The first week of October was China's National Holiday. Fellow foreign English teacher, Shane, and I traveled to Anhui province to climb China's most sacred mountain, Yellow Mountain.
Traveling by train in China is convenient and affordable, so about a week before we left on our trip, we bought our train tickets. I learned many lessons while traveling over China's National Holiday to one of China's biggest attractions, one of which was that one week is not enough time to buy train tickets in advance. The result: we could only buy round trip standing tickets. That meant for both 12 hour legs of our trip, we did not have seats.
Standing tickets are not uncommon in China, people will often travel long, cross-country distances with standing tickets. Standing tickets are not as terrible as they sound; there are ways to work the system: (1) Buy a small, fold-up stool that you carry in your luggage and find a free space to set up shop. (2) Periodically peruse the train cars for open seats, especially right after scheduled stops, maybe you'll get lucky. (3) Find the dining car and pay money to sit there overnight. We used a combination of all 3 strategies and were able to have seating for most of the trip. Both long train rides were overnight, so the dining car option was clutch. On our return trip we sat at a table with a couple Chinese guys and we played card games until 2am.
Since most of the country has this week off for holiday, the trains were packed with people traveling. People were sitting everywhere- on the ground, on their luggage, in smoking nooks, on the sinks. Walking down the aisles, especially with our big backpacks, was a nightmare and I cringe to think about all the people I bumped into with my backpack. With that being said, the friendliness of people here continues to surprise and impress me. One Chinese family let me set up my stool in their seating area. We talked for hours, they gave me fruit and we exchanged contact information before parting ways. I hope to meet up again. Another group of men gave up one of their seats for me after they noticed I was standing for awhile. Not the most comfortable method of travel, but we saved money and made new friends. All in all, total success.
Traveling by train in China is convenient and affordable, so about a week before we left on our trip, we bought our train tickets. I learned many lessons while traveling over China's National Holiday to one of China's biggest attractions, one of which was that one week is not enough time to buy train tickets in advance. The result: we could only buy round trip standing tickets. That meant for both 12 hour legs of our trip, we did not have seats.
Standing tickets are not uncommon in China, people will often travel long, cross-country distances with standing tickets. Standing tickets are not as terrible as they sound; there are ways to work the system: (1) Buy a small, fold-up stool that you carry in your luggage and find a free space to set up shop. (2) Periodically peruse the train cars for open seats, especially right after scheduled stops, maybe you'll get lucky. (3) Find the dining car and pay money to sit there overnight. We used a combination of all 3 strategies and were able to have seating for most of the trip. Both long train rides were overnight, so the dining car option was clutch. On our return trip we sat at a table with a couple Chinese guys and we played card games until 2am.
Since most of the country has this week off for holiday, the trains were packed with people traveling. People were sitting everywhere- on the ground, on their luggage, in smoking nooks, on the sinks. Walking down the aisles, especially with our big backpacks, was a nightmare and I cringe to think about all the people I bumped into with my backpack. With that being said, the friendliness of people here continues to surprise and impress me. One Chinese family let me set up my stool in their seating area. We talked for hours, they gave me fruit and we exchanged contact information before parting ways. I hope to meet up again. Another group of men gave up one of their seats for me after they noticed I was standing for awhile. Not the most comfortable method of travel, but we saved money and made new friends. All in all, total success.
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