Ch 17: The Foreigner's Discount

The overnight train ride over to Chengdu from Xian took us through beautiful mountainsides and vallies. It seems to me that most of China is covered in a myst early in the morning. It can feel like a dream when you're looking out into the landscape passing by and see the mist covered trees and mountains. It gives the entire countyside a mythical feel.

We arrived at Chengdu at 5:30 am. We were the last people to get off the train as the conductors had to wake us up. Fortunately we found a great hostel called "The Loft". It was designed and built on the grounds of an old factory by 7 local artists over a period of 7 months and it paid off big time. Each room feels like a mini loft space and the people in charge were really nice. People always make the biggest difference no matter your surroundings.

We visited Wenhou temple a famous for it's connections to the 3 kingdoms period of Chinese history and the final resting place of Chinese hero Lu Bei. The entire place was well maintained and really beautiful. A garden lovers paradise. One rather funny fact. It doesn't pay to speak Chinese as far as paying for tickets to places in China. Students get 50% of many entry tickets and my bros are all students with student IDs. However when you speak to the ticket attendents in Chinese they insist that you must be a student at a Chinese University to get the discount. However if you use English and tell them "I'm a student, I don't understand Chinese, I know I get 1/2 price or 50% off" they give it to you. It's funny how that works but it hasn't failed yet. I call it the Foreigner's Discount.