Beijing Pt. 4: Midnight Train from Hell

Waking up from our final night in Beijing, we were all very tired and worn out from the last two days of big tourist traveling. On our last day we decided to take it easy, get brunch, and find a nice little flea market to haggle for interesting items.

After finishing lunch we took a subway and a bus to a nearby flea market that was a popular site for tourists and locals. They were selling everything there from jewelry to random knick knacks. Everything can be haggled down to a reasonable price, and is expected. I am a terrible haggler, so I needed my roommate Craig’s assistance on buying the commie memorabilia I thought was interesting. Hopefully, I will get better as the year progresses.

Market Vendors

Market Entrance

Market Flags

Weird Lennon like glasses

More Market

I swear I am still a capitalist, but sometimes I like to buy communist things. 

After a few hours of haggling and dinner, we decided it was time to leave the vibrant city of Beijing, and go back to our sleepy town of 2 million people. Of course, not learning from our train ticket mistakes of getting to Beijing, we show up to the train station expecting to buy a reasonable ticket at a reasonable time. WRONG. The soonest train to Tangshan was another 2.5hr long "standing" train at 11pm. Not wanting to take another expensive cab ride back to Tangshan, we decided to weigh all our options. We booked a ticket for a sitting train at midnight that would get us to Tangshan within the hour. Perfect! We thought, nothing can go wrong now.... Little did we know, we wouldn't be resting in our beds that night until the sun came up 12 hours later.

Midnight finally arrived and we were ready to board the train. The queue for the train was crowded, but for the most part people were civilized once the gates opened. We boarded the train, which to my surprise was very nice. All the stories I heard from Craig was that Chinese trains were grungy, dirty, and old. This train had anything you would expect a train in the states would have. Somehow the comforts of the train let our guard down when the stop came. The train announced we were arriving at Tangshan.

The western way of thinking: Train stops, collect your bags, and get off the train.

Chinese way of thinking: Announcing train is stopping, get to the door now, and train stops for 1min and leaves.

Long story short, we missed our stop. Frustration and fatigue begin to show themselves in all of us as the train attendant explains to us in broken English that we must wait until the next stop (A hour and a half later) to get off, buy another train ticket and back track all the way to Tangshan. 

We finally arrive at the next train station, which is actually quite nice. The next train available to Tangshan was a "standing" train at 3:30am and arriving in Tangshan at 5:30am. After a 15 minute arrival delay, the "lovely" train arrives to take us to Tangshan. As soon as I step on the train, I feel like I am in an already never ending nightmare that I will never wake up from. Besides the entire train car of Chinese eyes staring at us, the train looked like it has hadn’t been used since the Cold War. The furnishings were old, ragged seats, but this didn't matter because everyone was sprawled out sleeping in all the rows. I finally arrived at my "assigned seat". Across from me was a haggard looking Chinese man and his wife. Next to me was a crouched up old woman. Luckily, she was nice enough to let me sit down. The table in the middle had old, smelly bits of dinner they had eaten from earlier before, and all I could do was lay my head in my lap hoping I would wake up in my bed. Finally, what seemed like the never ending train ride came to an end. We made sure this time to get off the train in a timely manner. We hopped in the first taxi we saw and headed back to our lovely apartment. Waiting for us was our lovely Chinese pancake lady and her husband with a big smile on her face ready to make us breakfast. We devoured our meals and crashed in our beds just as the sun came up.

Our forced 3:30am smiles just before getting on the last train to Tangshan

Waking up later that afternoon, I laughed and looked back at the entire experience I had in Beijing. From the fun to the frustrating, I was so happy to experience everything that had happened and the people that I shared it with. I look forward to my next adventure here in China and letting everyone be a part of that journey through my blog.