a little coffee

Kaifeng.  Chris and I pulled ourselves out of bed by 9 in time for the hotel’s breakfast.  Of course, I had bread and coffee in my head so I was a tad shocked to see a lunch buffet in front of me: rice, potatoes, eggs, carrots, other vegetables sliding around their pans, eggs with tomato, dumplings, friend bread, and steamed bread and four big barrels of soup.

Kaifeng Hotel- where we stayed

I picked up my chopsticks, ate a whole bunch of fried bread, eggs, lamented the lack of coffee, tea or any drink that wasn’t watered down soya milk, and we were ready to start our day.

We had been told by local Kaifengers and visitors that the giant parks in the city would occupy our attention for most of the day so that’s where we headed- to be dazzled by this very beautiful, very ancient city

We made one quick detour- to the second McDonald’s we’d seen in the two months in China so I could have my morning coffee.  Yes, it seems the only place to get coffee is at a decadent Western restaurant. Ah… the coffee was as strong and bitter as I remembered it…

Onwards to Longting Park (Dragon Pavillion), a huge, sweeping park planted around several large lakes.  As we approached, the swooping, pointed roofs in the classic Chinese style we all recognize popped up.  I thought, for the first time, that I can see I am actually in China.

A building outside the entrance to Longting Park

Lonely Planet tells me this is largely to protect the ancient city, the former capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 976-1126), that successive floods buried below the current city. This meant no buildings that required deep foundations- none of the beefy, concrete slab skyscrapers like in Anyang and Zhengzhou. But after wandering around the city streets for a while, Chris and I saw a lot of the same stores as in Anyang, a lot of the same basic, dirty, nondescript architecture- only a dirty blue instead of dirty white. The exceptions appeared to be the buildings right in front of Longting Park.

We didn’t do much inside the park, just wandered around and enjoyed the lovely and bright scenery.  Yellow, red, and purple chrysanthemums, shaped into peacocks or dragons decorated the park and its red pagodas. Inside, many had mannequins dressed in, what I presumed, was the old, traditional style of dress when Kaifeng used to be the Song Dynasty capital. We spent the remainder of the uneventful morning and early afternoon wandering around, snapping pictures like the throng of Chinese tourists.  The exictement came when I needed to use the bathroom- my first public Western-style toilet.

Inside Longting Park

Beware the dragon!

After, we ducked into KFC before hitting the streets again and finding the West Gate, part of the old city walls that still wrap around Kaifeng. Their in the tiny park around the gate, to Chris’s child-like, hand-clapping delight were two young people practicing with nun-chucks!  Oh yes, he took pictures.

For dinner, we met up with the boyfriend of one of Chris’s students who took us to a famous local restaurant where, once again, our tongues danced with the food’s delicious flavors. Doll vegetables (mushrooms and some kind of green in a broth) sweet chestnuts, and the winner: bao zi.  This is a kind of steamed dumpling stuffed with fresh vegetables, noodles and egg. Very famous in Kaifeng. And it was so worth the hell in Zhengzhou for them.  

The next morning, we stopped briefly at the Buddhist temple. To my inexperienced eyes, it looked much like Longting, only with Buddhas (108 images throughout) in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles inside the buildings. And people praying with incense. For the price to get in, it seemed more like a tourist trap than anything. The monks appeared to just peddle mini-buddhas and sell bundles of incense- not unlike the big famous churches in Europe with their crosses and idols.

Inside the Buddhist Temple

After we blew that popstand, we enjoyed a pain-free trip back to Anyang. Beauiful city?  Eh. But it was a welcomed break.