Train Travel in China - II

The ride to Xi'an from Beijing was eventful to say the least.
We enjoyed our 2 day trip to Xi'an and did all the touristy things as Warren had blogged about earlier.

After a ginormous hot pot lunch on Saturday, we were ready to head back home. However, we were already traumatized by our first train experience and absolutely did not want to be late. We did not want to run or get wounded on our way to the train.

We left the hot pot place at 4pm. The interesting thing in China is that cab drivers change shifts right before rush hour (which starts at 5-5:30ish). As luck we would have it we were trying to flag down a cab during this shift change time. Being at a busy intersection with *two* white foreigners sadly did not aid us in hailing a cab. So we took the bus to the "nearest" stop to our hostel. By this time Warren, Kristin and I were getting nervous. Our train was at 6:40pm. And we could not afford to miss it. We got off the bus, much further away from the hostel than we thought we were. We then speed walked next to the Xi'an city wall for a good 20 minutes. Kristin was pretty torn between trying to decide if she wanted to know the time or if she didn't. We got to a busy street and got this rickshaw-taxi hybrid after much haggling. It was quite a thrilling rough ride back to the hostel including going the wrong way on a one-way street.

Hybrid rickshaw

 We got to the hostel around 5:15. Then our Chinese friend told us that we are close to the train station and we should wait at the hostel rather than at the train station. Though that statement should have ideally calmed us down, we were still nervous about being late for our train. However, the temptation of free wi-fi won us over and we stayed at the hostel. We picked up some candy for the train ride and then took a cab to the train station. To the credit of our friend, it did take us only 10-15 minutes to get there.

Picture doesn't show the people sleeping at the station

But Xi'an was a rude shock compared to Beijing. Beijing though crowded was a well designed, spread out railway station which Xi'an most definitely was not. It was crowded, your face in someone else's shoulder crowded. To get through the line, I had to climb onto one of the security guard stands so as to not get crushed by the crowd. The guard was *not happy* about that, but her incomprehensible Chinese words were drowned out as I was one with the crowd. I tried to get a picture of the train station but it came out too blurry. It took us about 15 minutes to navigate the crowds and get to the train. The people jam at Xi'an was worse than the people jam at the Great Wall. We made it to the train sweaty, smelly and somewhat in shock with 15 minutes to spare.

Hard sleeper. Courtesy: Google images

We were given different seats so had to exchange with fellow passenger. We also had this cute 3.5 yr old Chinese boy in our compartment. He kept blabbering on with a 3 yr olds vocabulary which we still failed to understand. The hyper boy took the longest to fall asleep. But this train ride was not as pleasant as the first one. The seats were not as comfortable and you could hear way too many people snoring. We did make it back in time though and Kristin apparently gave a stellar lab presentation at 11:30am :)

Train Travel in China - I

I have been on enough trains in India, and I don't particularly enjoy Indian trains.
Suffice to say, I wasn't sure what to expect on my first train ride in China - from Beijing to Xi'an overnight.

We had a Chinese friend who was going with us. He succeeded in getting us soft-sleeper tickets (these are the luxury seats) from a scalper when all the tickets were officially sold out. The tickets cost about $80 one way (ticket is $60 and scalper charge $20). Kristin, Warren and I met up with our friend and we were taking the bus to the railway station. Our train was at 8:50pm and we ended up getting off the bus at 8:00pm. In my Indian head, I was thinking, meh we have time to kill. But I was wrong. I underestimated the train system in China. We found out that we may actually be late and that we need to run (and by run I mean really, RUN) to get our train.

So we have a Chinese guy running followed by two white people and one Indian girl. It must have looked quite entertaining to the other passengers. We did have difficulty running though - 1. The place is huge 2. It is crowded 3. You may encounter people throwing up in the middle of your path as you run. So we break into a run, with all of our luggage. The security is a joke. You thrown your bags in a pile of bags which goes through an archaic scanner and then you fight with the mob as you try to retrieve your bag from the pile on the other end of the scanner. (I am sure you can carry a Samurai sword and no one would notice)

Fig 1 - When Warren punched
 someone in his way (not)

As you may know by now, spitting is pretty common in China. So we weren't too surprised that when we were running we saw a girl spitting. We thought she would move. But then she wasn't spitting anymore, she was puking in the middle of the path at the railway station. Warren and I had to rapidly change course to not get that stuff on us. In the process, I am sure I hit someone square in the shoulder with my camera bag. Thankfully, bumping and shoving is completely acceptable in China and I did not get cussed out in Mandarin (or maybe I did and I did not understand any of it). Then due to the crowd and me not being a runner, I lost my friends. However, for once my cell phone had signal and I got to the right gate. Sweaty, tired, some people bearing battle scars (Fig 1) and out of breath we got to the train with 15 minutes to spare. It was the perfect amount of time to buy some over priced Ramen and use hot water to make it in the train. Kristin also found some vegetarian ramen while Warren experimented with some spam sausage thing that officially tasted disgusting (Fig 2).

Fig 2- a. Disgusting spam b. Delicious ramen

Also, the Beijing train station was clean. No yelling hawkers or sleeping people on the platforms (that is my image of train stations from India). The train itself was NICE (not the bathrooms as much, but still pretty good). We had a 4 person compartment all to ourselves. There were TVs in there which did not work, but hey, they were there ! We also got slippers to wear inside. There was a whole area to store your bags overhead. They provided linen, bedding and also took out the trash for you. And free hot water ! At the end we were pretty impressed with our tickets and enjoyed our camp in the train (Fig 3).  They do have lights go out at 10pm and you can't do anything else. You have to go to bed, when they tell you to go to bed it seems. Not that we complained, we were exhausted. We got to Xi'an at 9 the next morning. (The train journey back from Xi'an will be another blog entry!)

Fig 3 - China soft sleeper train = Win

For anyone who plans to travel on a train in China - it is VITAL that you keep your ticket on you all the time. They check it when you board, then they take it at night and give you a plastic card , then the next morning they take the plastic card and give your ticket back and last, you have to show your ticket as you exit at your station. I think I was so shocked by the whole checking ticket situation, that I saved my ticket and also ended up washing it when I did laundry. It's now just a blob of paper.