Andrew Aigner-MuehlerChapter 13- weekend trip to Danong and Shenyang
March 18th 2009 03:00
If you are fortunate like myself while teaching conversational English in China, you can either adjust your working week so you get a longer weekend, or in my case they give you a longer weekend by working extra classes in a day.
This second semester I had planned to take take weekend trips away anyway to see parts of China that I wish to visit. These trips being within close and easy distance to where I live as well, so I can travel by train overnight, and sight see by day.
The first weekend trip I planned was to travel to Shenyang and Danong. The township of Danong was of much interest to me, but to get there I had to go through Shenyang.
From Chengde I left at 0653am by train on Saturday morning on service number 2065. The train trip to Shenyang from Chengde cost 105rmb, but you can not pre-book hard sleepers, you have to purchase ticket on the train. Hard seat tickets you can pre-book.I would have liked to travel by night, but unfortunately there was not a service provided, but it gave me a chance to see the top end of the province Hebei. For the first half of that train trip, there is not much to see. The second half of the train trip, it becomes more scenic. There are more towns to take in, views of alot of traditional Chinese buildings and a distant view of what I beleive is the Great Wall of China with a giant white statue leading up to the Great Wall which to me looks like a Buddha, but I may be wrong. I had a look in my rough guide book and it made no reference of it, but it is around 4 or 5 hours out of Shenyang heading to Chengde on the train. I arrived into Shenyang that evening at 1921pm after a 12 hour plus train trip. On these long train trips, I suggest to take a hard sleeper so you can either sit by the window and take in the view of the countryside and if you feel tired, you can take a nap. This way, you always feel refreshed at your destination. Due to the times of the trains travelling to Danong, I had to stay over in Shenyang either side of my day trip to Danong. As I mentioned previously, when I holiday by myself I stay in backpackers. I had a booking at the Central Youth Hostel in Shenyang. On leaving the Shenyang train station I had it all planed on how to get to the hostel. It is around a 3 kilometre 30 minute walk, or 10 minutes at the most by bus. I had planned to catch bus 237 which stops at the end of Shenyang street which is the same street as the Imperial Palace. On the way to the street to catch the bus, I made the mistake of looking at my notes in my rough guides book to double check the number of the bus. I should be grateful of a local person stopping to ask me if I was okay, but on this occasion, I should not have. This male student insisted on taking me to my hostel. He asked me my bus number. Apparently he was also catching bus #237. After a couple minutes on the bus, he was chatting to the bus driver and talking to his English teacher on the phone. He was then saying to me bus #237 does not go near the Imperial palace, it goes no where near. He put me on the phone to his English teacher, and she was asking me where abouts my hostel is located, is it located by anything. I was saying it is on the same street as Imperial Palace which is Shenyang Street. The student said "there is no such street in Shenyang", the teacher said "we do not have a place called Imperial Palace". I tried to call the hostel and the number was not working. The student was telling me, my book was wrong, it must be outdated. Anyway we then got off bus 237 and changed to bus #296. He tried to get me to tag along with him to find help, at this point before hopping on to bus #296, I saw a hotel, and I said " I go there and ask". This is when the hotel staff did not understand my Chinese nor did they understand English, but I understood bus #296. I hopped on bus 296, the student was still with me, I knew I had around 8 stops, before getting off. The bus driver told us where to get off, which was the Imperial Palace stop. we got off on Chaoyang Street which was on the connected with Shenyang street. The student at that point did not know where we were, he asked other people who did not know. I saw another hotel, which I headed for. Again, this hotel showed to interest in helping me, but after a few minutes I finally got the answer it was around the corner. Guess what the name of the street was? it was Shenyang street, and on the right hand side was the Imperial Palace and then I saw a white sign with the YHA logo. At that point, I tried to lose the student by saying "thank you for your help, you should be getting to your friends place" he insisted on following me. On Check in at the hostel, it just went from bad to worst. i was told that i did not have a booking. This brought back a memory what I read on hostelworld website, another traveller had the problem he did not apparently have a booking. i showed them my confirmation reservation text message from Hostelworld, they did not beleive me, and said charged me more than I was suppose to pay. So, I said what ever, I jsut want to check in. The receptionist was so rude and unfriendly. She spoke English but insisted of talking to this student and letting the student translate. I then said in Englsih and Chinese. Talk to me. This student already got me lost, did not