A city's train station is always a hive for the slime of society, Beijing's West Train Station (Below) is no exception. Whilst in the mile long queue, there was a domestic occurring to the left, general pick pockets in every other direction. All nothing compared to the regular incidents at the tickets counters that require police involvement to diffuse. It appears that whilst there may be one person in the queue, the represent about 10 family members, who when its time to pay all turn up to get involved. The result a slow but amusing time queuing for train tickets.
After buying our tickets last night (soft sleeper even though its daytime) we made sure we were at the platform gates long before they opened. Why? Well firstly you have the lack of queuing in Beijing, its easier to start at the front of the queue and try to hold onto this position rather than work your way from the back. Secondly the locals don't have much regard for seat numbering. In our cabin of 4 bunks there were at least 6 people in addition to myself and Shelley, all looking at us as though we should give up our beds for them.
One other observation is that whatever the journey the Chinese never turn up empty handed, everyone seems to bring with them quite a picnic. A lady, who appeared to be the mother and grandmother of a young lady and baby in our cabin, even tucked into some baby food when her daughter left the cabin for a few minutes. Open a pack of biscuits and you soon attract plenty of attention.
The train journey to Datong wasn't too bad, a couple of hours and we were there. Datong itself could be mistaken for Beirut, except that Beirut doesn't have its own toxic dump. So why come here, well just outside of town are some of China's oldest Buddhist sites, which we plan to visit tomorrow.
Highlights: Our hotel was only a 2 minute walk from the train station.
No comments:
Post a Comment