I have just returned from my third trip to Hefei, the capital and largest city of Anhui Province in the People's Republic of China. Hefei is the administrative and commercial center in a rice- and cotton-growing region. Hefei is known as the garden city because of its many parks. I would not have have known this if a colleague had not mentioned this fact, because I do no recall seeing one park during this or previous trips. However, each time I have visited Hefei, I return with a different funny, yet memorable experience. This one I like to call, Hefei Revisited.
Just one day earlier, I attended Game 1 of the NBA playoffs in which California's Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans. During the game, I behaved like a crazy b-ball fan by banging my thunder sticks each time Steph Curry or Klay Thompson successfully sunk a basket from the 3-point line, or when Draymond Green slam dunked the ball at a critical point in the game.
The next day, my United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Beijing went without a hitch. But, I was not looking forward to the five hour layover for my transfer to Hefei, nor was I looking forward to arriving in Hefei close to 10pm. Should any delays, flight cancellations or lack of taxis from Hefei into town occur, I might be reliving my 1st travel experience to Hefei.
It took about two hours to clear customs in Beijing, transfer to my connecting flight departure terminal and get situated before deciding on an airport layover dinner. Before passing through security in Beijing, I thought it best to ask airport personnel if it was better for me to get dinner in the unsecure airport area, or in the area just past security. I was informed that the restaurants past security were ”more interesting.” I took that as lots of choices.
After clearing security and walking around to see my "more interesting" choices, I settled on Kentucky Fried Chicken, better known as KFC, because 1) I was tired and, 2) it was the most interesting restaurant in the part of the terminal closet to my departing gate. On the return trip, I would find that there was a lot more than KFC in the airport.
Upon arrival in Hefei, and following take off delays, it was after 10pm so I hurried to catch a taxi. Thank goodness they now had taxis from the airport, unlike my first trip in which taxis had not started servicing travelers from the airport. I showed the driver a paper with the name of the hotel, address and phone number. He acted as if he knew where to take me. However, the airport security standing nearby started to sense the taxi driver might be confused. The security man asked for my itinerary with my hotel information and then appeared to tell the taxi driver in Mandarin where I was going as I heard the driver say Shushan Mingyi, the name of my hotel.
As we drove to the area just immediately outside of the airport the taxi driver asked me something in Mandarin and I said "No," since I don’t say Yes to anything I don’t understand. He hit his palm to his forehead and then pulled out currency. It turns out that he wanted to know if I had cash to pay. I then answered, "Yes." He wrote 1-2-0 on a piece of paper to which I answered, "No," pointed to the taxi meter, "or take me back to the airport." I had already been told that the taxi would be about 70RMB to get to the hotel. From my travels throughout Asia, I have always learned not to let taxi drivers give a pre-determined fare when they have a meter in their vehicle. I think he understood what I meant even without getting my response in Mandarin.
We started to drive again and the taxi driver pulled out a cigarette and lit it. I started yelling "No, No, No," rolled down the window and starting coughing. He put the cigarette out and said "okay, okay."
After that we did not say another word until we got to the hotel. He was too busy checking the meter to make sure he could either drive slow enough, or just out of the way of a direct route to run it up to 94RMB. Final tally, 110 RMB.
At the hotel, the taxi driver put me out across the street from the hotel and made no effort to assist with my baggage. It was close to midnight and I just wanted to get into the bed at what I thought was the Shushan Mingyi Holiday Inn Hotel. Somehow, there was no “Inn” in the actual title, which is probably why before leaving the US, I couldn’t find any traveler reviews or information that this hotel was part of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels.
I surveyed the hotel for cleanliness, and the lobby looked pleasant enough. The desk agent advised that my room was on the 6th or top floor, and I tried to confirm that I was in a non-smoking room. However, the ladies at the front desk did not understand me even though I pointed to an ash tray, coughed and shook my head as if to say No. They had no clue as to what I was saying. Alright, I thought, time to go to bed.
The hall to my room was dark and dreary, and had remnants of walking into the Jack Nicholson movie, "The Shining." The room upon entering was just as dark. It smelled of cigarette smoke, and the carpet had multiple stains and cigarette burns. I showered and immediately went to bed, but decided I would sleep on top of the bed. After turning out the lights, I had the feeling I was not alone, and just hoped nothing would bite me as I slept.
I awoke the next morning. The sleep was not good, and the bed was not comfortable, a typical tourist hotel mattress typical of unfamiliar establishments in China. I was not supposed to go into the office until the following day, and could actually spend the day resting. I went for a morning walk to survey the hotel surroundings, and quickly found out that there was no familiar places to get breakfast or coffee immediately outside of the hotel (e.g., no Starbucks, McDonald’s, 7-11). There was not even any places which appeared to be a Chinese coffeeshop. Furthermore, as I walked around looking for businesses which might be a restaurant, I did not find anyone who could speak English within 500 feet of the hotel.
Back at the hotel lobby, I recognized a colleague from Hong Kong who was also staying at the hotel. He was going into the office and offered to take a taxi with me. At this point, the offer to go into the office seemed like the better option, knowing there was food onsite. At the office, I did a little work, had lunch in the cafeteria with some of the Hefei customer service team members, and then returned to the hotel by 2pm because everyone thought I looked jet-lagged and tired. Another colleague in the office advised that there was a convenience store, just three doors over from the hotel, where I could get fruit, water and some quick snacks.
