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China is big. No, like REALLY big. To get around, people think nothing of sitting on trains for 2 or 3 days at a time. Trains are so popular that you often need to book a few days in advance.
Foreign tourists with limited time usually fly. I prefer the train. After all, wherever you are going, getting there should be half the fun. I love the hustle and bustle of people at the train station, all going different places, all on a journey.
Nothing beats the sense of adventure when looking out the train window. The landscape whooshes by to the regular drumbeat of the tracks underneath. A farmer looks up from his shovel to watch the passing train. Two boys on bicycles race the train along a dirt track in an orchard. What will their life be like when the train has disappeared from view?
Our destination was a 14 hour train ride away. I managed to book P and myself the more expensive “soft sleeper” berth on a “fast train”, which cut the travel time down to 11 hours.
Everyone entering the train station had their bags X-rayed. P hates that. She once shared an experience when her tooth was X-rayed. The dentist put on a lead apron and ran outside the room to protect himself. If it’s so safe, she screamed, why did he have to run away? She has had a fear of X-rays ever since, not to mention her associated conspiracy theories. I am considering arranging some sort of therapy for her. (Any suggestions would be welcome).
There were so many people at the train station that I got hopelessly lost. At least a dozen waiting halls each held hundreds of people. At the sight of the crowds Penelope felt very small, and I let her rest in my pocket for the meanwhile where I knew she wouldn’t be so frightened.
With some effort I found our waiting hall. People everywhere crammed every available seat. Some sat on their luggage, some slumped over in exhaustion. Many had come from God knows where and needed a good wash.
Thankfully, I struck up a conversation with some French passengers on a package tour. I say thankfully, because had it not been for their Chinese guide, I would never have known when my train was boarding. Together with an enormous crowd we wandered down to the platform. A smartly uniformed woman stood at attention at each carriage door, checking tickets (see picture). P, who had come up for a quick peek, popped back in my pocket; we only had one ticket and I didn’t want the attendant to make a fuss if she knew there were two of us.
The train itself was very nice. Each cabin had 4 beds with clean linen, as well as drinking water. Every carriage had a large urn to make hot drinks or for BYO dehydrated meals. There were even disposable slippers for every passenger! And believe me, when you use a squat toilet on a fast moving train after someone else, you don’t want to be barefoot.
Foreign tourists with limited time usually fly. I prefer the train. After all, wherever you are going, getting there should be half the fun. I love the hustle and bustle of people at the train station, all going different places, all on a journey.
Nothing beats the sense of adventure when looking out the train window. The landscape whooshes by to the regular drumbeat of the tracks underneath. A farmer looks up from his shovel to watch the passing train. Two boys on bicycles race the train along a dirt track in an orchard. What will their life be like when the train has disappeared from view?
Our destination was a 14 hour train ride away. I managed to book P and myself the more expensive “soft sleeper” berth on a “fast train”, which cut the travel time down to 11 hours.
Everyone entering the train station had their bags X-rayed. P hates that. She once shared an experience when her tooth was X-rayed. The dentist put on a lead apron and ran outside the room to protect himself. If it’s so safe, she screamed, why did he have to run away? She has had a fear of X-rays ever since, not to mention her associated conspiracy theories. I am considering arranging some sort of therapy for her. (Any suggestions would be welcome).
There were so many people at the train station that I got hopelessly lost. At least a dozen waiting halls each held hundreds of people. At the sight of the crowds Penelope felt very small, and I let her rest in my pocket for the meanwhile where I knew she wouldn’t be so frightened.
With some effort I found our waiting hall. People everywhere crammed every available seat. Some sat on their luggage, some slumped over in exhaustion. Many had come from God knows where and needed a good wash.
Thankfully, I struck up a conversation with some French passengers on a package tour. I say thankfully, because had it not been for their Chinese guide, I would never have known when my train was boarding. Together with an enormous crowd we wandered down to the platform. A smartly uniformed woman stood at attention at each carriage door, checking tickets (see picture). P, who had come up for a quick peek, popped back in my pocket; we only had one ticket and I didn’t want the attendant to make a fuss if she knew there were two of us.
The train itself was very nice. Each cabin had 4 beds with clean linen, as well as drinking water. Every carriage had a large urn to make hot drinks or for BYO dehydrated meals. There were even disposable slippers for every passenger! And believe me, when you use a squat toilet on a fast moving train after someone else, you don’t want to be barefoot.
Fold up seats lined the corridor, making it possible to look out the window in comfort. An elderly man came and sat opposite me. "Do...you...speak...English?" he asked very tentatively. The man was a retired engineer and about the only person in the carriage with any command of English. Others surrounded us, amused by the conversation.
Jetlagged, he and his wife were just returning home from a trip to Europe and the United States to visit their children. His eyes clouded over when I asked how he was allowed to have 3 children despite the "One Child Policy. I wondered whether he had a privileged position in society, or just lived where enforcement was slack. " His wife joined the conversation and, convinced I had a good understanding of Mandarin, babbled away warmly for half an hour. Her husband later translated, and I discovered that I had misconstrued everything she had said.
I lay down on my bunk. P retired early while I jotted down notes in my diary. Suddenly, the passenger below me stood up and handed me some headphones, pointing at my feet. It was then I saw that each passenger had an LCD TV at the base of his bunk. I plugged in the headphones and watched some movie trailers in English before getting some shut eye.
Ah yes. Train travel in China is definitely the way to go.
Having said that, I will admit that it’s not always ideal. Passengers sometimes play cards all night, smoking and holding noisy conversations. Sleep can be impossible. Crying babies. Dirty linen. “Hard sleeper” berths with 3 tiered bunks, where the top passenger (in this case, me) has so little room he can’t sit up, and just to read he has to climb down passed the two bunks beds below him.
But it’s all part of the travel experience, and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.
I think.
Ah yes. Train travel in China is definitely the way to go.
Having said that, I will admit that it’s not always ideal. Passengers sometimes play cards all night, smoking and holding noisy conversations. Sleep can be impossible. Crying babies. Dirty linen. “Hard sleeper” berths with 3 tiered bunks, where the top passenger (in this case, me) has so little room he can’t sit up, and just to read he has to climb down passed the two bunks beds below him.
But it’s all part of the travel experience, and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.
I think.
1 comment:
Haven't taken any trains recently, but my last trip thru Jordan (yesterday, Mosaic went to Petra) had similar toilets and smoking on the minibus.
Then I got separated from the group and they left without me, someone did a headcount but counted the Jordanian policeman (each minibus seems to have one, I don't know if this makes me feel safer or less so) and thought we were all on the bus. I found another minibus from the same company and despite their knowing nearly no English and me only recognizing two words from their Arabic they managed to catch up to the right bus by the bathroom break.
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