We just got off the train ride to equal our bus ride from hell. We decided that we had to get out of Beijing. We finally got our Mongolian visa (which set us back a ridiculous $90 each) and our train ticket to Mongolia. Although we still hadn't seen the Great Wall or half of the Forbidden City we decided that we would be back to Beijing and we could do them later. Beijing was just too hot and too crowded and we wanted to get out and see something else.
We decided to visit Jinan which is about 500km south of Beijing on the way to Qingdao. We were staying only a few metro stops away from the Beijing Main Station so we went there to buy a train ticket. The crowd at the station was unbelievable. We had to queue twice for the ticket - about half an hour each time. When we finally got to the ticket window they told us that there were no sitting tickets left to Jinan for the next day but they were still selling standing tickets in hard seat class. The standing tickets were 73 yuan (about AU$13).
The bus stop was a bit hard to get to what with our bags and the heat so we opted for a standing ticket on the train in the hope that eventually enough people would get off so that we could have a seat or else we could try to upgrade our ticket once we were on the train.
The train left at 11.30am. We got down to the platform about 11.20am thinking that we were right on time. Well, we obviously should have turned up much, much earlier as the carriage that we were supposed to be in was already crammed full. All the seats were full and there were heaps of people and their luggage crammed into the aisles and even in the spaces between each carriage where the toilets etc are. There wasn't even enough space for us to get through the door with our backpacks.
Eventually the attendants' yelling forced everyone to squish in tighter and we managed to squeeze in enough for the door to close. We were wedged in so tight that you couldn't even turn around. You couldn't even really change the position of your feet because the people were wedged in so tight. We were at the very end of the carriage in the doorway - we managed to put our backpacks down against the wall and we were wedged against them. We asked the carriage attendant whether we could upgrade to a soft seat or even a sleeper carriage but she said absolutely nothing was available.
That's how we travelled until the first stop about 2 hours later. Because we were at the end of the carriage, whenever someone wanted to go to the toilet or get some hot water from the hot water tap, they had to come through our section. This was pretty hard as it was chock-a-block. They had to push people out of the way and climb over people's luggage. Paul and I both laughed when we saw that the train attendants were trying to push food and drink carts through the train. They were pretty slim carts but there was still no way they were getting through. But the attendants were very persistent. People ended up having to lift their baggage over their heads to get it out of the way. Every time that anyone came through we were squashed against the walls and the people around us.
There was air conditioning in the carriage but because we were right at the end it didn't really reach us and we were sweltering. It probably wasn't strong enough to keep all those people cool anyway. To make matters worse, we seemed to be in the part of the carriage where people were allowed to smoke. People kept lighting up and gassing us - we couldn't do anything to get away. They just dropped their ash and cigarette butts on the floor. People were also spitting on the floor - just lovely when they're just one metre away.
Whenever we got to a station, the people trying to get on the train would start barging onto the train before the people trying to get off were able to. The attendants had to physically hold them back. A couple of times people just barged in anyway and the people already on the train started yelling at them and shoving them, telling them to get back. Somehow, at the first few stations even more people seemed to pack on the train - I'm not sure where they went as we couldn't see further than the backs of the people around us.
Eventually, about 4 hours into the trip, the crowd started to thin out. A lot of people got out at one particular station, although not enough for us to actually get a seat. When the crowd trying to get on the train at that station saw that there were spare seats they barged harder than ever. Because I was in the aisle I was battered by their baggage and my feet were crushed as they rushed past. Because there was a bit more space, more people came to smoke at the end of the carriage. I was starting to feel sick from the smoke. There was nowhere for it to go because it was a closed carriage. I could see into the seating part of the carriage now. There were some people crouched in the aisle eating instant noodles and other food. One guy was eating chicken feet. He was spitting the bones out onto the floor, right where people were walking. Some other old guys were sitting in the aisle, smoking and spitting on the floor. Some people came to the end of the carriage trying to find the rubbish bin - when they couldn't find it they just chucked their food scraps and rubbish on the floor, near where we were standing. I was trying to be zen about it all but it was pretty foul.
By the end of the almost 6 hour trip we were so thirsty and exhausted. But at least some of the people had gotten off the train and we could at least turn around and shift position (we started to be thankful for small things). We could move more into the aisle away from the doors and get some more air con. Still, it's probably the last time we take a standing ticket on the train during summer, even if the bus stop is far away...
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