To get to Harbin we had to take a train north - a trip that lasted 30 hours. The cool thing was that we didn't have to change trains; our train went straight from Shanghai to Harbin making several stops along the way (including Changzhou). Thirty hours on a train is a long time but fortunately China has several options for passengers traveling on the rails. The classy option is the "soft sleeper" which is four bunks to a cabin with beds that are softer and larger than the other options. The second option, and the one that we chose, is "hard sleeper" which is six bunks to a cabin and the beds are a little smaller and harder than the "soft sleepers." The third option is seats and the last option allows you to buy a ticket to ride on the train without a seat. That being said, we saw many people boarding the trains with sturdy buckets and tiny collapsible chairs which they would use to sit on in the aisles.
China's train system is great except for one thing: you can't buy round trip tickets. For example, Sean and I could buy our ticket to Harbin, but we couldn't buy our ticket home to Changzhou until we were actually in Harbin. This can create some problems and frustrations if the tickets sell out before you get there. If you have to be home at a certain time (which we did) it can add a little anxiety. Many Chinese can simply ask someone they know in the city to go and get tickets for them days before they arrive to solve this problem. As foreigners, we don't really have that luxury and Sean and I were relieved when we arrived that they still had tickets home available for the day we wanted to leave. A ticket for me to travel to Harbin from Changzhou on a hard sleeper train cost 452 RMB which is about $66.
We packed with 60 hours of traveling on a train in mind and included games, books, music, magazines, food, crossword puzzles, Chinese practice and journals. The trip was fun (at the beginning) and it was nice to watch the scenery, relax, read and attempt to make conversation with our very friendly Chinese cabin mates. The people watching was intense and being cramped in a train with lots of Chinese people was an interesting slice of humanity. Everyone wore slippers and most passengers stripped down to different layers of long underwear and it gave our car quite an intimate feeling with everyone walking around in their skivvies. The hardest things for me to adapt to (especially when I was really ready to be off the train) was the squatter toilet, the smoking, the constant sounds of loud cell phones and text messages (even late into the night), the overwhelming smells of instant noodle spices, the lack of places to sit down, the shrieking kids running around, the guy who spilled his peanuts and shells in the bunk above mine which rained down on me periodically during the night and the loud and enthusiastic music that was blared on the train' speakers at 7:00am to wake us up. One of the things that I found most interesting was that the loudspeaker would inform us of when we should take our afternoon nap and go to bed by saying things like "the announcements will stop and the curtains will be closed so you can enjoy your afternoon nap. Please take care of your belongings before your rest".
The highlights of the ride included watching the scenery, talking to people, listening to the book "Born to Run" on my ipod and beating Sean 7 games to 6 in Cribbage.
HEY SEAN AND SARAH..IT IS LISA FROM HICC
THIS IS VERY COOL!!
KATHY DOYLE SENT ME THIS.
IT WAS NICE TO SEE SEAN'S MUCH MISSED SMILE!!!