I already wrote an article about train travel in China in general. Now I want to share my personal experiences from my China trip this summer with you. China is a huge country, especially for someone growing up in Germany. Certainly an airplane is faster and more comfortable to travel. I still highly recommend you to travel in China by train, because this way you can get to know the country and its people much more.

On my trip I took the train from:
上海 Shanghai –> 黄山 Huangshan
bus from Huangshan to my home town, then:
济南 Jinan –> 重庆 Chongqing (the longest route)
重庆 Chongqing –> 昆明 Kunming
昆明 Kunming –> 南宁 Nanning
南宁 Nanning –> 桂林 Guilin
桂林 Guilin –> 广州 Guangzhou
Bus to Hongkong and back
广州 Guangzhou –> 上海 Shanghai
So you can see what a huge tour of over 4000km that was.

On my first train from Shanghai to Huangshan I bought a hard sleeper and got the bottom bunk. Unfortunately my companions ended up one wagon next to me. As I heard n-times before how dangerous trains can be and that I should take care of myself and my belongings, I was quite nervous. Our train departed in the evening and would arrive the next morning at Huangshan. I spent the first half hour figuring out the best place to store my backpack.
“On the shelf over the window? - No, way too easy to steal.”
“On my bed? - No, too dirty, and then I have even less place.”
“On the clamp next to my pillow? - No, someone could take it while I’m asleep.”
Then the man next to me inspired me to put the backpack under my pillow. So finally this problem was solved.

Remained the problem of how to spend the remaining 11 hours. I am a person who tends to be sensitive to its environment. So when the whole wagon is making noise (people talking, eating, telephoning and playing cards, children screaming and running around) I have difficulty falling asleep… Plus the fact, that my bunk was at the end of the wagon, right next to the toilets, wash basins and hot water supplier.

So I finally gave up on the idea of sleeping, but instead decided to read. To my great pleasure at that time the lights also decided to extinguish. But of course I don’t give up so easily. So I figured out that the position at the end of the wagon was even an advantage, since I could gather some beams of light, and so I ended up sitting at the very utmost edge of my bed, trying to get as much light as possible, and reading until 3 a.m. Finally, my weariness won over my thirst for knowledge, and I sank in a deep sleep, until…

Until the man opposite to me decided to shave himself at 5 a.m. in the morning with his very noisy electrical razor. (Aarggh!!) Sleep Ade! I got up, shot him a you-idiot-look, and made my first trip to the toilet. This turned out to be less frightening than I expected. When I came back the man was gone, and he never came back, and I started to feel sorry for my you-idiot-look. I decided to try to sleep again, but since it was dawning the wagon started to wake up and the noise from last evening continued with even more brightness and enthusiasm. I ate instant-noddles for breakfast and continued reading until 11 o’clock when we finally arrived at Huangshan railway station.
If you want to know how my other train trips went, wait for the follow-up!

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