On Thursday afternoon, while surfing the internet (<\/strong>\u4e0a\u7f51\u51b2\u6d6a – sh\u00e0ng w\u01ceng ch\u014dng l\u00e0ng) and researching the bands<\/strong> (\u4e50\u961f – yu\u00e8 du\u00ec) that would be<\/p>\n playing at both Beijing festivals, I stumbled upon a third, lesser known option for live music that weekend.\u00a0 I only had to see one word in the title to make my decision – camping <\/strong>(\u9732\u8425 – l\u00f9 y\u00edng).\u00a0 For me, the combination of camping and live music is right up there with spaghetti and meatballs, football and hot wings, and vodka and Kahlua.\u00a0 Plus, I had yet to go on a proper camping trip in China, despite the fact that I’d spent the previous seven summers camping out for music.\u00a0 With the festival starting the next day, there was no time<\/strong> (\u6ca1\u6709\u65f6\u95f4 – m\u00e9i y\u01d2u sh\u00ed ji\u0101n) to properly prepare <\/strong>(\u51c6\u5907 – zh\u01d4n b\u00e8i) for a weekend long festival.\u00a0 It was clear that we were going to have to wing it with this one.<\/p>\n On Saturday morning, my friend Peter and I both woke up with a hangover<\/strong> (\u5bbf\u9189 – s\u00f9 zu\u00ec) as a result of the previous night’s revelry.\u00a0 Not wanting to face the long day in such a state, we both opted to have a \u5564\u9152 for breakfast, much to the dismay of my girlfriend<\/strong> (\u5973\u670b\u53cb – n\u01da p\u00e9ng y\u01d2u).\u00a0 After calling us both idiots, she motivated us to get a move on and pack our things.\u00a0 With little information online about the festival, we weren’t exactly 100% sure how to get there, but we had a rough idea.\u00a0 Little did we know that the day would turn into an epic journey…<\/p>\n Ill-equipped for a camping festival, we headed to Wal-Mart<\/strong> (\u6c83\u5c14\u739b – w\u00f2 \u0113r m\u01ce) in search of camping gear.\u00a0 We were able to find some decent tents<\/strong> (\u5e10\u7bf7 – zh\u00e0ng p\u00e9ng) there, along with some sleeping mats.\u00a0 Next up, we headed to the Beijing Railway Station <\/strong>(\u5317\u4eac\u7ad9 – b\u011bi j\u012bng zh\u00e0n), as the all-knowing Internet had told us to do so.\u00a0 According to the article we found, trains would be leaving bound for Baoding <\/strong>(\u4fdd\u5b9a – b\u01ceo d\u00ecng) every 15 minutes.\u00a0 I expected a massive crowd at the station, but I did not foresee much trouble procuring tickets for this off the beaten path city, especially with trains supposedly running four times an hour.\u00a0 I was wrong.\u00a0 While tickets were available, we were going to have to wait over two hours before we could get on the train.\u00a0 With too much time to sit around the station, and too little time to go back home, we headed down a hutong<\/strong> (\u80e1\u540c – h\u00fa t\u00f2ng)<\/p>\n Peter trying his hand at the chuan grill.<\/p><\/div>\n alley in search of chuan’r<\/strong> (\u4e32 – chu\u00e0n) and, of course, beer.<\/p>\n Due to the stares from the locals, it was clear that \u8001\u5916 were still a rare sight in this particular part of town.\u00a0 We tooka seat outside to enjoy the warm weather that had finally arrived after what seemed like an extra long winter<\/strong> (\u51ac\u5929 – d\u014dng ti\u0101n) and loaded up on \u4e32 and \u5564\u9152.\u00a0 After wowwing them with my mediocre Chinese, the locals started to warm up to us, and we actually made some friends.\u00a0 One guy was even nice enough to share his Chinese liquor<\/strong> (\u767d\u9152 – b\u00e1i ji\u01d4) with us.\u00a0 The process of drinking \u767d\u9152 deserves its own post and\/or video, so I’ll let this nice photo collage sum it up for you for the time being…<\/p>\n Baijiu sequence… 1. Drink baijiu, 2. Chase with beer, 3. Hate your life, 4. Hate your life even more, 5. Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?<\/p><\/div>\n Thanks to the booze, time flew by, and soon enough it was time to head into the train station.\u00a0 To be sure that we’d make our train regardless of troubles, we headed in nice and early.\u00a0 To celebrate the fact that we made it in and that drinking in public is just fine, we grabbed a few more bottles <\/strong>(\u74f6 – p\u00edng) to wait on the train<\/strong> (\u706b\u8f66 – hu\u01d2 ch\u0113).<\/p>\n Artwork on the ceiling of \u5317\u4eac\u7ad9.<\/p><\/div>\n Kiss the \u8001\u5916.<\/p><\/div>\n Aboard the train, we took our seats and settled in for the two-hour ride.\u00a0 In terms of China travel, a two-hour ride is nothing.\u00a0 I have friends who have been stuck standing for 24 hours on a ride from Beijing to Hong Kong, so this ride was a cake walk.