know anything, it took a hour to a place where it should have only taken 10 minutes. The last thing I wanted was for him to give me wrong information. After going off at her, she finally started to talk to me, and then went back to chatting to this student. It took 45 minutes to check in. The reason why they did not have my booking apparently is because they do not have internet, and then tried blaming hostelworld for not giving them the reservationSo, after arriving into the station at 1930pm, I finally made it to my room just before 10pm. i did not know, but the student actually followed me to my room and stood outside the door. I just put my bag down and headed out to find something to eat and see a bit of the town by night. This student actually followed me throughout the town. At times, I lost him, and then I turned around he was there. I walked down the Zhong Jie shopping street which was quite beautiful to say atleast at night, some of the buildings down there which were Russian architecture designed buildings, really impressed me. To me, this is probably the only thing worth seeing in Shenyang. The Imperial Palace which is also beautiful but is said to be dead similar to the forbidden city in Beijing as it is nicknamed the other Forbidden City. Later this evening, the only thing which I found good about Shenyang is having a meal at this restaurant in Shenyang street. I can not tell you the name, as I lost all of my photos and the staff could not tell me. The meal was good, and was asked to join in at a table where i spoke a bit of English and Chinese with these two guys, and had a beer as well. On leaving, the gentleman pushed me aside and said I pay. He paid for my meal. I was thankful. I did not expect it. From there I headed back to the hostel. The next morning, I awoke early to get a train to Danong at 0750am. I went to have a shower, I could not find it. The reason being, the door was shut and locked. You can not have a shower after 7pm or before 8am, which is ridiculous as travellers like getting early starts and getting back late. So, I left with out a shower, and another long check out, which took almost half an hour, which is a 5 minute job at the most. It did take a while also to wke her up, as she was a sleep on a made up bed/ couch behind the counter. Anyway, i caught the 0750am train to Danong, it was only a short trip 3 hours 40 minutes, so I travelled hard seat, it set me back 24rmb. The tip, was quite scenic, through the rolling mountain side with a lot of townships. The train rolled into Danong at 1130am. The train station looked new and clean. Straight outside the station you have a terracotta coloured statue of Mau Ze Dong, and then heading east out of the station down the main street, you have a 5 to 10 minute walk before you hit the Yalu river which acts as the border between China and North Korea. if you walked straight down the road road which is '10 WEI LU' or shiwei lu, you will be standing in Guomen park which has a monument of soldiers in a row boat dedicated to the 1950 Koread war, and to the right you will have the Yalu Bridge, which is closed as Korean police, actually police it alot to keep people from entering and leaving North Korea. It has been known that some foreigners have entered through here into North Korea, but foreigners are maninly restricted, it is also hard for chinese to enter now. Just to the right of the yalu bridge is the Old Yalu Bridge, which was bombed by the Americans when the Chinese entered the Korean war on the Korean side. On foot, this is the the closest you can get to North Korea, it will cost 20rmb to walk on the bridge, which has alot of photos on every single beam as you walk down the bridge, but the written history is in Chinese characters. Down the end of the bridge, you can pay 1rmb to view North Korea through the telescope for a couple of minutes. The North Korean side of the bridge no longer stands and has been removed.
Just to the right of the bridge you can take a 40 minute boat cruise up and down the North Korean coast for 50rmb. You can hire binoculars for 1rmb. The boat at it s closest gets to 40 metres from the Korean coastline. There is not much to see there, besides a few fishing boats, a few people walking around, a few modern cars, a few industrial buildings, and if you look closely you can see young teenage kids shouldering rifles. You will not take any photos of North Korea, the only photos that you may take is off the Danong skyline which is sought of impressing and also of the two bridges in the background with Daning on one side and North Korea on the other side. While on the boat, there is commentary, but in Chinese, they do not go out of their way to feel foreignrs welcome. If on a budget, I do not think the boat cruise is worth the money, just do the walk on the Old Yalu bridge, which I think is a must. You do learn alot by looking at the pictures and if you know Chinese Characters even better.
In Danong, this is basically the only thing to see, it is why people go there. Also, to see what the northern neighbours are doing. Danong does make a perfect day trip away on weekend. Later this afternoon at 1505pm I left Danong, making my way back to Shenyang which arrives back at 1935pm also costing 24rmb. At the train station in Danong, they can not understand English, but they can understand foreigners basic Chinese.
