Last time we arrived at Huangshan after a long almost sleepless night. Now the trip will continue. Huangshan by the way is a beautiful place, that I recommend everyone to go to!
After one week with my relatives I took the train from Jinan (济南) to Chongqing(重庆). It requires 26 hours of travel and I was only able to get a standing ticket. This was by far the most exhausting train trip.

First I almost got crushed when I tried to get in the train, because there were so many people with standing tickets and everyone wanted to at least get a good place to stand, because when you are too late the porter won’t let you in and you have to try at the next wagon. Inside the train it wasn’t much better. The connection space between two wagons was so packed with people. I never imagined it was possible that about 20 people could fit in there. I just followed some students and a mother with a child and placed myself between them. So there I stood in a wagon where about 120 people were sitting and an additional 50 people where standing. It was morning so I didn’t have sleeping difficulties yet.

I observed the people around me because there was nothing better to do. The girl sitting next to me had her head on the table and was sleeping or at least pretending to sleep. Every time someone passed I had to step aside and I’m afraid I almost squished her head every time. On the other side there were five men and a women sitting around a table. The child from before placed herself between them, sat down, and they let her sleep there with her head on the seat. Next to me there was couple, probably college students. The guy seemed very mean and the girl seemed to be angry because of him. She always hissed something to him, but he completely ignored her by turning his back to her and she almost burst into tears. Then she started casting me evil looks as though this was all my fault. After a while she decided that slapping him was a good way to let out her anger and to make him notice her presence. After this showed no effect she grabbed him and pulled him on the other side of her, so that now she was next to me and he was in safe distance of me. At least that’s what she thought. However having nothing better to do and being seriously bored I decided to move on one row, so that again I was standing next to her beloved boyfriend. I think she almost freaked out, while he seemed mildly amused. I put my backpack on the shelf, because it was getting heavier and heavier and I prayed that nobody would steal it. Then I observed my new environment.

Now I was away from the sleeping girl and the five older men, that seemed a bit creepy to me. Next to me there were 6 young people, probably students, sharing a table. One of them was very talkative, even though I wasn’t sure that the others were listening to him. The girl next to him certainly didn’t. She was sitting upright with closed eyes, and she didn’t move for a tiny little bit during the whole 26 hours. It was really inexplicable to me how someone could sit that still and sleep that long. Only at the end she got up, went to the toilet, came back, stood there, suddenly started laughing hysterically without visible reason, sat down and closed her eyes again. I was so freaked out!
Next to her at the window were two boys squeezed on one seat. Their sister was at the opposite window squeezed together on one seat with two other brothers. Next to her was her grandfather.

The time flew by faster than I expected. After two hours the fight between the couple had stopped and they peacefully sat together at the edge of a seat. I was happy for them.

Evening came and I took out my noddles, somehow managed to get to the hot water supplier and came back. To my relief one of the students let me sit down and eat. Otherwise my numb legs probably would have died. Immediately the talkative boy started a conversation with me.
“Where are you going?” - “To Chongqing”
[Silence, me eating, him staring at me]
“Did your hair always look like that?” - “Yes…” (wtf?)
Then he monologed a long time about hair care and styling products. I never got a lecture about that from a guy, so it was amusing.

The time flew by and I was confronted with the problem of how to sleep. I tried to lean on the seat, put my head down and sleep this way, but it was not very comfortable, because I almost kissed the head of the person sitting there. Someone started to play guitar. Then my aunt mailed me that I should either go into the canteen wagon or try to upgrade to a sleeper ticket. So I fought myself through to the canteen wagon, just to realize that it was even fuller than the normal wagons. Then I asked every ticket seller on train if I could change my ticket, but they all yelled at me that sleepers were sold out. After this trip through over 10 wagons and back I arrived at my old standing place, seriously exhausted. Somehow I managed to sleep for a while, but it was so freezing cold, that I woke up again.

I decided to go to the space between the wagons because there was no air conditioning. However there were many smokers, so that I almost chocked and every time we passed a tunnel there was a lot of wind. But I considered this more agreeable than freezing to death. At that time I was so tired (it was about 2 in the morning) that I sat down on my magazine and tried to sleep on an area of probably less than 50×50cm of space. Everyone else around me was sleeping so I fell asleep very easily and slept until next morning. Of course I woke up occasionally when someone passed and stepped on me or hit me, or when I couldn’t feel my bottom or my legs anymore. But altogether I slept surprisingly well and it was a very different experience.