\u00a0 The most eventful thing that happened on our ride was Rachel temporarily kidnapping a tiny, incredibly cute Chinese baby<\/strong> (\u5b9d\u5b9d – b\u01ceo b\u01ceo).<\/p>\n Arriving in Baoding, we headed out of the station in search of a public bus<\/strong> (\u516c\u5171\u6c7d\u8f66 – g\u014dng g\u00f2ng q\u00ec ch\u0113) to get us to Yi Xian.\u00a0 I had written down the name of the music festival and the place in both characters and pinyin, so I felt pretty confident in our abilities to get there.\u00a0 Of course, by this point, Peter and I were a bit drunk<\/strong> (\u9189\u4e86- zu\u00ec le), so the confidence may have been of the liquid variety.\u00a0 At a big bus stop, I asked around to see if anyone knew which bus we needed to board.\u00a0 Nobody knew.\u00a0 Everyone I asked responded with a quick “I don’t know<\/strong>“( \u6211\u4e0d\u77e5\u9053 – w\u01d2 b\u00f9 zh\u012b d\u00e0o).\u00a0 With no help from the locals, we decided to hop on a random bus.\u00a0 After asking around again, we found out this bus was not going to our destination, so we quickly got off.\u00a0 As sunset was drawing near, I gave up on the bus idea and waved down a taxi<\/strong> (\u51fa\u79df\u8f66 – ch\u016b z\u016b ch\u0113) and showed him my notepad.\u00a0 He told me he knew where we were going.\u00a0 Success!\u00a0 Not for long, though…<\/p>\n After about 15 minutes, it seemed like our driver was rather confused.\u00a0 I asked him again if he knew where he was going.\u00a0 This time, he admitted that he had no clue where we were going.\u00a0 I kindly asked him to stop the car<\/strong> (\u505c\u8f66 – t\u00edng ch\u0113), and we hopped out without giving him any money.\u00a0 We had no idea where we were, and no idea how to get where we were going.\u00a0 Rachel was understandably upset, while Peter and I were too delightfully buzzed to really care.\u00a0 With no bus stops or taxis in sight, we waved down a black cab<\/strong> (\u9ed1\u8f66 – h\u0113i ch\u0113) and again showed the driver my notepad.\u00a0 Again, we were assured that the driver knew where he was going.\u00a0 Unlike most black cabs, this guy actually had a meter<\/strong> (\u8ba1\u7a0b\u8868 – j\u00ec ch\u00e9ng bi\u01ceo) in his car, so we weren’t too worried about getting ripped off.<\/p>\n It was now dark, and we had put our faith in this random guy to get us to our destination.\u00a0 I wasn’t exactly sure how far Yi Xian was from Baoding, but I knew it wasn’t more than an hour or so away by bus, so when we had been in the car for for about 75 minutes with no sign of stopping, I got a bit worried.\u00a0 After arguing with the driver for a bit, he finally admitted he really had no idea where we were going.\u00a0 We both got out our cellphones<\/strong> (\u624b\u673a – sh\u01d2u j\u012b) and began calling friends asking for help.\u00a0 My friends in Beijing advised us to give up and ask for a ride back to the big city; at least our driver would know how to get there.\u00a0 Our driver, however, convinced us that his friend gave him proper directions, so we powered on.<\/p>\n About 30 minutes later, we finally saw some signs of life outside our windows, which excited us and our driver.\u00a0 We were excited because we thought we were getting closer.\u00a0 Our driver was excited because he could pull over and ask for directions.\u00a0 Obviously, he still didn’t know where he was going.\u00a0 Fed up and hungry (<\/strong>\u997f – \u00c8), we decided to give up on this guy.\u00a0 His meter read 170, but I only gave him 100.\u00a0 In all honesty, I probably should have given him no more than 50, seeing as how he drove us around in circles for almost two hours and dropped us off nowhere near the festival.<\/p>\n The peace sign is the standard pose in China.<\/p><\/div>\n As soon as we got out of the car, a woman dressed in a nice pantsuit waved us into her restaurant<\/strong> (\u996d\u5e97 – f\u00e0n di\u00e0n).\u00a0 Lost, hungry, and tired, we decided that sitting down for dinner to regroup would be our best bet.\u00a0 Inside the restaurant, a group of children<\/strong> (\u5b69\u5b50 – h\u00e1i zi) were obviously amazed by our presence.\u00a0 It’s quite possible that we were the first \u8001\u5916 these kids had ever seen in person.\u00a0 Despite our travel failures, we enjoyed our dinner and our short time entertaining the kids.<\/p>\n The proprietor of the restaurant was very interested in us, and was also eager to help us in our efforts to reach the festival.