I remember my visit to China in 2007. After spending ten days in two of China's cleanest and slickest cities, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the Shaolin temple. We decided to do it the real way and took a train to the town of Zhengzhou. Since our plans were last minute, all we could get were trickets in the unreserved coupe. I remember the ten hours in the most crowded train I have ever traveled in ... there were people standing in the alleys (thank god I found a seat!) We didn't speak or understand Mandarin and were the only foreign faces in there. People found us quite amusing and soon we found ourselves talking in sign language or in broken, basic Chinese written on slips of paper. It was the best train ride ever.
Zhengzhou was nothing like the Shanghai or Beijing we had left behind; it was like any small town crowded and lived-in minus any of the polish that we see in big cities. But it was one of the friendliest cities. The people on the bus we hopped on to soon realized that we didn't even speak a smattering of Chinese and they decided to take us under their wing. They found it amusing that we didn't even understand the announcements made by the driver and often were late in meeting up with the group. They were patient and understanding and in one instance when we missed the bus they left a message with another bus to take us to our next destination. That for me was the real China... not slick or clean like most people like their cities to be but lived-in, lovable and with a soul.
The photograph shows my husband, Anurag with two of our travelling partners. They formed a bond even if they didn't understand each other - may be it was their love for the Shaolin temple.
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