Once back in Shenyang, I needed to stay the night again, as I could not get back to Chengde that evening, and only train to Beijing was 180rmb. I tried to get accomodation at the Peace Hotel which is beside the Shenyang south train station, just for a bed it cost 100rmb, but you need to also pay a 300rmb deposit, they will also try to get you to pay 200rmb for a bed with a shower. I did not have money on me for the deposit, so they turned against me, and said we do not like foreigners staying here anyway, then you can not stay. I was offended, and picked up the key the room key from a counter and side threw it the girls face. There was no need for racism, and I walked out. I tried the railway hotel at the north station by phone, the firs time, I spoke baby English, they laughed at me and hung up, I rang back and spoke Chinese, again they laughed at me, and hung up. My only choice now was to return back to Central Youth Hostel for the night. At this time the showers were locked. I told them I had a early train back to Chengde in the morning, and would like a shower, since I did not have one that morning, and I did not want to go another day with out a shower. At this time, the girl who spoke English who came down stairs in her pyjamas, could not remember me, staying the night before, would not budge or anything to open the shower for me to have a shower. After a while, they let me have a hotel style room cheaper from 88rmb to 80rmb, but they took everything out, the towels, the TV, soaps, shampoo toilet paper and drinks that I could buy. Again, it took me a while to check in. They asked me if I had a reservation. I said no, because it is no use, you do not have internet. As soon, as I got to the room, the door in the shower was eroded away by the water, I do not think, they change the sheets in their hotels room as they were dirty, they had drink or food stains on them, and when I had a shower, the water just basically dripped out and was cold.
Just a bit about Shenyang, if you plan on going to this city, adjust your plans, there is nothing there, like I mentioned there is nothing to see but the other Forbidden city and the Russian architecture down the Zhong Jie shopping street. The city is quite spread out. You may see a few modern buildings, which will surprise you, in the way, why are they built in Shenyang. The people here are quite rude. You can walk into a shop, they will take their time to serve you, they will not greet you, they will just grab your money and give back the change. I must admit Shenyang is one of the worst places that I have ever visited, and the Central Youth Hostel is the worst place that I have ever stayed at. It is a disgrace to Hostelworld and YHA. If you are heading to Dandong, the chances are that you need to go through Shenyang, plan it right, so you have to spend the least possible time there. The city pissed me off that much, I decided the night before I was not even going to stay the day there. I did paln on leaving Shenyang that evening at 1800pm but decided to leave inthe morning at 0810am arriving back into Chengde at 2135pm, surprisingly cheaper costing only 93rmb for a hard sleeper, which I hardly took a nap, as I mainly was in restaurant cart, where I was chatting with the staff, the train crew, a police man and also other passengers. This was one of the best train trips I took in China, if not the world. If on long train trips, it is always good to chat to someone as the time goes much quicker.
This was my weekend way. At the end of the day, I have no regrest of what I did or what happened. it is a experience. Dandong is a place where I wanted to go. It is a place where you must visit for a day. Also, a place where I may have to return back to, as I now have no memories, as my Kodak memory card played up and showed a formatting error which wiped 150 or so photos from my camera, but life goes on.
This second semester I had planned to take take weekend trips away anyway to see parts of China that I wish to visit. These trips being within close and easy distance to where I live as well, so I can travel by train overnight, and sight see by day.
Yalu river park, with the new Yalu Bridge in the background
The first weekend trip I planned was to travel to Shenyang and Danong. The township of Danong was of much interest to me, but to get there I had to go through Shenyang.
From Chengde I left at 0653am by train on Saturday morning on service number 2065. The train trip to Shenyang from Chengde cost 105rmb, but you can not pre-book hard sleepers, you have to purchase ticket on the train. Hard seat tickets you can pre-book.I would have liked to travel by night, but unfortunately there was not a service provided, but it gave me a chance to see the top end of the province Hebei. For the first half of that train trip, there is not much to see. The second half of the train trip, it becomes more scenic. There are more towns to take in, views of alot of traditional Chinese buildings and a distant view of what I beleive is the Great Wall of China with a giant white statue leading up to the Great Wall which to me looks like a Buddha, but I may be wrong. I had a look in my rough guide book and it made no reference of it, but it is around 4 or 5 hours out of Shenyang heading to Chengde on the train. I arrived into Shenyang that evening at 1921pm after a 12 hour plus train trip. On these long train trips, I suggest to take a hard sleeper so you can either sit by the window and take in the view of the countryside and if you feel tired, you can take a nap. This way, you always feel refreshed at your destination. Due to the times of the trains travelling to Danong, I had to stay over in Shenyang either side of my day trip to Danong. As I mentioned previously, when I holiday by myself I stay in backpackers. I had a booking at the Central Youth Hostel in Shenyang. On leaving the Shenyang train station I had it all planed on how to get to the hostel. It is around a 3 kilometre 30 minute walk, or 10 minutes at the most by bus. I had planned to catch bus 237 which stops at the end of Shenyang street which is the same street as the Imperial Palace. On the way to the street to catch the bus, I made the mistake of looking at my notes in my rough guides book to double check the number of the bus. I should be grateful of a local person stopping to ask me if I was okay, but on this occasion, I should not have. This male student insisted on taking me to my hostel. He asked me my bus