Yesterday was mental. I don’t usually provide an update until I have moved on, but this is a special case. The plan was to get to Nanjiecun, a ‘communist community’, which is really a showcase for Communism but is more the only example of a Maoist collective in China. I’d seen it on Paul Merton in China, so I thought I’d go. It turned out to be even more of an adventure than the ‘Perm-36’ episode in Russia!

The day started with me attempting to get up early, so that I could have breakfast and leave for the bus. I’d travelled to Zhengzhou the day before, after having got an overnight sleeper train from Pingyao, so the extra coach journey to Zhengzhou made it a tiring day. I managed to leave the hotel only an hour later than I’d imagined and made my way the to bus station that the coach the previous day had dropped me at. After attempting to buy a ticket for Linying, the closest village to Nanjiecun, I was told this was not possible and the woman behind the glass scribbled something on a piece of paper. I showed this to the woman behind the information desk, who gave me a card I couldn’t read and pointed me outside. I took this, along with the instructions I’d shown the original woman, to what looked like some kind of security office/control room. After getting my picture taken, one of the women walked me to a bus stop and told me which stop to get off at. The bus took me to the southern coach station, a fairly civillised station surounded by what I would describe as mayhem. I bought the ticket and then had a fairly long exchange with another woman behind an information desk, who, helpfully, could speak more English and was more interested in helping than the previous person. After me using my phrasebook several times to ask multiple questions, someone offered to tell me when to get off, as he was getting off at the same stop. After spending the 2 hours listening (and watching) a very loud mix of Chinese theatre and government propaganda, we got to Linying. I managed to find out when the last bus left from the helpful man, before he disappeared.

A woman was standing outside with a crash helmet on, walking away from what looked like a took-took (or some mode of transport). I managed to signal that I wanted to go to the Tourist Information Centre in Nanjiecun and she complied. One bumpy taxi ride later, I was stood outside what looked like some kind of tourist centre. A coach-load of Chinese people had just turned up and once I had bought my ticket, I was pointed in the direction of a red buggy which was going to take us on a tour of the site. Everything was in Chinese, but I managed to gather that there was a beer facory, a noodle factory and an artificial flavourings factory in Nanjiecun. We got taken around the botanical garden, some old buildings and someone’s flat, still with them in it. After the Chinese people departed, I set off for the bus station. I managed to flag down a similar-looking vehicle to before, which took me back to my starting point for the same price. There, I bought a ticket for Zhengzhou, which, some Chinese stand-up and communist propaganda later, dropped me off in a bus station. This was not the same bus station that I had left from, however. After walking around for a few minutes, I could establish that I had no idea where I was, but I was, at least, in Zhengzhou. I found a taxi, who didn’t know where my hotel was, but thankfully, half-way through the conversation, someone called Ryan turned up. He was a university student studying Chinese for Foreigners in Luoyang and helpfully found my hotel on his phone. He told me which bus to get on and about 9 stops later, I recognised the street that my hotel was on and managed to get off at the right stop. The bus station that I needed was closed, so I just walked back to my hotel and checked back in again. What an amazing day!