The only ticket they had for that night was a soft sleeper to Lanzhou – and at just over 1000 Yuan (about 90 pounds) it was much higher than the 600 Yuan for a soft sleeper that I'd been expecting, and significantly more than the 400 Yuan for the hard sleeper ticket I'd wanted to buy.
I've been thinking over the last few days about why I'd got to the point of wanting to go home, and realised that there were a combination of factors.
I'd been tyring to fit so many things in that I'd become really tired, and hadn't given myself any days to catch back up. Added to this, I'd been surprised (and a little shocked) by many of the things I'd seen and heard in Tibet - it wasn't really what I'd expected. And while China is an amazing place to visit, it can be a little frustrating at times. It's amazing how many conversations I've had with people about “China Frustration” over the last few weeks.
But looking back, I've had some amazing times in China – and realised that the best experiences I've had have been in the small towns and villages. And while I had been thinking of going to Shanghai, I figured that the best thing to do was to leave the big cities behind and get back to the smaller out of the way places.
So I bought the ticket, and made my way to the station for the fourteen hour trip to Lanzhou. It turns out that the ticket was for the equivalent of a first class cabin, which only had two beds in it, and even had an ensuite toilet.
And actually, it was just what I needed, as I was able to hang out reading and catch up on some much needed sleep.
At Lanzhou – it was a different story. There were no tickets available for the 14 hour journey to Dunhunag in either hard or soft sleeper for a few days. And there was only one hard seat ticket available for that night, and not wanting to hang around in Lanzhou, I bought the ticket.
Hard seat is how most of the Chinese people travel, and it was a real experience. The carriages have three seats on one side of the aisle with three seats facing, and two seats on the other side of the aisle with two seats facing. And while the seats are OK – they do get a bit uncomfortable when your trying to sleep over night.
I did get chatting to a Chinese guy using his mobile phone to translate between Chinese and English and back which was a really fun experience – and actually – it worked out, although it was very slow going.
View from the train crossing the Gobi Desert:
Two trains – two different experiences - and I was actually glad on the second part of the trip to be forced out of the relative comfort of hard sleeper and see the real side of Chinese train travel.
-----
On a slightly different note – one thing that the Chinese Government really knows how to organise is public transport. In fact – I'd have to say that China has been the easiest country to get around on my trip so far. The trains are frequent, comfortable, and relatively cheap. And around most of the towns and big cities there are good bus networks or Mass Transit Underground systems.
And it's often surprisingly cheap to get around. In Beijing it only costs 2 Yuan (about 17 pence) to go anywhere in the city. In Dunhuang – it's half of that to catch the bus anywhere in the town.
And it's obvious that money is being invested in the infrastructure here. In Chengdu a new Metro system is being built, and I've seen road building going on in different parts of the country. And the amazing train system here is being both expanded, or upgraded to allow faster trains to run.
China is classed as a developing country, and it's evident that one of the things that is being actively developed is the transportation infrastructure - although in reality - it's already better than some of the transport systems in "developed" countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment