Leaving, on a fast train ...

Location: Beijing, China
Local Time: Monday, October 2, 2006 - 1:11pm

Well, the train probably isn't that fast, but it will get me out of here. I'm headed back to Yunnan province in southern China, so I'll be out of contact for at least a couple of days.

Val already left. Gone this morning. She's going to Chengdu in Sichuan province. She hasn't exactly decided what she'll do after that, but she is generally making her way west, planning to go through Tibet and into Nepal.

Beijing is packed with people. There are 3 big Chinese holidays a year, at the beginning of May, at the beginning of October and Chinese New Year. I have managed to be in Beijing for 2 of the 3 this year. I don't like it so much. All the rooms are full in the hotel, the subway is packed, taxis are harder to get, the parks are jammed. We almost couldn't get the train tickets we wanted.

Five days ago, Val and I asked the booking agent at the hotel for train tickets. She just looked at us and said, there were no tickets, for maybe two weeks because of the holiday.

She didn't even pick up the phone.

So, I went down the road to another nearby hotel and asked there. The girl phoned and checked but said everything was full. She, however, told us that you can only book 4 days in advance, and at about 7 at night, more tickets for 4 days in the future would come on sale.

Why the first girl didn't choose to share that information, I don't know.

So, we returned to that hotel at about 8 (we were out for dinner) and asked. It was a different girl at the desk, and she didn't want to be as helpful. She made a few attempts at phoning for tickets but the line was always busy. She said it would be better to try tomorrow. I patiently explained that the tickets would all be sold tomorrow, and it would be the same situation tomorrow evening for tickets the next day. She tried for a few more minutes and gave up.

So, we went back to the hotel, and I stopped at the booking desk to talk to the first girl again. I didn't ask if there were tickets, I just said I wanted to book tickets for October 1. She gave me a strange look and repeated, October 1. I said yes, October 1.

So, she picked up the phone and called 2 or 3 times, and got someone in a couple of minutes. She chattered for a while, then asked if we wanted a hard seat for 30 hours. No, we want hard sleepers, so we can lay down.

She chattered for a couple more minutes and then said to us, none for today. Do you want to make a reservation for tickets tomorrow?

Yes! Absolutely! (Why exactly she didn't give us this information right at the beginning of the whole thing remains a mystery.)

Next day, no muss, no fuss, we had 2 hard sleepers out of town for October 2.