Trains

Last week I returned to my favorite mode of transportation: the Chinese train. Any of you who have traveled in China by train will understand what I mean and must certainly have your own stories to share as well. So here are a few entertaining thoughts from my train trip to and from Changchun, China, a wonderful city about 3 hours by regular train and 4 1/2 hours by slow train from where I live.

First, no train trip is complete without the awesome period of waiting at the station beforehand. Perhaps Chinese people don't see the joy in this period of time, but for any of us non-Asian foreigners, this part is always adventuresome. Especially when traveling with a group of 30+ foreigners. So our train out was to leave at 3:48 p.m. Since security is nearly non-existent at Chinese train stations, it's usually safe to arrive at the station about 20-30 minutes before departure... and even then you may have to sit around a while. But we had a big group, and a group not particularly known for its promptness, so we were told to meet at the station at 2 p.m. Fair enough. Thankfully, it was a beautiful (read: hot and muggy, but at least not raining) day, so we could hang around out front of the station to greet everyone as they trickled in. (Impressively, the last one of our group showed up at 3:20... no running to catch the train!) Big group of white and black foreigners standing outside the train station? Definitely the center of everybody's attention. Also, the center of the cell phone cameras' focus. I'm half expecting to some day travel out to a small town or village in the middle of nowhere China and find my picture on people's walls or on advertisements. But we played along, even smiling and posing for a few pictures. And starting up conversations that we may or may not be able to finish because of our limited Chinese ability. Ah, the joy of being a superstar.

The train station experience before the trip home, however, was even more entertaining. People from our group were just trickling out of the hotel and grabbing taxis together to the train station, so I got in a taxi with three others and off we went. We were having a great conversation with the driver as well as sharing with each other about the great things that we had experienced during our time in Changchun. We even got the driver to plug our mp3 player, playing P&W music, into his car's stereo system so we could all listen to it -- including him. Pretty fun! But I started to get a little nervous when we passed right by the train station without even slowing down. Where on earth are we going? Finally, the driver stopped on what seems like a little side street, with no clear indication of where we were or why we were there, except that he said we had arrived. What? Arrived where? There were little convenience stores and restaurants along the street, but definitely not a train station! But he patiently pointed to a little alley on the other side of the street and told us to go in there. Sure enough, there was a little sign that read Train Station Waiting Room and had an arrow pointing in. Turns out our driver knew the back way into the lowest-end waiting room, which was ours since we were taking the slow train home. So not only were we two white girls, an Indian, and an African walking together on the streets in China, about to take a train far below most foreigners' standards, but we were heading to the worst of the waiting rooms and taking the workers' route to get there. Quite an entertaining site we must have made. At least, all the workers taking that route certainly thought so!

Yet the fun of waiting at the station must come to an end when the train is finally about to arrive. Theoretically, the Chinese have the system all figured out and timed exactly to know when they need to open the gates for people to start going out to the platform so they can all get on during the short window of opportunity while the train is stopped. Theoretically. Unfortunately for us, we were nearer the end of the crowd of people going through the gates when we were heading home so by the time we got through, all the security people started blowing their whistles and telling us to hurry up. Also unfortunately, the gate put us out at car #16 and we were sitting in car #3. Of course, you can only get on at the door of your own car. So while we weren't late in arriving at the station, we definitely did have to run to make the train. Amazingly enough, though, we all made it on. And I think by the time we reached our destination, we had all regained our normal breathing patterns, too. :)

On the train ride up to Shenyang, a group of six of us decided to play Uno (the card game). Now the three Americans in this group all knew how to play, although each with slightly different house rules. But we had the great fun and privilege - and challenge! - of teaching the Africans. Perhaps the funniest quote from the train ride up: "Who knew playing Uno cross-culturally could be so hard?"

The trip home had a different feel. One of the Ghanaian guys managed to have his guitar out on the train (which is impressive when so many "no seat" tickets had been sold... meaning people just stand in the aisles the entire way), so we started up a great P&W jam session. I absolutely love the pick-up P&W with the Africans here, but it was definitely a new experience to have that on the train! I'm pretty sure the entire car was standing up and looking at us, trying to figure out why there were so many foreigners on their train, much less why we were singing. But nobody seemed bothered, and in fact we got a lot of smiles and support. Not only were we occupied by giving Him glory, but I think we managed to entertain a lot of other people too!

Ah, trains. I'm already back from my trip to Changchun, but I'm certainly looking forward to the next opportunity to take a train here in China!