D - Shenyang Part 1 - The Train

Well we have returned successfully from our first intra-China travel experience. It began Friday afternoon when we met our student volunteer Sylvia and her roommate Cassie at the closest bus stop. We took the 502 downtown and got off near the train station, which was the haven of madness we expected. Not only was it packed to the brim with everyday Chinese travellers, but there were hundreds of soldiers everywhere, apparently headed off from Dalian to fill the train station of another city. We were about an hour early for the train so we hung out in the waiting area. There were probably a 1000 people milling about where we were and we felt like every single one of them was staring at us. People would be minding their own business and then make a sudden veer our way. They would inquire in Chinese with our friends as to where we were from and what we were doing. Sylvia explained that many people who travel by train are farmers who may have never seen a foreigner before - and I believe it. The tickets for our friends to Shenyang were 15 RMB - about $1.90! China's train system make it possible for even the poorest to get transportation.

Right before we headed to get on the train at 3:30, I decided to hit the WC. Now the bathroom in any public place like the train station is never nice, but this was a whole new level of unniceness. Actually, the bathroom itself was no worse than your average interstate rest stop, but the air was literally like breathing pure tobacco smoke. You can't smoke in the train station central area (and it's actually enforced), but I know where they go to get their fix! Ugh. Finally, we got on the train. Sadly, we don't have any pictures of the station or the train. From the outside, it was a pale green and looked every bit to be from a bygone communist era. I should add that we took the 2209 train, which is the slowest and least comfortable train. From what I read, there are some very nice trains here but our students of course chose the most economic option.

There are four classes of seats on most Chinese trains: hard seats, soft seats, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper - if you're curious on the distinctions, click here. The picture of the hard seats (our class) is relatively close to our experience with a few exceptions. For example, MANY people in China will stand in the hard seat compartments for incredibly long journeys. Having an aisle seat isn't as advantageous when you have people roaming up and down hoping to find a spare seat, or maybe just leaning on your seat. I was talking to a student today and he told me that to get from his home in central China to Dalian, he would STAND for 22 hours. Another girl got to sit on her train journey to Dalian, but it took 50 hours from her home in Gansu province.

Thankfully we didn't need the restroom on the train so I can't report any findings there. Our dinner consisted of ramen noodles brought by our friends. You can get hot water on the train to make that sort of ready-to-eat dish. The journey itself was okay - there were probably 6 or 7 stops of 3-10 minutes on the way to Shenyang. My bottom was certainly ready to get off though at the 6 hour and 15 minute mark when we arrived at the Shenyang North train station.