number. Apparently he was also catching bus #237. After a couple minutes on the bus, he was chatting to the bus driver and talking to his English teacher on the phone. He was then saying to me bus #237 does not go near the Imperial palace, it goes no where near. He put me on the phone to his English teacher, and she was asking me where abouts my hostel is located, is it located by anything. I was saying it is on the same street as Imperial Palace which is Shenyang Street. The student said "there is no such street in Shenyang", the teacher said "we do not have a place called Imperial Palace". I tried to call the hostel and the number was not working. The student was telling me, my book was wrong, it must be outdated. Anyway we then got off bus 237 and changed to bus #296. He tried to get me to tag along with him to find help, at this point before hopping on to bus #296, I saw a hotel, and I said " I go there and ask". This is when the hotel staff did not understand my Chinese nor did they understand English, but I understood bus #296. I hopped on bus 296, the student was still with me, I knew I had around 8 stops, before getting off. The bus driver told us where to get off, which was the Imperial Palace stop. we got off on Chaoyang Street which was on the connected with Shenyang street. The student at that point did not know where we were, he asked other people who did not know. I saw another hotel, which I headed for. Again, this hotel showed to interest in helping me, but after a few minutes I finally got the answer it was around the corner. Guess what the name of the street was? it was Shenyang street, and on the right hand side was the Imperial Palace and then I saw a white sign with the YHA logo. At that point, I tried to lose the student by saying "thank you for your help, you should be getting to your friends place" he insisted on following me. On Check in at the hostel, it just went from bad to worst. i was told that i did not have a booking. This brought back a memory what I read on hostelworld website, another traveller had the problem he did not apparently have a booking. i showed them my confirmation reservation text message from Hostelworld, they did not beleive me, and said charged me more than I was suppose to pay. So, I said what ever, I jsut want to check in. The receptionist was so rude and unfriendly. She spoke English but insisted of talking to this student and letting the student translate. I then said in Englsih and Chinese. Talk to me. This student already got me lost, did not know anything, it took a hour to a place where it should have only taken 10 minutes. The last thing I wanted was for him to give me wrong information. After going off at her, she finally started to talk to me, and then went back to chatting to this student. It took 45 minutes to check in. The reason why they did not have my booking apparently is because they do not have internet, and then tried blaming hostelworld for not giving them the reservationSo, after arriving into the station at 1930pm, I finally made it to my room just before 10pm. i did not know, but the student actually followed me to my room and stood outside the door. I just put my bag down and headed out to find something to eat and see a bit of the town by night. This student actually followed me throughout the town. At times, I lost him, and then I turned around he was there. I walked down the Zhong Jie shopping street which was quite beautiful to say atleast at night, some of the buildings down there which were Russian architecture designed buildings, really impressed me. To me, this is probably the only thing worth seeing in Shenyang. The Imperial Palace which is also beautiful but is said to be dead similar to the forbidden city in Beijing as it is nicknamed the other Forbidden City. Later this evening, the only thing which I found good about Shenyang is having a meal at this restaurant in Shenyang street. I can not tell you the name, as I lost all of my photos and the staff could not tell me. The meal was good, and was asked to join in at a table where i spoke a bit of English and Chinese with these two guys, and had a beer as well. On leaving, the gentleman pushed me aside and said I pay. He paid for my meal. I was thankful. I did not expect it. From there I headed back to the hostel. The next morning, I awoke early to get a train to Danong at 0750am. I went to have a shower, I could not find it. The reason being, the door was shut and locked. You can not have a shower after 7pm or before 8am, which is ridiculous as travellers like getting early starts and getting back late. So, I left with out a shower, and another long check out, which took almost half an hour, which is a 5 minute job at the most. It did take a while also to wke her up, as she was a sleep on a made up bed/ couch behind the counter. Anyway, i caught the 0750am train to Danong, it was only a short trip 3 hours 40 minutes, so I travelled hard seat, it set me back 24rmb. The tip, was quite scenic, through the rolling mountain side with a lot of townships. The train rolled into Danong at 1130am. The train station looked new and clean. Straight outside the station you have a terracotta coloured statue of Mau Ze Dong, and then heading east out of the station down the main street, you have a 5 to 10 minute walk before you hit the Yalu river which acts as the border between China and North Korea. if you walked straight down the road road which is '10 WEI LU' or shiwei lu, you will be standing in Guomen park which has a monument of soldiers in a row boat dedicated to the 1950 Koread war, and to the right you will have the Yalu Bridge, which is closed as Korean police, actually police it alot to keep people from entering and leaving North Korea. It has been known that some foreigners have entered through here into North Korea, but foreigners are maninly restricted, it is also hard for chinese to enter now. Just to the right of the yalu bridge is the Old Yalu Bridge, which was bombed by the Americans when the Chinese entered the Korean war on the Korean side. On foot, this is the the closest you can get to North Korea, it will cost 20rmb to walk on the bridge, which has alot of photos on every single beam as you walk down the bridge, but the written history is in Chinese characters. Down the end of the bridge, you can pay 1rmb to view North Korea through the telescope for a couple of minutes. The North Korean side of the bridge no longer stands and has been removed.
