In honor of us having just completed our last and final long distance train ride in China, I thought it would only be appropriate to dedicate a blog entry to our good friend, the Chinese rail system. Oh Chinese trains, how I have loved and (mostly) hated you so....
As anyone knows who has traveled on a Chinese train, the system breaks down its seating structure into three categories--Hard Seat, Hard Sleeper, and Soft Sleeper. A Hard Seat ticket basically gets you a spot on a three person seat in a car of about 120 people, while a Hard Sleeper ticket will provide you with a cot, pillow and blanket in a car of about 60 other pals. The most luxurious way to travel is on the Soft Sleeper which is similar to the Hard Sleeper option, but is slightly upgraded, as you are only sharing a tiny room with 3 other people. Like in most of China, you can't escape people even if you try.
For the most part, Adam and I have been lucky enough to snag Hard Sleeper tickets on our overnight destinations. Again, not the most ideal of circumstances (especially if you get stuck near loud snorers, which we have on all of our many overnight trains), but we've learned to grin and bear it--Adam more than I. A note on snorers, there never seems to be more than 1, but there is always one person making the walls quake.
Recently, while trying to make our way on an overnight train from Hangzhou (my favorite town we've visited) to the mountain village of Wuyishan, we were forced to take Hard Seat tickets, as all Hard and Soft Sleeper tickets were sold out. Despite every fellow backpacker saying that an overnight train in a Hard Seat was equivalent to minor forms of torture in some countries, we thought we were mentally prepared to endure the sleepless night. This was all before we had ever set foot in a Hard Seat car. Getting to our car and seeing the rock hard bench with 3 depressions for 3 bottoms that was immovably positioned at a 90 degree angle, we knew we were in trouble. That combined with the grey air from cigarette smoke and the fact that our seating area would be shared with six other people, making leg stretching nearly impossible, was enough to send us both into a state of panic. Luckily our good friend, the Chinese policeman saw us poor souls and let us know via cell phone text message typing (his wallpaper photo on the phone was a porn picture) that Hard Sleeper tickets had become available and we could upgrade if we wanted. The policeman also was kind enough to alert us of the dangers of a "petty thief" on board and kept making the "lookout" symbol by touching his eyes with 2 fingers. We made our way quickly out of the car but not before stirring the curiosity of everyone on the car. Each and everyone of our fellow 120 passengers on the car became completely silent to witness our interaction with the authority. Needless to say, I will never complain about a Hard Sleeper again.
After pushing our way through 5 crowded cars with our backpacks on, Adam sweating profusely because his fever from food poisoning decided to break at that exact moment, we made it to the clerk who took our money and sent us to the complete opposite side of the train to claim our sleeper seats. We passed the policeman again who checked our tickets and gave us a triumphant grin as if we had led us to the promised land. To give you an idea of the length of Chinese trains, they are about 15 cars long. You can not see one end from the other. The hard seat was in car 14, our sleeper was in car 1. As we made our way down the moving train we noticed that about half the sleeper seats were empty. Just goes to show the wonderful effects of bureaucracy on train ticket sales.
