2002-12-01 - 5:11 a.m.

Slow Train To Beijing

Nanjing to Beijing, Nov. 13/14

Continuing the story of mine and Lily's trip to China.

Holy crap! I am jetlagged to death! I know that I sound like a broken record, but I just can't shake this gray haze of insomnia and get on a normal sleeping schedule. Today I slept from 3:30 p.m. to 9:40 p.m. which is 2:30 AM to 8:40 Shanghai time. Sheesh!

Anyway, once we had gotten on the train at Nanjing, things settled down quickly.

When traveling long distances by train in China you have three options. In ascending price order they are: a regular seat, a "hard sleeper" or a "soft sleeper." The difference between the two sleepers is a small matter of comfort - the soft sleepers are a little more private and have somewhat cushier mattresses.

I have to admit I was rather uneasy about taking public transportation in China, since it is, supposedly, a Third World country. When I'd been to Egypt I'd taken a long train ride there it had been utterly hellish - the train was incredibly filthy, everything rattled (so sleep was impossible) and the train lurched so badly that I was terrified that it was going to derail at any minute. Still, I figured, if I lived through that I could live through this. Besides, Lily's classmates had gone through it and said it wasn't that bad.

In fact, the train was pretty clean. It seemed pretty tidy and modern, the only drawback was that there was no privacy.

In the hard sleeper car, the train was divided into compartments with two sets of triple-bunks facing each other in each compartment. Lily's professor, Mr. Wu, had gotten us bottom-bunk beds facing each other, and I was glad that he had. Only the bottom bunk was big enough to sit up in, and the person on the top bunk was literally only a foot from the light at the top of the compartment. Probably not too restful up there with that shining in your eyes.

Still jet-lagged, I intended to do some reading while Lily slept, but this goal was frustrated when they turned all the lights out about 45 minutes after the train pulled out of Nanjing. It was too dark to do anything, and there were no little personal lights you could turn on.

There was a little pillow with what looked like a paper towel on it, but I didn't really trust that to put my head on, so I covered it with my jacket. The bunk was also equipped with a staple of Chinese bedding, the sheet-blanket. Basically it�s a blanket that is surrounded by a removable sheet cocoon that could be washed. Not a bad idea, actually.

I slept for a while, but when I woke up it was still dark. I found my watch and discovered it was 3:30 AM. Oh well.

I gingerly lifted the shade on the window, and watched the scenery roll by. It was pretty drab. So far I'd been pretty impressed with the Chinese cities I'd seen, all bustling and modern, but the countryside was something else. It looked like I'd gone back in time 500 years with all these little clusters of brick buildings with their feudal courtyards. As the sun came up the countryside woke up, but it was still pretty bleak and brown - not too surprising for mid-November. Also it was pretty deserted-looking, except for the occasional dusty-looking fellow riding on a bicycle.

I'd been told that the climate in Beijing was close to that of Frown Town, seeing as it was on the same latitude and all, so I'd brought my warmest winter wear. It was definitely a good idea - I could see there was frost on the brown grass.

As we passed each station I tried to make out the names on them to figure out where we were. Mostly they were in Chinese, but even when the name was in English it was no help - these little towns and cities were too small to be on the map of China that was in my guidebook.

I also noticed that the train seemed to be moving painfully slowly and stopping a lot. We had tried to get the express train to Beijing, but it was full due to the big communist party meeting that was going on in Beijing. According to the guidebook a train from Nanjing to Beijing should take about 12 hours, however this non-express train wound up taking over 16 and a half hours. It was LONG, people.

Finally the train started to wake up. A guy started going up and down the aisle pushing a cart with various Chinese junk food on it. Lily finally woke up and we had some of the Mandarin oranges that we brought with us.

S and Crazy A had warned us that there was no privacy on the train, and that the Chinese felt perfectly free to sit on the bottom bunk and socialize with each other, even if it was your bunk. While Lily and I rode the train, Lily and I had the opposite experience - the Chinese seemed to be trying to avoid us. Oh, they felt perfectly free to ogle us, but they didn't approach us.

At one point when Lily asked the conductor when we would reach Beijing in Chinese, all their heads swiveled around to look at us in surprise. Omigod! It spoke Chinese!

There was a little Chinese boy in the compartment next to us, traveling with what looked like his grandmother. Lily thought he was adorable, and he obviously thought something about us too since I kept hearing him say "lao wei."

"Lao wei" - that was a word we heard a lot in China. It's Chinese slang for "foreigner." According to my Lonely Planet travel guide to China it literally means "old outsider" and since the Chinese venerate the elderly, it's a term of respect. Actually, considering the sneering tone that often accompanied the word I think a more accurate translation would be "frikking foreigner." As it turns out, this wasn't the only thing the Lonely Planet guide was wrong about.

We got up and went to the dining car, a couple cars up. The food looked too scary, so I just had a soda. I was scared to death of getting the trots in China (also known as Chairman Mao's Revenge) so I steered clear of any food that looked dubious.

Finally, sometime after two in the afternoon the train finally reached the end of the line in Beijing.

Continued