The Guangzhou Railway Station is infamous now, after last Chinese New Year’s disastrous weather left people stranded outside in the damp freezing cold waiting in line for weeks. People were hungry and miserable, some were even trampled to death, and I got to watch them live every day on the news. The travelers most affected were the migrant workers, who were desperately trying to get back to their homes in places like Sichuan for the holiday. However, the youngest generation of migrant workers seemed perfectly happy staying in the big city to celebrate with their friends.
If I’m taking the train, I usually use the East Railway Station, which is smaller and a little newer. Yesterday though, I went to the main station to buy a train ticket to Beijing. I was planning on taking a plane, but found out that for some reason the price of a round trip ticket to Beijing is the same price as buying two single journey tickets, 3000+ RMB! I can’t afford $450 for a two hour flight, so train it is! Although the train is pretty expensive too, since I bought a “soft sleeper” ticket. It’s going to cost me about $200 round trip.
The “soft sleeper” isn’t much softer than the “hard sleeper,” they are both rock hard, but there are several advantages. Soft sleeper compartments have four bunks and a door, while hard sleeper have 6 and no door. Doors are good because when people go in between cars to smoke, which they do constantly, the smoke gets sucked down the corridor into the rooms with no doors. The soft sleeper sheets are usually cleaner too, sometimes they seem to be freshly laundered. I also get the feeling that my luggage is safer in the soft sleeper, because the people who can afford to buy that ticket probably aren’t very interested in breaking into your luggage when you go to the bathroom, unless you do something stupid like leave your ipod sticking out.
Regardless of whether you buy a soft sleeper or hard sleeper, you’re still going to be stuck with a bunch of middle aged men with smelly feet and the tendency to shake the compartment with their snoring. I found a set of earplugs in a set with an eye shade, which I snatched up for this trip. My dream is to one day fill up a compartment entirely with people I know, but alas that dream doesn’t look like its coming true any time soon. For now I am a lone asian-looking female traveler, who gets a lot of confused looks when the train attendant comes around asking for everyone’s shenfenzheng (China i.d. card) and I give them an American passport… “You mean shes not Chinese????? But that’s impossible with her blackhairblackeyesyellowskin.”
Another thing I do that weirds people out besides flashing around a foreign passport is sleeping for almost the entire duration of the ride. This has been as long as almost 40 hours in some cases. Most people like to get up with the sun, play some cards, go to the food car and order a meal, etc. No matter what time of day it is when I get on the train, I throw my bags up into the storage area and whip out my prepackaged bowl of instant noodles, which I usually add hot pickled vegetables too. Then I walk to the hot water heater and fill up my noodles and large water bottle, wait, eat, wash my face in the bathroom, and hit the sack. Sometimes I’ll take a hit of Chinese (non non-drowsy) dramamine to facilitate things. If I have to get up to use the bathroom, I will replenish fluids and maybe eat a piece of fruit. If I have anything close to a lame superpower, it is being able to sleep for abnormally long periods of time.
This Chinese woman I met in Sichuan told me that once she was in a soft sleeper compartment with three men and realized about an hour into the ride that they had shackles on their hands and feet. They were prisoners being transported! She asked for a room switch and was granted one, thankfully. But, that’s so China! Seeing shackled prisoners coming off a train is common; they are hard to miss because their legs are bound, so they have to be carried under the arms by soldiers all the way to the exit. It’s kind of creepy to step off a train at night and be passed by soldiers running through the crowd with a limp and unwashed prisoner between them, and hear the sound of a thick iron chain dragging across the platform.
With my new earplugs and eyeshade, I think I could have my best 20 hours on a train yet… as long as there are no convicts in my compartment.
