Have you
ever been in a tram or metro during rush hour? You know, the kind of tram/metro
that’s so full that you don’t even have to hold yourself upright because there
is literally no room to fall over? Imagine that, just for 20 hours.
~~~
I spent
most of the first week of October in Xi’an. I went there on Tuesday in order to
meet my former host Mum, Pearl, and to attend a wedding. I’ll be doing a
separate post about Chinese weddings soon, but this isn’t about that.
It’s about
my journey back from Xi’an to Shanghai. I know, I already did an entry on
travelling, but I probably ought to have waited, just to fit in this story.
The first
week of October was what is called “Golden Week” here. The Chinese celebrated
their National Holiday from Monday to Wednesday, and many people (including all
students) got Thursday and Friday off, too, which resulted in many people
travelling to their families in other provinces at the beginning of the week.
And, of course, equally as many people travelled back to wherever they are
working or studying at the end of the week.
~~~
When I
bought the tickets online, weeks ago, getting a ticket to Xi’an was no
problem. But getting a return ticket – that was the hard part.
At the
beginning, I didn’t think I’d be able to get a ticket back to Shanghai that
would allow me to be in time for my Monday morning class at all. When I found
one and immediately tried to buy it (emphasis is on “try”), I was informed by
someone from customer service by email a couple of minutes later that the
ticket was no longer available and that I would get my money back.
However,
one day later, the same women from customer service wrote me another email and
told me that for a slightly higher price, I could get a standing ticket
on a different train on Saturday from Xi’an to Shanghai.
Yes, a standing
ticket.
Of course,
like any sane person being offered a standing ticket for a train trip that they
know will take at least 6 hours, I hesitated and didn’t reply for almost a day.
Ultimately, though, I agreed in my desperation, and – partially out of
carelessness and partially because I was afraid of what I would find – didn’t
bother to check the train details.
~~~
It was a 20
hour train trip. Actually, it was a 20 and a half hour train trip, but I don’t
want to be nit-picky.
Just a word
upfront: It actually wasn’t that terrible. But it was still an experience.
I was
actually exaggerating in the beginning with the rush hour tram example, because
it wasn’t like that for the entire 20 hours. Just around 15. And I wasn’t
actually standing the entire time (or, for honesty’s sake, any of the time). I
had brought a plastic bag, which I stuffed with a pullover, and I sat on that
for the entire train ride.
The train
left Xi’an around 5 in the afternoon, and in the beginning, it was alright,
because there weren’t too many people. When I say that, I mean that there
weren’t any empty seats and around 30 to 40 people were sitting on the floor in
each train compartment, but everyone was still able to move.
After that,
though, every train station the train stopped in was a bit like a Hydra. Some
people would get off the train, and for everyone getting off, at least two
people would board the train. Five hours into the trip I thought that the train
couldn’t possible get any more cramped. There were people sitting on every
possible spot on the floor, and a fair few standing.
I was wrong.
We reached
a big city around midnight, and after that (and with 14 more hours to go!) it
was just crazy.
I was lucky
to have a sitting spot on the floor in a corner where I wasn’t in the way of
anyone, but most people who didn’t have seats were now standing, because there
were so many people that there was simply no space to sit on the floor. The
people in seats didn’t have it much better, either: People were standing
between the rows, sometimes nearly sitting in their laps, pressed against the
armrests and so on. You couldn’t go to the toilet anymore because there were –
no kidding – around 10 people with their entire luggage in there.
And when I
say I was lucky to have a spot on the floor – well, yes, I was, but even a spot
on the floor is only so comfortable when you are stuck in one position because
there simply isn’t enough space to move any part of your body. Keep in mind
that at that point there were 14 more hours to go until Shanghai.
To make
things worse, the train companies make additional money by sending people with
carts through the train, selling you tissues, hot food, snacks, drinks, fruit, and,
weirdly, toothbrushes. For that purpose, they send three carts through the
train, each with different products, and instead of having all of these carts
one right after the other, two carts were going one way, and one cart was going
the other way.
Go back to
that mental picture of a completely full tram during rush hour. And then
imagine three carts being pushed in opposing directions through the throngs of
people huddled together every thirty minutes.
Obviously, once every two hours, the three carts would reach the wagon I was in
simultaneously, and if you haven’t experienced it, it’s impossible to imagine
the insistence of the people pushing the carts of their divine right now pass,
without a care that people simply had nowhere to go.
It was as
chaotic, intense, dirty, and overwhelming an experience as I’ve ever had, and I
don’t think anyone reading this will be surprised when I say that I hardly got
any sleep.
Looking back
on it, though, it was, while exhausting, a really great 20 hours (even though I’m
in no hurry to get on another 20 hour train with a standing ticket). People
left and right were sharing their food with each other (and me), people on
seats shifted so that the eight year old child next to me could have a place to
sit while he was eating, or let him put his head in their lap when he went to
sleep. People were involving me in conversations, imploring me to teach them
new English words, and passing the time by teaching me Chinese card games.
There was
so much friendliness and helpfulness going around that it made something that
could have been a very, very long journey (and I’m not going to lie, at some points
it was) into an experience that I actually think back to with some fondness.
