Nanning

11th August at Nanning Station.

As I come out of the station I try to get my bearings. No taxi touts here; no taxis. Almost nothing in English. I know the hotel is quite close to the station and it is in Chaoyang Road but the map I carefully downloaded onto my phone is useless when the phone's battery has fully discharged. There were some sockets on the train but they were marked 48V DC which didn't seem like a good idea. A woman sells me a map for 8 yuan (US$1 = 6.2 Yuan) but it covers the whole of the city so the only bit of immediate interest to me is about one square inch in the middle and although she carefully selects a map in English for me, I still can't get my bearings or see Chaoyang Road on it.  There is an information kiosk where  a kind young man who speaks some English points out Chaoyang road to me; it is directly across the main road in front of the station. Next challenge is to get across the main road. Not only is it busy and wide but there is a barrier across the middle to prevent jay walking.  At this stage I was prepared to admit defeat and get a taxi but all the taxis were busy. Eventually I find the pedestrian crossing and get to the far side, only to find that the end of Chaoyang Road is a construction site with a high barrier around it. Walk up the nearest parallel road, seeing several other people pulling bags along; at least I am not the only person is this predicament.  Beginning to wish I had booked one of the hotels next to the station. They got lousy reviews but they look quite OK. Eventually I see  the Phoenix, luckily with a sign in English as well as Chinese  and a very welcome sight it is. The plus side is that the hotel is much better than I expected with a flamboyant Chinese themed lobby reminiscent of the Grand Bilboa in Macao, although, in my view, with more taste and less gilt. The room is excellent and I even get some free bananas. Forgot to mention that Nanning is hot and humid so I am drenched in sweat but after a shower, a cup of tea and a banana, I begin to feel a bit more human. As well as the usual mini-bar items and bathroom toiletries, toothbrush and paste, cotton buds and comb there are a number  of other items for sale including the famous "uncomplimentary" condoms, as opposed to those that say "Hello Big Boy. You're looking good tonight" and the "non-present" antibacterial lotion together with  some other items which I am hoping my Chinese reading friends will explain to me. 

Phoenix Hotel

I need to pick up my ticket for tomorrow from the station and I want to see a bit of the town so go out about 1 pm only to encounter a downpour and get soaked. Decide this isn't a good idea, so return to the room to change into shorts and wait for the rain to abate. Set out an hour later, after another cup of tea, by which time it is just normal rain. Back at the station, I find the way in and go through the security check to get to the ticket office and join what appears to be the shortest queue. There are about  20 windows and minimum of 10 people queuing at each. Nanning is totally different from anywhere I have been so far. Hanoi, Hue, Saigon and Phnom Penh have all been quite tourist focused with plenty of people speaking  some English and with an incentive to interact with me, whether it is a taxi, restaurant,  shop or whatever. But here, I am overwhelmed by the huge numbers of people, all Chinese, with few concessions to non Chinese. Everywhere there are crowds. When I get to the ticket window,  I hand the woman my print out and passport and after a brief discussion with a colleague over my passport, she prints out a ticket and gives it to me with my passport. All very painless. And in fairness I should point out that the station does have a sign saying "Ticket Office" in English and I can't imagine any station in a provincial city making similar concessions to non-English speakers. As I walk out of  the ticket office onto the station concourse, I realise that if I had looked in the right direction from the right position I would have been able to see the sign for the Phoenix hotel!   

Nanning Station Ticket Office

Can you Spot the Phoenix Hotel from the Station Forecourt? 

Having got my ticket, I set off in the direction of the river, along Chaoyang Road, away from the railway station and past the hotel, but it is further than it seems on the map and I get completely disorientated at a large  intersection.  Even with the map, navigation is difficult. Need to walk hundreds of metres to find a street sign in English or to cross the road. Lots of construction, think it is for a metro line since there is a picture of a train on the hoardings, means additional diversions. Traffic in Nanning is less frenetic than Vietnam, partly because the roads are wider. But also discipline is better with almost 90% stopping at red lights. On the downside,  traffic is dominated by thousands of electric scooters that are free to use pedestrian walkways, aren't bound by any rules of the road,  and come up silently behind you.

The plan was to cross the river and get to a park on the other side but I find myself on a major road on this side of the river with no access to the river front. Eventually decide to give up and consider getting a taxi back to the hotel but all the taxis are busy; clearly a green light does not mean "available" as it does in Singapore. So retrace my steps and do get to see the riverfront from an elevated park over the top of a road I walked along before. The riverfront area is not particularly scenic anyway but the steady rain doesn't help. Decide that Nanning is indeed an unlovely city, as all the comments on the internet indicated,  and pleased I am only here for one night.

Herd of Electric Scooters

River front  in the Rain

Back in the main shopping area along Chaoyang Road and looking for somewhere to have dinner, I realise it may be a problem to find somewhere with a menu in English. Don't want my first meal in China to be a Big Mac, KFC, pizza, or even sushi, all of which are widely available. Stop off at a Watsons and Wal-Mart where I can find things without any language skills. In the huge Wal-Mart I get some granola bars,  dried mango and some 3 in 1 coffee and a mug so I can get a hot drink on the train tomorrow. It is a long journey, about 27 hours,  and I have no idea what catering arrangements there may be. Bet Wal-Mart in US doesn't have live fish! There are big tongs so I think you can grab the fish of your choice and get it weighed.

Eventually I find a Hong Kong restaurant in one of the shopping malls, which provides a dual language menu. It is one of the places where you identify the items you want by ticking the them in pencil on the menu and hand it the waiter so it works perfectly for me. Order beef with rice, vegetables with garlic, steamed rice and an American Ginseng tea. The beef turns up with lots of green beans  and is very tasty so I didn't really need the additional vegetables  which turns out to be kailan, which I am sure is good for me.

Interesting that fashion trends are international. In Singapore, Vietnam and here, lots of the women are wearing brightly coloured shorts, and a substantial minority are wearing ones with frilly lace. The shorts make a lot of sense in the hot weather; the only reason I wore long trousers during the day  in Singapore was to go to work. Also a trend of wearing a short skirt with a matching semi-transparent longer one over the top.

Back in the hotel room I experiment with internet. Yahoo, Hotmail, Guardian and Telegraph are all ok but all the Google sites and Facebook are blocked. Welcome to the Great Firewall of China.