customers not victems

A bone to pick

From the lonely planets recomendation of dunhuang i thought for sure it would be an ideal place to relax and enjoy myself for a bit. I had visions of staying there for a week or more while i just wandered around the parks drinking beer and practicing my chinese with the locals.

How could i have been so wrong.

From the moment the lady at the trainstation told me the name of LiuYuan Train station (the town around the train station) had been changed to DunHuang Train Station i began wondering why i the name of the station had been changed.

After seeing an over priced (120RMB) Mogu Caves and then be conned out of 80 RMB to see the desert i felt really gouged by the city. The caves seamed fake and the tour guide was usless. Dunhuang was also the first town i was unable to use my international student card to get a discount on entrance fee's. This also left me feeling a bit jaded. Sure, the international student card doesn't always work (and maybe it shouldn't) but its saved me money quite a few times and i seam to have a 50/50 success rate.

So off for a good meal and i was hoping my next day would be better. I've never negotiated for food prices in china, food is something i've never been cheated regarding. Chinese people take food far to seriously to try and cheat one over it. Well after having to negotiate for every green tea, every beer, every lamb stick i bought i had finally had enough. Off to bed, and to find out the claims of 24 hour hot water were also bogus.

My second day involved a bike ride to find something green to sit under and read a book. After riding around for hours and only finding perhaps the dingiest park i'd ever laid eyes on i gave up. I tried siting under one tree i found but was quickly asked to leave by the park manager. No explanation, no siting under the trees i guess. I'd had enough of this usless town at that point and tried to find the local outlet for buying train tickets. After being told by several people that it was impossible to buy train tickets in DunHuang i found the ticket office. It just closed.

Well needless to say i woke up early the next morning and headed directly for the train station. My last memory in dunhuang was buying an overpriced bottle of 2 litre orange juice for 10 RMB (normally 8) and getting my change back (40 from a 50) and having the lady chase my taxi down yelling that she gave me incorrect change. she claimed i had only given her a 10. She was absolutely wrong.
*sigh*

Desperate people that don't represent the chinese people i've met in many a town very well at all.