Trains

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I love trains.

In China you can take a train from almost everywhere to almost anywhere. And you can take any train you want: there are slow trains, fast trains, new ones, old ones, dirty, clean... doesn't matter, and they have one thing in common - they are all BIG. Of course, in order to fit in all the Chinese people that happen to take them. And indeed that happens a lot... I would say all of the trains are full of people regardless the time and place.

They like mobile cities, you can buy food, snacks, fresh fruit, maps and most importantly new socks. There are toilets, hot water dispensers, restaurant and if you’re willing to pay a little bit more for the ticket, you can spent your journey in bed.

There is nothing like a 18 hours train journey from Shenzhen to Shanghai, having a standing ticket.
-Why would anybody do that? They wouldn’t!
-What if they don’t have a choice?
-Come on there must be another train some other time?
-There is no other train between this two cities, and since it’s the end of the Chinese New Year, there are no more seats available. So I’m buying the ticket – four days from now, on the 4th of Feb 2009, at 13:28 T212. And I don’t know what I’m doing…

I hate trains.

* There is an excellent website in English to check all trains between all the cities in China.
www.travelchinaguide.com and there is a map of all the connections. It also says you can book the ticket there but I never tried, since it’s really easy to buy the ticket yourself. There are numerous agencies in every city, and of course the train station – they don’t speak English thou! In Shanghai there are ticket machines – very convenient and easy to use. Good luck!

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