Henan Province's

ZHENGZHOU

There is no reason to stay longer than it is necessary to buy a train/bus ticket and some provisions for the trip.  Kaifeng, 1 hour away by bus or Shaolin, 3 hours away, are much nicer (as well as cheaper) places to stay.

If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck here, you can check the followings places :

Hotels  << Get precise info, book online and save money !

• Golden Sunshine Hotel (696 9999, fax : 699 9534), on the left of the Train Station / Sgl without bath 40 / Dbl without bath 60 / OK toilets & shower / HW 24 hrs // Go there for the cheapest prices in town and the relatively clean rooms. / What you may not like : the small rooms, some of them without window

• Zhengzhou Hotel  (696 6172) on Xinglong Jie/ Dbl without bath 80 / Dbl with bath 120 / OK toilets / Bad common shower / HW 12 to 20 or 24 hrs in rooms // Go there for slightly bigger rooms with air cond.. / What you may not like : the basic & old rooms

 

Golden Sunshine Hotel	taiyangguang dajiudian
Zhengzhou Hotel	zhengzhou fandian

How to buy a train ticket ?

Your best bet would be to ask a Chinese to reserve a ticket for you by telephone (6988 988), up to 7 days in advance. This very practical system (at least for the Chinese) unfortunately means that some tickets are sold out even one day before departure. At least, this is what you will hear at "regular" window...

If you did not reserve and can not buy your ticket two days in advance, play the stubborn foreigner at window 18.  If it does not work, try your luck on the upper floor. Some staff may have pity of you and sell you a ticket discretely...

The last chance would be to upgrade your hard seat ticket (always available) once in the train but this might only be possible on the trains departing from Zhengzhou...

Bus Schedules :

From Long Distance Bus Station :

From Er Ma Lu's Station (East Bus Station) : (5mn walk North-West from the Train Station)

Trains 

The trip to Shaolin : Buses / SS / L&R / Y7+Y1 / 3 hrs+20mn

Going to Shaolin is an experience that could ruin your day if you charter by mistake a tour bus : you will stop in plenty of boring place as well as a restaurant before eventually arrive at destination 5 to 6 hrs later... You do have direct buses to the place but they are difficult to tell apart as the tour buses cost the same (between Y10 and Y15) and also claim to go directly...

The best advice I can give you is therefore to stick with the public buses that do not go to Shaolin but to Dengfeng, 13 km before. Buses leave every 20mn from the bus station, whether full or not (they might take their time to fill up later...)

Walk directly inside the bus area and select the first bus leaving (the outside ticket office stop selling the tickets 10mn before departure), then go buy the ticket at the "inside" ticket office. It takes around 3 hours to reach Dengfeng, including 1 hrs alone to leave Zhengzhou...

Once at the Dengfeng bus station, check if the minibus to Shaolin is full or not. As it is usually empty (and cost Y2), exit the station, turn right and continue for 400 meters. You will see another bus on the left side of the road that usually fill up faster as it cost the normal 1Y. The best strategy might be however to wait at the intersection next to the motorcycle and get in the first full bus heading to Shaolin or Luoyang. It takes 20mn to reach Shaolin. A slow motorcycle trip should cost around 10Y.

The trip to Kaifeng : Bus / SS / L&R / Y10 / 1h45

Fast Iveco minibuses going to the West Station in Kaifeng leave only from the inconveniently located East Bus Station.  Ordinary buses from the normal bus station go only through Kaifeng which means that they will drop you off on Binhe Lu (BusNo3 onward to the train station). As for Shaolin, most of the time is spent trying to escape Zhengzhou...