China train

40 hours on hard sleeper on Kunming rail - The only way to travel in style and to see the amazing landscape. 80% of the Chinese population travel in this amazing well connected railway.

Hard sleeper mean economy class with 6 bunks per partition and about 25 partitions per car.
One also get the cheaper version of seater car which involve sitting in a crowded car through the whole journey. This is not recommended if you have long journey. Or you can upgrade to soft sleeper which is a 4 berth private partition.

There is a feel of being in a community on the train. You meet all sort of people from different part of China. People rushing to get to a wedding in their hometown, people going across the country to harvest tomatoes, businessman trying to close a deal, local tourist traveling to their next destination. Many different ascent of mandarin being spoken.

People were talking to each other about food, languages, places they have been to, things that they are doing, and even their problems. So much kindness and love that are shared with strangers for the 40 hours journey; many goodbyes were said and a warm welcome to the new passenger.

We remain the only western foreigner on board. They reference us as 'Lao why'. As usual the children and Dave attracted a lot of curiosity. Dave shaving attracted an audience, homeschooling on the train invited questions about why the children are not in school, the magic show we put on for San and Jon that made them laughed when the children wowed, the educational card game which puzzled them as there are no numbers on the card, and finally people double back to check out why we are sleeping in upright position when we do our silent puja.
The true Chinese experience on it's own. Definitely worth doing if you are intending to get to know China.


- Posted by Mich using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Xiamen, china