In the morning I found out with great relief that my backpack was still there and I found out with even greater relief that the talkative boy with affection for my hair was getting ready to leave. To my great delight he allowed me and a cute boy to share his seat. So we sat down, feeling as if our lives have just been saved and soon fell asleep again. We passed the rest of the trip this way and after 26 hours we finally arrived at Chongqing!

In conclusion I’d say that the 26 hours passed really fast, because I had a lot of funny things to see and did not feel bored like on the train to Huangshan.

Related posts:

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part I)
• Train Travel in China - General Information

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part I) (2)
• Train travel in China - General Information (1)
• Survival Chinese for Travelers (4)

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!

Related posts:

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part II)
• Train Travel in China - General Information

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part II) (5)
• Train travel in China - General Information (1)
• Survival Chinese for Travelers (4)

Traveling by train is something you definitely need to experience if you are planning a trip to China. It has many advantages over traveling by airplane, because
* You get to know the country better and see much more beautiful landscapes.
* You get to know the people better, because you have more time to watch and talk to the people.
* You save money and you save the climate.
* Plus it’s just much more fun and adventure!
Trains are the usual means of transportation for Chinese people, since not everyone has enough money for a car or a plane ticket. So the normal citizen will travel by train. If you are planning a trip to China where you will travel around by train this article provides important informations.

At the railway station
Chinese railway stations are huge! They can be compared to airports, not only in their size but also in their structure. The first time you get there you will probably feel overwhelmed and lost. So let me describe how the railway stations look like in China. They are divided in several parts: The large entrance hall in the middle, a ticket office on one side and the arrivel hall on the other side usually. The place where you go first in order to buy a ticket is the ticket office (售票处). It isn’t exactly an office but rather a big hall. You should expect 30 minutes (if you are lucky) up to 5+ hours (if you are not so lucky) of waiting time. So it is best to buy the ticket immediately when your train arrives at the new railway station, in case you are making a tour to several cities. Usually you can buy tickets about 1 week in advance. In the ticket office there are also several helpful tables that list trains departing from and passing this railway station, their train numbers, the timetables, their route and price. In addition there is a screen which shows you whether there are still free tickets and in which ticket class. The tickets are divided into 5 categories, but more on that later.
Usually the ticket office is on one side of the big entrance hall and the arrival hall is on the other side. When you need to pick up someone, go to the arrival hall gate. There are always many people waiting, some of them with posters, just like in an airport. When you need to take the train you have to go to the big entrance in the middle. First you have to pass the security check. Then you look on your ticket for your train number and find out in which waiting hall (候车厅) you have to go. It’s best to keep your ticket handy because you will pass several ticket controls. Usually there is an escalator and a big screen after the security check so you can find your waiting hall. Once in the waiting hall you wait until they start check-in, much like at the airport. When a huge queue is forming you know it’s about time to check-in now. After check-in you just follow the crowd to your gate and wait for the train, find the the right wagon (the number is on your ticket) and squish in to your seat or bed.

The different ticket types
They are soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seater, hard seater and standing ticket.
The most expensive one is the soft sleeper (软卧). You get a bunk bed in a cabin for four people. This is very comfortable, because it’s not crowded and noisy in a cabin and because you have nice air conditioning. There is also enough space under your bed and above the door to store your luggage.
Then there are hard sleepers (硬卧). Those are taken by normal or rather wealthy Chinese, especially by families, on long distance travels. They have bunk beds divided into bottom, middle and top bunk. However, there are no separate cabins, but about 80 people (correct me if I’m wrong!) in one wagon. Except for the noisiness and the bad air conditioning for the top bunk this class is very acceptable and a good compromise for long trips especially when traveling overnight.
Now we have the seats. There are soft seaters and hard seaters. I don’t know anything about soft seaters and at ticket offices I never saw soft seaters available. But hard seaters are very commonly bought by the average Chinese, especially by students or by poor people. They are significantly cheaper than sleeper tickets but the comfort is also much lower. In one wagon there are 118 seats. On one side 6 people share one table (3 and 3), on the other side 4 people share one table. If you are very tall your legs might not get enough space and if you have fear of contact, this is definitely not the right class for you. But if you are adventurous and don’t care about comfort, as long as you can have fun, go for it! Another important thing to keep in mind is that lights are on 24 hours and that air conditioning tends to be very cold. So sleeping is difficult and uncomfortable, but you will see many many interesting sleeping positions and methods and many more things you probably never saw before. Read more about that in my personal experience.
There is one last ticket, the no-seat-ticket aka standing ticket. This is the cheapest and most horrible ticket. You get this if you buy your ticket really late. This is why you should buy your next ticket as soon as possible. Especially during national holidays, like Chinese New Year(春节) or National Day (国庆), trains are so overcrowded that people feel lucky if they can get a standing ticket, and it is hard to even find a place to *stand* in the train. But there are kind people who will let you sit for a while, because no one wants to stand for maybe over 20 hours…