As I walked from the convenience store to the hotel, I found that my room had not yet been serviced since I first left. Upon checking my email, I read a note from my Hefei colleague (rather late), that the hotel does not take international credit cards at check-out, and that I should make sure to bring enough Yuan with me for the trip. It seems that I had exchanged just enough currency at the San Francisco airport to pay for my room. That essentially meant that I should not spend what I had in Yuan on anything else. I guess it was a good thing I only bought bananas and bottled water at the convenience store only minutes before.
As I begin to get settled in for an afternoon nap, I heard "Knock, knock…" at my door. It was housekeeping finally coming to service my room. I let the two ladies in, and since it was 3pm and I was already dressed for bed, I asked for an additional pillow for the evening. That question was lost in translation. The housekeeping ladies sent the supervisor up who began a long conversation in Mandarin with me. I returned the conversation in English. Finally, the supervisor handed me a pen and paper, took the English version of my request and came back with a pillow.
Next, the supervisor started to show me how to work all the light switches, television, "Do Not Disturb" and "Make up Room" lights. She and a hotel engineer who, subsequently entered the room, began to show me all 31 of the Chinese only channels using the remote, but then they decided to watch TV in my room when they came across a channel with, I suppose, one of their favorite Chinese soap operas (aka daytime drama). I pushed the room door closed so no other staff would invite themselves in to the impromptu party, and just let them stand and watch TV. Eventually they got the hint that I did not want to watch TV in my room with them, and left.
A short while later, at about 4pm and while taking a nap, the supervisor used her key to burst in my room yelling something in Chinese. It turns out one of the housekeepers had left the “Please Make up Room” light on while fiddling with the controls earlier, and I believe the supervisor was now scolding me for not turning off the housekeeping call light. This time, I did not even get up from bed, rather I threw the covers over my head and continued to rest, all the while hoping she would just go away and not turn on the television to watch more soap operas. Much later when I woke up, I noticed that someone had dropped a bunch of cards on my floor of scantily- clad Chinese girls with phone numbers to call. I could not be sure if someone keyed there way into the room while I was sleeping. Or, maybe it was that supervisor again. However, this card dropping continued every night throughout my stay. I realized that someone was shoving the cards underneath my door, sending them as far into the room as they could go, because some nights there were not always accurate in their aim. Sometimes, some cards were right outside the door. I started to kick them back out of the room and into the hallway each night.
I had not noticed the numerous dark brown stains on the room's carpet until later in the next day after the housekeeping fiasco. At the same time, either I was imagining things that might have taken place in this room or something at some time in the past had actually happened. There appeared to be a body crime scene outline of a person on the floor in front of the bed. Whether or not this was true, the room creeped me out even more and I could not wait to check-out of The Shining's Overlook Hotel aka Holiday Hotel. At this point, I vowed never to let my colleagues in China reserve my hotel room again, though it was a nice gesture on their part. Perhaps my Hefei colleagues thought the Holiday Hotel was the same as the American chain Holiday Inn.
The next few days of workshops were packed with a lot of new information so it was great that we could end our evenings by 8:30pm and basically retire to our rooms just in time for bed. On my departure day, I had a 7:00am flight back to the US. I got to the airport just a little before 6am to make sure I had time to check-in at the ticket desk, check my luggage, and get a cup of tea and snack before boarding the flight to Shanghai's Pudong Airport. When the taxi arrived at Hefei Airport, and after getting out of the taxi, I noticed a lot of people outside the airport doors, standing in a crowd, chatting or taking photos. Did a very large tour group just arrive, I asked myself. As the taxi driver put my luggage on the curb, he said in the small amount of English he knew, "airport closed." The driver then got back into his taxi and sped away.
At first, I thought he was confusing his words with something like, "the airport door is that way," or "have a nice flight." I thought maybe he had dropped me off at the wrong airport. Was the old Hefei airport still in operation while the Chinese government worked out the kinks at the new airport? Trying not to panic at what could be the start of another Hefei mishap trip, I calmly rolled my bag through the crowd, toward the glass automatic double doors to see if they would open, but they did not. I looked at the door sign, and could only make out what must have been the hours of operation, which stated open at 6am. I said under my breath, WTF!! I did not realize that airports even closed. Yes, I was surprised, just as much as as I was on my first trip here when the Hefei airport did not have taxis in operation yet. During my first trip to Hefei I had to get a 45-minute ride from three men who I had never met, and of which only one of them could speak English. It was so hilarious a situation that one could only laugh, after being terribly panicked I might add.
As I stood outside the airport doors with all the other passengers, I noticed that I was getting lots of stares from the people all around me. Suddenly, it seemed the people started to move closer to me, almost surrounding me. In the process of moving away from the crowd, a young woman moved in front of me, literally blocking my path of escape, and she asked in the most timid of voices, complete with incorrect grammar, "Take a picture with you?" Her group was a from a rural area of China that rarely saw Americans. However, my friend from Shanghai said that I look like the minority who live in rural parts of China. I do no know if that added to their fascination, but I do not think there was any malice involved.
I took the photo with the group and then it was 6am and the airport doors opened, so I dashed off to be at the gate by my 7am takeoff time. It was not until after I got to the gate and had time to process the morning thus far that I realized something. It did not occur to me at the time to get a photo of myself with the large group. Oh well, opportunity lost.
Comments