same active ingredient – they only have some Chinese mystery-ingredient remedy. Even though we doubt it will be effective, we buy it anyways.
We’re still trying to save on meals where we can to make up our budget, so we pick up some ramen and (what we think is) garlic bread for dinner
A sadly unsatisfying meal of raman and sugar bread. We desperately need a real grocery store