This trip began poorly, and it didn't let up easily. Once I finally got there, I could see signs of the sun rising, and I was very unimpressed. First off, I quickly realized I had not calculated my financial status properly, and realized I wasn't going to be able to see Qufu, the birthplace and deathplace of Confucious, the famous Chinese philosopher, and butt of many jokes about China. I was pissed off about that, but I could live with it.
However, I was still very bitter about the train ride, and what's worse is the whole time I was in the train station, I was being attacked by the same four "taxi drivers". Unlicensed random guys trying to drive you around and imposing a jacked up price on you. They'd come at me in shifts, so I was never alone, just always walking around or standing with one guy or another, hounding me saying "Taxi! Taxi! Tai Shan, taxi!" despite my telling them I didn't want a taxi. In China, apparently, if someone says they don't want something, it just means you should tell them again about what rip off you're offering... 18 times. Finally, I was so frustrated that I stopped ignoring the guy, looked up from my Lonely Planet guide, and yelled loud enough for the train station to echo "I don't want a fucking taxi!". Rather than leave, they all just shut up and stood near and watched me.
Finally, I just bought a ticket for the next day (in the afternoon) for a "quick" train. The quick train they were offering was 9 hours back, and they jacked up the price by almost double. I paid for it anyway, and realized there was definitely no way to afford Qufu, so I pushed it out of my mind. I gave the cab drivers another glare to make sure they stayed in their place, and walked to the door of the ticket office to figure out which way was north to get my bearings on the map.
Unfortunately, it was raining, so there was no sun out, and worse yet, that also indicated I would see no sunrise the next day. My plan was falling apart, and I was becoming darker and darker shades of red from anger and frustration. Finally, a man my age came up to me and asked in English if they could help - a common question from those who want to practice English for free, and also from those who want to make friends with you before they sell you something. I warily told him "Well, most of all, I don't want a taxi" very firmly. He smiled, and started a short conversation with me about the typical things, where I'm from, why am I in China, etc. I started to decide he only wanted to practice English, but I continued to talk to him, mainly because he was the first person in over 14 hours who was nice to me.
Soon after, his friends showed up, who also knew English quite well, and they all smiled and listened in. I told them briefly of my problems on the train as part of my apology for being abrasive in the beginning of the conversation. Suddenly, they all started chatting in Chinese, and one of them turned to me and said "We are excited to see you. We'd like it if you came with us to see our university, and you can come sleep in our dorm room". I immediately smelled scam, so I asked them how much it would cost, and they looked confused and said "No, for free." I was still skeptical, but eventually followed them anyway. It proved to eventually have saved the trip.
The campus was very nice, and they bought breakfast for me, despite that I insisted that I'd pay. Chinese are very good at somehow paying the bill for you. I eventually started taking pictures of the campus, as it was nicely set up, despite the fact that the rest of Tai'An looked like an average city in Canada, sunken about a foot in mud (because it was raining), after everyone decided to take a simultaneous dump on the city. It was just seriously underdeveloped, and even the residents admitted that. I had gone here knowing that Jessica's friend used to live here, but I didn't find out until after the trip that apparently, she also got the fuck out as soon as she could, because it sucked.
Afterwards, they took me to another campus, where the dorms were, and as I expected, they wouldn't let a foreigner in the dorms. Surprise, surprise, a university with no foreign students had no accomodations for a foreigner. My new friends clearly did not know the laws surrounding foreigners, and that some areas are closed to us. I wasn't worried, and expected that to be where we parted, but oh, I was so wrong.
They insisted they knew of a place I could stay for only 10 yuan. That's not even two dollars Canadian. I laughed and told them there was no way a place that cheap could take a foreigner, and they said it could be done. So I humoured them, and walked with them to the hotel. However, once at the hotel, one of them grabbed my shoulder, and held me back from going in. The other two walked in, and I looked in confusion at the one who grabbed me. We chatted for a bit, until the other two came out and waved us into the hotel after arrangements had been made. Once again, they had paid. The one who grabbed me said "Walk fast." and I realized what was happening. I was being smuggled into a real Chinese hotel.
I walked in, walking briskly to the stairs up to my room, and the receptionist froze with a look of undefinable emotion on her face. It was a mix of wonder at the new foreigner and fear and surprise of the possibility they'd be shut down. If a place takes a foreigner without being licensed for it, they can face quite a horrible fine, or worse. This place clearly was not licensed. I had walked inside a building to the lobby, if you can call it that. The roof ended suddenly towards the back, and the stairs leading up also had the roof end suddenly. From then, it was just an open concrete floor with rooms sort of thrown together out of nowhere. The doors were shabby, and the walls, despite being exposed directly to the outdoors, were made of drywall. This "building" was actually just a shack, converted to some rooms of some sort of improvised make.
There was a window into another room, and I could see a man with a lady in his room. It was quite clear to me that she was a prostitute, and kept walking. I later heard the two of them together in the washroom, despite the fact that they were clearly not showering or using the (squat) toilet. We entered my room, and the Chinese people immediately locked the door each time they came and went, which unnerved me. At this point, they had easily earned my trust, but the fact that police could come by and kick me out of the city at any time was making me quite nervous, to say the least.
I slept, despite the rock hard bed and "pillow", with my backpack beside me against the wall, just in case. After about 4 or 5 hours, we set out, and one of the Chinese people got his deposit back. It was 5 yuan. I have never paid a deposit less than 100 yuan. I was thankful I didn't get arrested or kicked out, and happily went on my way. They took me for lunch, which was much nicer. Again, they managed to pay the bill, despite my protest.
We still had a lot of time to kill, as some of them were going to climb Tai Shan as well to see the sunrise, so we went to a temple that was a common stop before attempting the climb called Dai Miao. The temple was nice, although fairly typical. I saw a lady mopping carpet in one of the temples, but didn't manage to sneak a good picture, and they were quite angry after, as they thought I was taking pictures of the inside of the temple itself. I wish I had, as the inside walls of that temple were very beautiful, and actually real history for a change.
A common problem I have with China's temples is that sometimes, the temples' insides are quite interesting, but they won't let you take pictures because of the religiousness. I could understand that, if the temples were holy in the least. However, I've been to many temples. The statues and the temples' decor are all pirated, as they look identical, right down to the paintjob the outside of the temple has. Seriously, they're factory made. Some temples even admit in the plaques that the temple was rebuilt or "restored" in the 1980's. Furthermore, it's common for it to suddenly become ok for me to take pictures after paying money at the altar. If it were really for religious reasons, I'd have no problem not taking pictures. My problem is that it's only bad form to take pictures until money makes their religious spirit disappear. I've even seen monks light up a cigarette inside a temple before. Hardly a religious act, or a sacred grounds.
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