On one of the regular trains, a high number train, I set off for Xian, a place I am really looking forward to staying there. After getting to the station early I sat and watched people coming and going, getting the taxi was easy and they are so cheap. Quick visit to the hotel over the road to use their facilities, I never did find the station one! Wandering around I spied the soft sleeper lounge, the equivalent of a koru lounge, seeing I was traveling first class albeit Chinese. Bought the inevitable noodles, sat, and ate them. I love the way they have boiling water that you can use for hot dried stuff, its been the case all the way so far.
Once done and a few edible things bought to eat on the train I headed on down to the platform. Viewing it from the top of three flights of steps straight down was a scary moment. Alas, no help on the horizon, so there was a flat section to the side of the stairs that I could only assume was for the trolley bags. I started but nearly lost the lot, including myself so sent them down individually. Worked brilliantly, I did forget my Ipad was in one but it did survive. The other passengers now heading at great speed down the stairs seemed to see the funny side.
I was still coming to grips with the huge numbers of people using the trains, something you will never see in New Zealand. They were almost running to catch the trains; I had to wonder why they had to go so fast, all of them overloaded with carry bags from plastic to leather. I discovered the reason was to be first on the train to store their bags; there is very little room allowed and no baggage car.
On getting to my cabin, I was not a little worried seeing a young couple with a 6-month-old baby! What sort of a trip was I going to have! It started whinging soon after, the cabin was very warm and the poor child was done up in quilted clothes. The babies here seem to be all done up the same, well actually the adults are as well, while I have been in T-shirts, everyone else has been wearing winter clothes.
The train left on time but it was going to be a slow trip as it was one of the older trains, very grubby, mess still on the floor from the last clients. After a while, I took myself to the dining car, where it was considerably cooler to read Anna Karenina, I had down loaded onto the Ipad. The trek out of the city saw row after row of apartments rising, not just one but also heaps of them, generally boring row after boring row of grey look alikes!
The dining car equally dirty, with the extra stores hidden under the decorated dining tables with a red plastic rose in a vase on the tables. A long cry from the Canadian pacific. The train quasi officials all with their peaked caps and uniforms had the kitchen end. China seems to have a lot of these sort of people, I guess its job creation at its best. They give them a uniform and all of a sudden they become little hitlers. One guy I noticed , resplendent in his uniform and peaked cap wearing bright yellow shoes.
A bit of exploration of home for the next 18 hours gave me an insight into the hard sleeper class where many of the passengers would sleep, smoke and live. Not a pleasant sight ,seeing rows of three bunk stands the whole length of a carriage, and there were many carriages!! The unisex squat toilets filthy,as were the two hand basins available for the soft sleeper class. I suspect their age had more to do with it as the staff seemed to be always wiping or sweeping, surprisingly neither smelt.
Some time later a chinese chap with the name Zhou Jiangwen asked if he could sit with me. He was very keen to speak english. So I spent the rest of the night with him and his wife, sharing our dinner. They had fun laughing with me trying to use chopsticks, in the end his wife went and got a spoon from the kitchen. The carriage was very interested in my presence, the fact that I came from NZ, probably a lot didn’t even know where it was. I think I was probably the only european on the train and with grey hair as well.
It was interesting as they pointed out different things on the way, named the cities none of which I remember but he did write them down so once I have a map of the area I’ll trace the way we went. Of particular interest was the 5.1 km bridge , the train line and the motorway bridges slowly came together and ended with the cars going above the train across the river.
A surprisingly peaceful night from the baby, and good nights sleep aided by half a happy pill meant the night slipped away quickly. I slept in until 7.30 although aware of the others moving around in the cabin. Didn’t bother with breakfast, as I tried hard not to drink too much. The first time on this trip I have had to use the squat toilet. Horrible things!!! Especially when you already creak from sleeping on a hard bed. Most unpleasant and very awkward. so dehydration will be the order of the day if there are others and there almost certainly will be.
I spent a lot of time looking out the window both from the cabin and from the hall way. The superb mountains, and valleys although covered by pollution or maybe it was mist, which I doubt. They were simply stunning. The way every square meter of the land nearly the entire trip was covered with gardens or growing useful and edible plants, created beautiful sights of spring blossoms cascading down hills ,poking up in valleys where sunlight would be a stranger.
I loved the little brick houses and the roof line that screamed Chinese. many in a state of complete ruin but others obviously still lived in. The small communities with a brick wall completely surrounding them, possibly they were family compounds as there was always several in the same location.
The tombstones of ancestors in many different places, there didn’t appear to be a grave yard as such,but many were attended by family members as the train rolled on past. I have since discovered this week is a ancestor week with emphasis on the graves,so that would account for seeing so many of the graves with people around them
I loved seeing the rice paddies in the form that I hoped to see, as they dropped layer by layer down hillsides. I get the impression China is very wet there is always puddles,ponds, huge rivers so it makes sense to see them grow what is obviously a wet land food plant.
I despair seeing the rubbish all around, piled high in some places full of plastic no one here seems to care about the environment. While I am by no means a greenie, when you see the mountainous piles of rubbish every where you can gain an insight as to why it is , can and will be a very real problem today and in the future. It is an astounding country but unless there are steps taken to sort out the environmental issues it doesn’t bode well for anyone least of all the poorest of the poor that eke a living out of the land. I saw one old man dressed just as he would have under Chairman Mao, working out in the garden. Another pulling a hand plough, they must sleep well at night as its very physical work.
The train arrived in to a wet Xian where happily I was met by a couple of the girls from the hostel, made a real change for me that’s for sure. Of course the day to arrive was the first of a three day holiday and there were even more hordes of people than the existing horde!!
