Trip to Wuhan

A trip to Wuhan – China

After Hong Kong we decided to take the high speed train to Wuhan, as it is supposed to be the fastest train in the world, even slightly faster than the French TGV!! At max. speed it is supposed to go 350 km/h!!!! Of course we need to experience that first hand. Therefore we crossed the border from HK to mainland China on foot to Shenzen.

At the duty free shops we spend our last HK dollars for water, cookies and chewing gum hmmm what a feast! Right after the border in Shenzen there is the train and bus station. Unfortunately also right after the border any English skills from the locals disappear completely. Everything is written in Chinese and as the Chinese New Year is soon to come the station is a total mess packed with Chinese people any age trying to get home.

After we exit the border terminal a policemen stops as and gestures that we have to wait in a specific waiting square that he makes up for us!!! We are a little puzzled meanwhile he is giving a call to somebody with his private mobile phone... we try to sneak off but he gestures that we should stay where we are. Suddenly a guy shows up who is actually able to speak English and wants to „organize“ tickets for us, we just need to give our passport to him and he will sort everything out! Of course we figured eventually that they want to rip us off and we excuse us to head away. Now a 1,5 hour odyssey to buy a ticket starts. Eventually we meet a tiny Chinese guy who usually carries luggage for passengers who speaks around 5 words of English. He explains to us that we have to take a Bus to Guangzouh where the highspeed train actually departs. Therefore he takes us to the right ticket office, orders the tickets, shows us the waiting room and the correct bus stop. This little person was a real angel!!!! Once in a while a couple of awkward guys were trying to sell us a busride to Wuhan (which is around 1100 km away)!!!! but our little angel is gesturing that those guys wanna rip us off and that we should get away as fast as possible.

After a 2,5 hour bus ride we arrived in Guangzouh. I have never seen such a vast train station... it seems as it was built to accommodate at least 50 percent of the Chinese population at once!!!! There we had to queue for another 2 hours just to get the tickets!!! While we were waiting we made friends with two Chinese guys where one of them spoke around 100 words of English but that was already enough to become our friend of the day! He turned out to be extremely helpful and handy as he ordered the tickets for us and took us to the correct gate. Unlike in Austria or Europe you can t enter the platform before the train arrives, you have to wait like in an airport until the train is ready to be boarded. Unfortunately due to the Chinese New Year everything was a mess and the train was delayed by 2,5 hours. A lady made constantly announces via a huge megaphone, of course only in Chinese. Fortunately our new Chinese friends, could figure out that we had to take eventually another train which was still a highspeed traIn.

To introduce us to Chinese traveling food one of our new friends invited us for a traditional instant cup soup. Basically this instant soup contains dry noodles and some chemicals (too artificial to call them spices) to make it taste. All around the train station you can find „Samowars“ where you can get hot fresh water, cause the tap water is full of chlorine. So you add some hot water to the chemical pot and the try noodles and you have a „decent“ hot meal. Looking around we saw, that basically everybody enjoyed such an artifical meal, therefore: „In China,do it as the Chinese do“ we tried as well.

Again we were fascinated by their way of eating noodles. To imagine better, think about when you were a kid, how your mum forbid you to eat noodles. Thats the correct way to do it! Make as much noise as possible you need to just suck them in, once in a while spitting something back into the pot!

Eventually we got on the train and had an excellent ride to Wuhan. The train is really fast and luxurious, with enough space for your feet and every now and then a lady is either passing by to sell food or to clean up your mess!

After 3,5 hours we arrived in Wuhan. Imagin 1000 km in 3,5 hours!!!!!! Totally cool!

Our Chinese friend put us to a taxi and explained the driver where to go. Fortunately we had taken a photo of the Chinese address (written in Chinese characters). Cause after a 2 minute ride, the driver slowly stopped on the highway(!) and asked in Chinese for the way again. OHO that is not a good sign! Well we showed him the map again and were hoping for the best!

Now a 20 minute ride on an absolute straight street started! Just straight ahead, no curves, no turns and absolutely ignoring red traffic lights! I started to get scared that he would drop us in the middle of no-where at one o clock in the night asking for money to take us somewhere to a more civilized area.

But eventually he really dropped us at our youth hostel!!!! What a relief. The meter said that its 31 yuan but he was asking for 50, so we started to argue. He was screaming in Chinese and we were screaming back in German. To make us feel a little tensed he had locked us in! After a little while we managed a compromise of 40.... well i guess you need to be prepared for a little rip off!!!

We got finally out of the taxi and walked over to the youth hostel sign but we found only huge iron gates which seemed to be locked!!!! nooooo.....we wanted a bed RIGHT NOW! Fortunately fabi managed to somehow open the gate and we found our way to the entrance of the hostel!!!!!!!!!

Well from that experience you can see travelling in China is defenitely an experience to be made and good for some fun and adventure!