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Published: November 20th 2011
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Over the National Holiday week, two friends and I decided to take a little trip to Xi’an. It was to be a short trip: take a hard sleeper there, spend one night in Xi’an and head back the next afternoon. When we went to the ticket office, however, we were unable to get return tickets. A little nervous, we bought the hard sleeper tickets and hoped we could get the same to return home. The hard sleepers were nice, although it was a little weird sleeping out in the open like that. I did not sleep well because my bunk was underneath a large man who happened to be a raucously loud snorer.
As soon as we arrived in Xi’an, we went to the ticket office to get our return tickets on the only train leaving the next day. We asked for hard sleepers, soft sleepers, soft seats, and hard seats—no tickets. Now, in my home country, if there aren’t any seats left, it’s ‘Sorry, you’ll have to catch the next train.’ But China provides a lovely thing called a standing ticket. This was a twenty hour train ride, but we didn’t have a choice. I guess the good thing is that standing tickets are significantly cheaper than any other ticket.
We went to our car and tried to stay out of everyone else’s way as they put their luggage on the racks and found their seats. This was hard to do since the aisle was barely half a metre wide. Eventually everyone was seated (besides all the people standing) and the train started its long journey. We each claimed the side of a seat to lean against, and tried to make ourselves small each time a food cart went by (which was often) or people went to the bathroom (which was frequently).
Ten hours later, more people got off and we finally got to sit. What followed was the longest night of my life. Unable to sleep for more than twenty minutes before getting a crick in my neck and feeling a little claustrophobic, I was really missing our hard sleepers and the snoring man. I had never been so happy to see Hangzhou when we finally arrived two hours behind schedule. It had felt like I would never get off the train. Once off, I decided one standing trip is enough to satisfy for a lifetime.
If you ever get a standing ticket, you have a few options. Stand at the ends of the car and camp out in a corner; you’ll have to deal with the smell from the bathroom and breathing in smoke the whole time because this is where smokers congregate. Or, like us, you can stand by the seats, waiting to scavenge one as soon as a passenger gets off. At night, you’ll literally have to climb on the shoulders of those sitting or sleeping in the aisle to use the bathroom, but it’s all part of the Chinese train ride experience. Enjoy!
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Jas
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Trip
I'm sure bummed that I never got to experience a standing ticket when I was overseas. Oh wait...no I don't! Sorry, hunny!