What does it say on my ticket?
A little further below there is a ticket from my last vacation. Just ignore the crossed phone numbers…
First the most important things:
This train obviously goes from Guangzhou (广州) to Wuxi (无锡) and has the train number K528. The train number can already tell you which type of train you have:
K stands for 快 (kuai4) meaning fast, so it’s a fast train.
T stands for 特快 (te4 kuai4) meaning extra fast train.
Z stands for 直达 (zhi2 da2) meaning direct. They directly connect two cities with only very few stops in between, which saves time
D stands for 动车组 (dong4 che1 zu2) meaning that they have a motor for each wagon. They were introduced this year and are very fast and modern.
N stands for 内 (nei4) for 管内快速列车 (guan3 nei4 kuai4 su4 lie4 che1). Those trains are only within one administrative area so they are common for short-distance trips.
Those without a letter are the ‘normal’ trains, but there are very few of them left because they are old, slow and some don’t even have air conditioning!

At the top right corner you see 深 售, meaning that I bought this ticket in 深圳 (shen1 zhen4). That’s a special case, normally you can only buy tickets departing from your current railway station. However this was at the end of summer vacation and all available tickets departing from 深圳 were sold out! (But that’s another story…)
You can see the date and time under “Guangzhou”. It’s the 27. September 2007 at 8a.m. Next to it you see the waggon number (车 che1) and seat number (号 hao4). So it’s wagon number 15, seat number 118. Below you see 新空调硬座快速. Even when you don’t know Chinese, I suggest you to learn at least how the signs for the different ticket classes look like, because I already had friends who ordered the tickets in advance, but it was only when they checked-in that they realized they got the tickets for the wrong day and in the wrong class… 新空调 (xin1 kong1 tiao2) means new air-conditioned. 快速 (kuai4 su4) means fast. Important are the two signs in between: 硬座 (ying4 zuo4) for hard seater. If you have any ticket with ‘hard’ you need to look out for the 硬 (ying4) sign. If you have anything with ’soft’, look out for the 软 (ruan3) sign. And if you have any sort of sleeper ticket, there definitely has to be this sign on it: 卧 (wo4). Another good way to check is that on sleeper tickets, apart from your bed number it will say if it’s top (上 shang4), bottom (下 xia4), or middle (中 zhong1 Only in hard sleepers!) bunk.

Ok then of course there is the price (which is btw why I love train travel in China xD). Then it just says that this ticket is for the specific date and train and that it is exchangable within 4 days.

Let’s look at the bar code at the very bottom, because this also has some quite interesting informations! Someone in the train told me this and I was astounded. The last 4 digits tell you how many kilometers you will travel. 1935km, quite a bit! The separate number (H0098341) in the middle has to be the same with the number at the top left corner. Otherwise someone has betrayed you. So this is an easy way to detect fake tickets. The 4 digits before this number are the date of purchase, in this case 27. August. The number before that is the counter at which you bought the ticket, in this case counter 6. The other numbers are supposed to be some encrypted codes. At least I don’t know their meaning yet.

Now this was really everything this little ticket could tell you. I hope this was helpful and wish you a memorable train trip!

Related posts:

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part I)
• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part II)

• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part II) (5)
• Train Travel in China - my personal experience (Part I) (2)
• Survival Chinese for Travelers (4)