A brief reminder before walking on to the Old Yalu Bridge in Dandong
In Danong, this is basically the only thing to see, it is why people go there. Also, to see what the northern neighbours are doing. Danong does make a perfect day trip away on weekend. Later this afternoon at 1505pm I left Danong, making my way back to Shenyang which arrives back at 1935pm also costing 24rmb. At the train station in Danong, they can not understand English, but they can understand foreigners basic Chinese.
The Old Yalu Bridge which was bombed by the Americans when China entered the Korean war on Korea's side
Once back in Shenyang, I needed to stay the night again, as I could not get back to Chengde that evening, and only train to Beijing was 180rmb. I tried to get accomodation at the Peace Hotel which is beside the Shenyang south train station, just for a bed it cost 100rmb, but you need to also pay a 300rmb deposit, they will also try to get you to pay 200rmb for a bed with a shower. I did not have money on me for the deposit, so they turned against me, and said we do not like foreigners staying here anyway, then you can not stay. I was offended, and picked up the key the room key from a counter and side threw it the girls face. There was no need for racism, and I walked out. I tried the railway hotel at the north station by phone, the firs time, I spoke baby English, they laughed at me and hung up, I rang back and spoke Chinese, again they laughed at me, and hung up. My only choice now was to return back to Central Youth Hostel for the night. At this time the showers were locked. I told them I had a early train back to Chengde in the morning, and would like a shower, since I did not have one that morning, and I did not want to go another day with out a shower. At this time, the girl who spoke English who came down stairs in her pyjamas, could not remember me, staying the night before, would not budge or anything to open the shower for me to have a shower. After a while, they let me have a hotel style room cheaper from 88rmb to 80rmb, but they took everything out, the towels, the TV, soaps, shampoo toilet paper and drinks that I could buy. Again, it took me a while to check in. They asked me if I had a reservation. I said no, because it is no use, you do not have internet. As soon, as I got to the room, the door in the shower was eroded away by the water, I do not think, they change the sheets in their hotels room as they were dirty, they had drink or food stains on them, and when I had a shower, the water just basically dripped out and was cold.
Just a bit about Shenyang, if you plan on going to this city, adjust your plans, there is nothing there, like I mentioned there is nothing to see but the other Forbidden city and the Russian architecture down the Zhong Jie shopping street. The city is quite spread out. You may see a few modern buildings, which will surprise you, in the way, why are they built in Shenyang. The people here are quite rude. You can walk into a shop, they will take their time to serve you, they will not greet you, they will just grab your money and give back the change. I must admit Shenyang is one of the worst places that I have ever visited, and the Central Youth Hostel is the worst place that I have ever stayed at. It is a disgrace to Hostelworld and YHA. If you are heading to Dandong, the chances are that you need to go through Shenyang, plan it right, so you have to spend the least possible time there. The city pissed me off that much, I decided the night before I was not even going to stay the day there. I did paln on leaving Shenyang that evening at 1800pm but decided to leave inthe morning at 0810am arriving back into Chengde at 2135pm, surprisingly cheaper costing only 93rmb for a hard sleeper, which I hardly took a nap, as I mainly was in restaurant cart, where I was chatting with the staff, the train crew, a police man and also other passengers. This was one of the best train trips I took in China, if not the world. If on long train trips, it is always good to chat to someone as the time goes much quicker.
This was my weekend way. At the end of the day, I have no regrest of what I did or what happened. it is a experience. Dandong is a place where I wanted to go. It is a place where you must visit for a day. Also, a place where I may have to return back to, as I now have no memories, as my Kodak memory card played up and showed a formatting error which wiped 150 or so photos from my camera, but life goes on.
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