This was the most difficult part of my trip so far! Traveling on a train in China is very different than traveling in the U.S. Advice for anyone taking a trip more than 8 hours is never to book a seat, always spend the extra money for a hard sleeper or wait until you can get a bed on a sleeper. Because this is summer holiday for all of the students here, I was unable to get a train out of Beijing according to schedule. I had to wait three extra days just to get a seat on a train. I knew that ideally I did not want a seat but it was all that I could get and I am on a schedule that I already had to change. The trip I took was the longest 26 hours of my life. I thought that I had experienced some tough times in the past but this was perhaps the most intensely I have ever roughed it in my life.
Unless you have been here it is hard to understand. This has shown me how spoiled I am as an American and how lavishly and extravagantly that I have gotten used to living my life. First of all on trains in China, after all of the seats have been sold out people can buy a standing ticket which means that the aisles are packed full of standing/squatting people and it is very difficult to move around or get to the bathroom. (In America this would be considered a major safety violation, not to mention that I did not see any emergency exits so if there is an accident you are out of luck it seems)
The bathroom was probably the grossest bathroom I have ever been in in my life and it just got worse and worse the longer we were on the train. At one point, someone had left their food sprawled out near the hole in the floor which serves as the toilet (you push a lever and your feces or pee dumps out onto the tracks) and it was soaked full of pee just sitting there. I was seated next to two young children who screamed bloody murder all night long (it was so bad that the people sitting around me were yelling in Chinese at the parents).
The most intense part though came about two thirds through the trip when a set of seats up from me all of a sudden a group of people started to gather and stare. The only thing I saw at first was a woman with her head thrown back and my first impression was OMG she is is dead. For about the next 30 mins or so people gathered and the train crew helped. I am not sure if she passed out or what happened but eventually to my relief they put her back in her seat and she traveled slumped over (unable to keep her body weight up) for the rest of the trip) until the end where she actually stood up and walked off of the train. It was the most intense thing and I really thought that they were going to have to carry a dead body off the train. I am sure all of this was made more intense by the fact that I do not understand the language so for me it was just like I was watching a bizarre chain of events unfold.
When I got to Chengdu I took my first illegal taxi. I was so exhausted from the train ride and kept asking for a taxi when finally a man said he would give me a ride. At that point I just wanted to take a shower desperately. I think he was trying to charge me 90 yuan for the trip but luckily the hostel I am staying at talked to him and he dropped it to 30 yuan. It usually costs 15 yuan to take a taxi to the hostel and the hostel paid that part so I only had to pay 15 yuan. It was worth it because I got to shower and lay down which I never dreamed could feel so good! I will post more later about my trip to the Giant Buddha at Leshan.
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