Train travel in China

Beijing

The hard class sleeper incident.... train rides in China

The young man sitting on his bed in the tiny railway compartment looked more and more puzzled. In the end, summoning up his courage, he burst out... "Excuse me... what language are you speaking?" His curiosity getting the better of him.

This was an evening in May 2010. Daughter C..... and I were taking the night train - hard class sleeper - returning to Beijing from Pinyao... an eleven-hour journey.

What puzzled our young Chinese fellow passenger was the way we were speaking.....a habit started when my daughter was born and we were living in a French-speaking country...my speaking in English and her replying in French. This had been going on for such a long time that I had ceased to think there was anything odd about it - that is- unless I saw others, on rare occasions, doing the same thing....

For our week's backpacking in China this was our standard way of communication ... our code to foil nosy eavesdroppers - who knows what the average Chinese in the street can understand in the way of English? This time, we knew our strategy had worked....

The ice broken, our travelling companion introduced himself - an English language teacher at the Agricultural University. His presence on the train explained by the teachers' conference in Beijing that weekend.

We chatted late into the night, ignoring the slowness of the train as it rattled along the rails. This was the first opportunity to speak freely to a local Chinese and we had lots of questions to ask. We had just spent the week exploring a minute part of China...the arid, Shanxi Province - China's main coal mining area - red, scarred landscape from extensive mining activities - dust storms sweeping in from the Mongolian desert. The free exchange of ideas with our friendly co-traveller was an opportunity we seized and our curiosity about things we had seen in the last few days was being greedily satisfied.

Up to now, the earlier part of the trip had been spent with minimal communication with the locals - partly due to my inadequate language preparation for this trip to China - my third.

My first trip to China was a timid excursion into the land of my forefathers and was done in the comfort of a guided tour.

The second trip was a bit more adventurous and was done in the company of an old family friend who took charge of all the travelling arrangements and talking.

This time, for my third trip, I was to hide behind my daughter's new found expertise in Chinese - or so I thought....

On arriving in China, discovering with a shock that her Chinese was worse than mine...no time...too much work in the office... surrounded by French speakers all day.... I swallowed my disappointment and took in hand all the planning for the trip. No sooner had the plane from Copenhagen landed in Beijing - 12-hour flight- than I started working on the next stage of the journey - I had to work quickly. It was only a two-week trip to China this time. My phrasebook was unearthed from the bottom of the backpack - and I plunged into this alien culture - dredging up remnants of Chinese speaking which had lain dormant since the last trip to China five years ago. Luckily the words came effortlessly back and our trip was salvaged.

Thanks to internet train bookings were no problem. We simply found the trains we wanted to take. On presenting these train numbers at the railway booking office with our travelling dates, the tickets were promptly produced. I never did succeed in booking a "soft class" sleeper though. How to book for these is still a mystery...

However, hard class sleepers were a pleasant way to travel around China - even during the day.

Taking top bunks was a mistake. When we tried to sit up ...we could not... Drinking in a half-reclining position was almost impossible.

Climbing up to a top bunk is tricky... rock-climbing experience comes in handy as you search for footholds in a swaying train....

Most people over a certain age prefer bottom bunks. On a daytime journey you can either sit or lie down. On the top bunk it is impossible to sit up - unless you are a dwarf...The ticket is also cheaper. I'm not sure if you can sit up in the middle bunk....perhaps a medium-sized person can do this at a pinch? Not all was lost... on this first trip with a top bunk, I enjoyed the scenery by sitting on a fold-up wall seat in the corridor. Here, there were also tablets for your “obligatory” pot of instant noodles, always readily available in stands on the way to the station. Thermoses of scalding hot water are available in each railway compartment to swell up your noodles or brew your tea.

train travel in China

When travelling in a train in China, it is reassuring to know the destination of your train. This can be found on internet. It is also comforting to know the time the train arrives at your destination. However, if you do not know your arrival time, there is no need to worry. The wagon attendant's job is to see that passengers get off at the correct station. They take your ticket at the beginning of the journey and exchange it for a voucher. Fifteen minutes before the train is due to arrive your ticket is returned (your blankets whisked off - if necessary) and the wagon attendant checks that you get off the train. The same system works on some regional buses. The bus driver has an electronic printout of all the destinations the bus passengers buy tickets for and ensures that the passengers get off at these stops - except for one stop where the bus driver in our Datong Regional bus - could not find a passenger for one of the destinations...a "phantom" passenger perhaps?...

more info: http://www.seat61.com/China.htm#Finding_&_boarding_your_train

note: Since this article was written in 2010, trains are a lot more modern and comfortable now on the main lines.

Summer Palace Beijing