Yangshuo to Chengdu

We are up early today, with the holiday in full swing, Ping has got us up an hour earlier than normal to ensure we don’t miss our train. It is in my half asleep state that I have a fright when Ping tells me that, once again, this train is going to have crazy security, worse than a plane – unsurprising when one has to have their bag scanned and walk through a metal detector for the metro. Now this shouldn’t be a problem, right. I have got through the security getting into the country surely an internal train ride will be fine. Well Ping says that last trip many people’s power banks that were over 20,000 mAh were confiscated: mine is 25,000. I am really hoping it is okay as I bought this specifically for the trip and have been thoroughly impressed so far. Luckily although both Erika’s and the other Toms bags are flagged before mine I pass without trouble, Erika just having to show her deodorant and soaps then being allowed to pass and, weirdly, Tom’s bug spray which he only bought a couple days ago gets confiscated. As this is all happening I watch to see what does or does not get passed and to me it all seems rather arbitrary, with some water bottles being fine others not, some soaps and shampoos and the like getting the same treatment, I don’t see any power banks confiscated though.

It is a long train journey, almost 1,200 kilometres taking about seven hours on a train reaching speeds over 200 km/h. Finally we make it to Chegndu and meet our new guide Simon. Interesting to note that in the time England has failed to build HS2 (if built, about 570 km) at a cost of £25bn, China has managed to lay about 17,000 km of high-speed track.

I am hungry, as a non-snacker I opted to only bring some boiled sweets on the train with me and haven’t really had anything to eat. Thankfully one of the first thing Simon asks us as we get on the metro to head to our hostel, Flip Flop Hostel, is if we are hungry which we all eagerly say yes to. So once the bags are dropped we rush to a noodle place down the road from the hostel where we wolf down our food. We seem to be in a rush as Simon has informed us that the Sichuan Opera that we all have agreed we want to go to, is actually tonight and not tomorrow. Due to the holidays it was the only day we could get tickets. So after a fast feast we're expecting to be hurried to our next stop but Simon actually tells us we have plenty of time so we can rest in the hostel for almost two hours before we need to leave. Leaving us wondering why we were forced to eat our food so quickly.

Anyway after our rest we head back to the metro to go to the opera. Now I was picturing a classic opera scene when I agreed to this with singers in a big arena or stadium type situation. Where as in reality we head to a local park in the middle of which is a courtyard surrounded by shops in the middle of which are picnic tables laid out with seats in front of a stage. The show is great, full of exciting performances. It consists of a stick puppet show followed by shadow puppets – both impressive. These acts are followed by what we have been told is a classic comedy in which a gambling husband is punished by his wife by putting a fire on his head and demanding he performs some acrobatic feats. The final act is the famous face-changing show with fire spitters. Similar to quick change acts, performers in elaborate clothing have paper thin masks that they quickly change as if changing faces. All the acts are amazing and accompanied often by live music and acrobatics, the whole place is filled with laughter and awes from the crowd. Unfortunately the whole thing is in Chinese so the group and I struggle to follow but enjoy it nonetheless. Our tickets come with complimentary local tea and sunflower seeds, I am unable to enjoy these really as travelling seems to have caught up with me and my tummy isn’t loving something about my mainland China diet. But all in all it is a great experience and in the end we are given free keychains as well.I

High speed trains

Shadow puppetry
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Wonderful colours and costumes

After the show ends we head back down to the metro to head back to the hostel. Most of China seems to run on something called WeChat; it is a Chinese government approved app similar to WhatsApp but it can also be used for payments, only problem being, as a foreigner, anyone in our group would need a referral from a user that has existed for more then 3 months and they are only allowed one referral a year. As such none of the group have it. I have signed up for AliPay another payment app that most places including the metro use but the others are stuck using cash which is a problem in a lot of places as nowhere ever has change and when the other Tom tries to pay for his metro ticket his change is not delivered. This could not come at a worse time as both him and I are desperate for the toilet. With my upset tummy I imagine I need it more than him but what matters is Tom is left to decide does he wait for a worker to come to unlock the machine and return his change or does he wave the 3 yuan (30p) good bye. Luckily for me he opts to lose the money and Simon shows us to the toilets in time. After that fun little adventure we hop on the metro and head back to the hostel, for what I hope will be a good night’s sleep.

Tumblers
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