The Chengde dog show

The goverment decided to give us a long weekend this last weekend. They have decided that a mass exodus from the cities during the 3 annual Chinese holidays needs to be avoided, so they have shortened the length of each of these holidays and added in a few extra days throughout the year. We found out on Monday that the Friday was going to be given off, and we unanimously decided to take advantage of this and get away from Beijing. Afterall, I had yet to explore any other city in China! We pretty much went eeny meeny miny mo and picked a spot on the map that was both far enough out of Beijing to be different, but close enough to warrant just an overnight stay. It was a toss up between Qinghuangdao and Chengde and based on the bad reviews Lonely Planet gave Qinghuangdao, we chose Chengde. Afterall - Lonely planet are never wrong...right?
We knew better than to expect too much from the "experience" but we certainly were expectant when we left bright and early on Friday morning for our first China 'getaway'. We trekked to where the book said their would be a "small sign above a food stall" - because in true Kyle style we had to pick the most remote pick up point, the place the book described as 'only good if you speak Chinese'. But after fighting off the hordes at the bus stop (the change in government ruling did nothing to divert the mass exodus of people from the city) we found a group of dodgy looking guys who led us to the back of what I can only describe in South African terms as a shack. We then paid our RMB60 each and I was pleasantly surprised when they handed us a 'ticket' - thinking that perhaps they were legit afterall. We didn't wait long for the 'bus' and during that time a number of other people joined the line. We were then led down the road - away from all the good looking and clean coaches - to where a dirty, small, nothing more than a piece of junk vehicle stood awaiting us with bright red "Chengde" sinage on it's back. You have to imagine - in fact don't imagine, just take a look at the picture below - it has only 19 seats in it but we squeezed an extra 4 people in the aisles who the picked up along the way. The driver smoked the whole way there and the "toilet" stop...no I wont go into any more detail. You get the picture...
We arrived in Chengde 8 hours after we had set off from our home - and it was supposed to be at 4,5 hour trip. We were then ripped off by the taxi driver and fooled into taking an expensive room at one of the only hotels that accept Westerners. They showed us their "show room" just long enough for us to hand over the deposit and then proceeded to give us the dirtiest place I've ever slept in! The shower nozzle was firmly fixed right over the toilet and it didn't drain the water so there was a permanent puddle in the bathroom when you were on the loo! I didn't take my shoes off the whole time we were inside except when we slept. We tried to cheer ourselves up with the fact that we hadn't come all this way to be cooped up in our room - so we tried venturing out for lunch. We ate the most normal thing we found off the streets and then tried to cover it's taste with an overpriced ice cream. We walked the dreary city flat, pointed and stared at wherever we went, until eventually to avoid complete starvation bought ourselves a box of 2 min noodles and shared the fork as we ate it. We were completely exhausted from the ordeal of the day and so after a mediocre dinner decided to call it a night. You can just imagine how despondent we were feeling by the time we eventually crawled into our hard bed, tossed aside our enormous pillows and slept on our towels. The next day wasn't much better - we tried to be tourists by climbing on a bus and heading to the largest Buddhist temples in China (outside of Tibet) but we could only fake our interest for a few hours and before noon we were making our way home. It took us another 8 hours to get home, with more rip offs on food and an even worse ride in between. We eventually asked the driver to drop us off on the outskirts of the city and we made our way back to the home we love via the bus routes we knew.
I definitely learned a few things this trip - and next time we are this ambitious - I might be a little more prepared!
We have affectionately started using the term "dog show" when referring to our disastrous weekend away. If anything it made us realise how good we have it here in Beijing - or at least how "normal" Beijing now feels to us. Give me busy streets and mad buses anyday!