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We seldom get two consecutive days off in a row so three of us have hit upon a formula that makes the most of our time. If we are heading for Shenyang (the provincial capital) we take a taxi to the station after class finishes at eight and catch the 8.42 PM train- which arrives at 11.50 pm. 'We' meaning Dave Gerow (23), Dave Goodman-Smith (24) and myself (recently 29). |
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All that effort to get to Shenyang, our escapades consist of us paying bemused taxi drivers in search of the ever elusive club or bar that is worth staying in for more than one drink. But even in defeat there is a strange kind of victory. In one empty bar we ended up effectively having a private party with the supposed barmaids. You would really have to be there to see it. It was a Chinese oddity. A sort of karoke room with a bar and no customers and no prospect of them, except that we turned up and bought some expensive drinks there.
Still, you can always check into a bathhouse and have a hot bath with your mates. Bathhouses are the nation's secret hotels and Dave Gerow thoughtfully provided these thoughts on them.
"A bathhouse is a usually luxurious um....place. Specifically aimed at men but often open to women also...invariably including showers, and the option of massage, often including hot tubs, little beds you can sleep on over-night, sauna, prostitution and pyjamas. You are normally required to wear special pyjamas or nothing at all during your time in the bathhouse. During a visit to a bathhouse you are served hand and foot; depending on the quality people help you dress, undress, dry-off, get wet. The way you pay for things is interesting. You don't pay for anything while you're in the bathhouse, instead you wear a bracelet with a number on it which is recorded everytime you make a purchase and then as you exit you pay for everything you've done in the bathhouse or you don't get your shoes back."
In a bathhouse in Shenyang after a pillow fight.
Dave GS joined us in August. Just before that, Dave Gerow and I visited Dalian together. It took me two months to realise that it would be worth making the trip to 'the Paris of the East'. When we finally did we were agreeably surprised by the marked contrast to Bayuquan. Dalian is a much larger and more cosmopolitan city with a Europeanesque mix of high-tech high-rise new and low-tech low-rise old buildings. It has been in the hands of the Russians and the Japanese and still has an old tram system. (UPDATE; I've been back there in 2007 and some of that charm had apparently been demolished).
The city really initially looked the part, but it turned out that our efforts to find a decent bar or club were comical. We went more recently with Dave GS, armed with advice on where to go, and most of the places were empty, the exeption being JD's and Disco No 1. The music at the latter had us in hysterics.
Yinkou is one of the less charming cities we have visited on our travels but it's the nearest and we keep returning for more punishment. If you're somehow thinking of visiting it as a tourist destination you either have very eclectic tastes or you've mistaken it for somewhere else.
A bathhouse in Yinkou.
Besides visiting cities we've often been on short-range trips in and around Bayuquan.
Dave GS had a terrible migraine, but didn't want to miss this. From left to right, Minna, me, Dave Gerow, Judy and Dave Goodman-Smith.
These include going to the beach, climbing a hill, visiting a dredger, a motorcycle tour and a trip to a glove factory- or sweatshop- as they are known in the West. And the best night out was always homegrown. The New Hong Yun.
This hotel- complete with luxury bathhouse, swimming pool, restaurant, bar, nightclub, KTV, cinema, table tennis tables, internet etc. was built for tourists that had not yet arrived in droves. Back in London a swim means sharing a changing room with rowdy school children as you fumble for your tweny pence piece and try to keep a semi while you carry your pile of clothes to a damp bench or cubicle. You've got to hand it to the Chinese. Something to do with the exchange rate, or the over abundant workforce- I don't know, but I found myself partaking in luxury I'd never known. I still feel guilt about those girls, many of whom were paid to look pretty and stand around with occasional forays into tidying slippers or selling swimming trunks.
