Train from Beijing to Shenzhen

After coming back from Houhai on the evening on August 23rd, our group arrived at the Beijing train station around 6:30p for our 8p 24-hr overnight train to Shenzhen where we would be teaching. I was not looking forward to this. I had never been on an overnight train where you would sleep. And a China one no less. And on one where there is a single sink for about 60 passengers to a car and two squat toilets. No western toilets to be found on this trip.

There was a dining car but we were told the food stunk and it would be a hassle to use so we were advised to buy stuff before we boarded so we could snack on this trip. What should I bring as a vegetarian? I don't like chips. Pretzels are nowhere to be found in China. I had yet to find vegetarian ramen (the train has hot water to use/drink). I mean, I may have seen some but the packages had been all in Chinese and I was not going to mess with that until I found a package in English or confirm a brand or type was indeed vegetable. No such luck at that time (I have since found some). Tofu in sealed plastic bags that I had seen next to the chicken feet at corner convenience stores? Wasn't going to try that either for the same reason as the ramen. I also read some of those bags use chicken or beef extract in the oil that's in the bag (the oil keeps it moist so the tofu doesn’t dry up). No thank you. Some people were buying peanut butter and jelly. Well, I don't like peanut butter either but I do like jelly. So I decided to buy 4 whole wheat slices of bread (yes, you can buy in China) and I would have one strawberry jam sandwich the next morning and one later the next day. And I must say it's been years since I had such a simple sandwich of bread with just jam but they were delicious. Sometimes the simplest meals are still the best. I also bought some little package of Chinese crackers (not sure really what they were) and a jello type of thing which wasn't that great.

Back at the train station during our wait, I had two more Yanjings and was feeling good (I had 1 or 2 at Houhai too). I planned to get a little buzzed. I wanted to fall asleep on this train and pass about 8-10 hours of it. But where was I going to sleep? Was I going to be with some of the quieter people who wanted to sleep that night or stuck with the rowdier bunch that I know would be partying late on this train? And what about some of my closer friends? Would I be able to stay near them? There were about a 130 of us in 2 cars of about 60 people each. We had 'hard sleeper' carriages which were basically 6 open bunks per sleeper (3 on one side and 3 on the other - with a little table in the middle). About 10 sleepers to a car. It turns out we were given our tickets when we went through the gate to go onto the platform to catch the train. The tickets were like in bed order. So if you walked through the gate with your friends (which I did), your ticket numbers (meaning your beds) would be in order so my sleeper would have some of my friends with me which was good. But before I boarded, Laila and I saw a lady selling beer from a little cart. She wanted 5 kuai each for a can of beer. Way too expensive I told her. I would offer 3 each. She yelled at me. I told her take it or leave it. She sold me some for 3 kuai each but gave me the warmer ones. I think she was selling the colder ones for the 5 kuai. I bought like 3 and got on.

The train started rolling out around 8p and everyone was talking and walking up and down the tiny aisle. We had fun. Talking, drinking, & playing games when all of a sudden the lights went out at 10p. Yep, in China, that was our signal it was bed-time. So most of us went back to our beds (mine was the top, right one). I started playing my iPod and fell asleep. Bed wasn't that bad but you had very little room to move.

Woke up around 9-10ish I guess and really just hung out for the day. Watched the scenery/country roll by. Watched a movie (Armored) on my laptop. Read some of Mao's book. Ate a little. Once in a while, a Chinese woman would roll a cart up the aisle selling fruit and some drinks (beer too) but for some reason she never liked stopping in these American carriages. I bought a couple of beers.

The train had like 16 carriages and 2 of them were the American carriages and the whole train was packed. Laila and I decided to walk as far up as we could into the Chinese carriages. I wanted to take photos. I brought my camera and we headed up. Boy, did they stare at us. After walking through the cars, I would turn around with my camera, the Chinese would all be looking at me, and I would yell really loud, "say cheese." They thought we were funny. These are the pics you can see. We walked past some of the soft sleepers (which sleep 4 and have closing doors for privacy) and saw the small little dining hall carriage too.

Well we arrived at the Shenzhen station around 8pm. Almost exactly 24hrs. We were all excited to get to the hotel so we could take showers and sleep in a regular bed. The train ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Went quicker than I thought. The bed wasn't that bad. I hadn't had to go #2 via the squat toilet (I made sure what I ate wouldn't enhance the need). Fellow peers were all well behaved and there wasn’t crazy drunkenness which we were told was a problem on this train ride in previous years. We all got along pretty well. Wasn't bad. Was glad to leave Beijing and be in Shenzhen, which is Southern China in Guangdong province. South of the Tropic of Cancer. The Bahamas can't even make that claim. This is the tropics. Think northern Beijing was hot? That was nothing...