\u00a0 She wasn’t sure where it was, but she said she had a friend who could help us find a room in a local hotel<\/strong> (\u65c5\u9986\/\u9152\u5e97 – l\u01da gu\u01cen\/ji\u01d4 di\u00e0n).\u00a0 Having given up hope for reaching the concert that night, we accepted her offer.\u00a0 The woman hopped on her electric bike<\/strong> (\u7535\u52a8\u8f66 – di\u00e0n d\u00f2ng ch\u0113) with Rachel, and Peter and I decided to walk<\/strong> (\u8d70\u8def – z\u01d2u l\u00f9).\u00a0 Sadly, we were soon informed that her friend had no rooms available that night.\u00a0 We thanked her anyway, and we headed off on our way, into the unknown.<\/p>\n If you gave me a map of China, I honestly could not tell you where we were.\u00a0 We were completely lost.\u00a0 Getting desperate and very tired, we headed into another hotel.\u00a0 Again, we were told there were no rooms.\u00a0 How could this be?\u00a0 We were in the middle of nowhere…\u00a0 Who was filling up these hotels?\u00a0 We left and tried yet another hotel.\u00a0 This time, the front desk asked us to present our passports<\/strong> (\u62a4\u7167 – h\u00f9 zh\u00e0o), which we had absent-mindedly left back in Beijing.\u00a0 “No passport, no room<\/strong>” (\u6ca1\u6709\u62a4\u7167\uff0c\u6ca1\u6709\u7a7a\u95f4 – m\u00e9i y\u01d2u h\u00f9 zh\u00e0o, m\u00e9i y\u01d2u k\u00f2ng ji\u0101n), we were told.<\/p>\n *Note – After returning to Beijing, we found out that hotels need a specific license to host foreigners, and that the hotels out in this small town most likely did not have one.\u00a0 Instead of just telling us this, the various hotel workers simply chose to tell us there were no rooms, in an effort not to lose face <\/strong>(<\/em>\u4e22\u9762\u5b50 – di\u016b mi\u00e0n zi).<\/p>\n It now seemed as if all hope was lost.\u00a0 Peter and I were still drunk, and Rachel was, well, quite angry, to put it lightly.\u00a0 Luckily, for us fools, her mind was still functioning on a normal level.\u00a0 Remembring a story I had told her about falling asleep in a karaoke bar<\/strong> (\u5361\u62c9OK\u9152\u5427 – k\u01ce l\u0101 OK ji\u01d4 b\u0101) , she came up with a great idea.\u00a0 Once more, we waved down a taxi, and asked him to take us to the nearest KTV.<\/p>\n Once at the KTV, we paid for an hour in the room, headed upstairs, and promptly fell asleep.\u00a0 After our hour had expired, the woman woke us up and told us in her best English, “Here you sing, no sleep.”\u00a0 Despite Rachel’s best efforts to wake me up, I remained fast asleep.\u00a0 When I finally did get up, for some odd reason, I decided to take my shorts off.\u00a0 Standing next to a drunk, half-asleep foreigner in his boxers, the nice woman seemed quite confused.\u00a0 She said she would help us find a hotel, and brought us downstairs to a car.\u00a0 A short phone call later, and she regretfully informed us there were no hotel rooms.\u00a0 Rachel told her that we were well aware of this, and the woman finally agreed to let us pay 150 RMB to stay the night.<\/p>\n Back inside, Peter and I went right to sleep, while Rachel stayed up in an attempt to figure out how we’d get to the festival.\u00a0 With her limited Chinese, and the woman’s limited English, Rachel was able to communicate that she needed to get online.\u00a0 After showing the woman the music festival’s website<\/strong> (\u7f51\u7ad9 – w\u01ceng zh\u00e0n), Rachel had finally found someone who really, truly knew where we wanted to go.<\/p>\n At 7 a.m. sharp, we were awoken and once again stuffed into a car.\u00a0 The three of us were in the back, the woman was in the front, and her friend was driving.\u00a0 About 15 minutes or so into the drive, we began to see signs for the festival.\u00a0 Success!\u00a0 A few short minutes later, and we finally arrived<\/strong> (\u6211\u4eec\u7ec8\u4e8e\u62b5\u8fbe – w\u01d2 men zh\u014dng y\u00fa d\u01d0 d\u00e1).\u00a0 Too tired to bargain, I handed over the requested sum of 150 RMB, and we stumbled out of the car and up to the ticket booth.<\/p>\n It had been about 20 hours since we had left our apartment in Beijing when we finally made it.\u00a0 We had rode the Beijing subway, a train, a handful of taxis, a bus, and two black cabs.\u00a0 We had slept in a KTV.\u00a0 All of this for what should have been a mere two-hour ride.\u00a0 Regardless of the travel troubles (<\/strong>\u65c5\u884c\u7684\u9ebb\u70e6 – l\u01da x\u00edng de m\u00e1 fan) we had to endure, we had finally arrived, and we were ready to rock…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2010\/08\/DSC_03021.jpg\" "\\"DSC_0302\\"")
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