It makes the most sense to take the eleven hour train ride from Harbin to Beijing at night. The chug chug of a train steadily rolling across the tracks lulls me straight to sleep. The bunk beds of a sleeper train would feel as cozy as a den if they were not quite so narrow. The Chinese family reclining on the bunks below mine munched on ruby red tomatoes. They held their tickets to the Olympic Games in their laps. I would have eavesdropped on their conversation, but they were speaking a dialect of Mandarin I could not quite grasp.
We departed Harbin on August 8, 2008 around 9:00 p.m., an hour after the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games at the Bird's Nest in Beijing began. We were missing the fireworks, but I counted my lucky stars that I was on my way to Beijing.
My Chinese friends were surprised that I managed to purchase a train ticket to Beijing at all. They held the perception that the train station only reserved those train tickets to those who already possessed tickets to the Olympic Games. I did not possess a ticket to any of the Olympic Games venues. There is a possibility that this was a false assumption.
There was some arbitrariness in purchasing train tickets. On Sunday (six days before August 8) the train station vendor said tickets to Beijing would only go on sale five days prior to departure. When I checked again on Monday, the rule was that train tickets could be purchased no earlier than 72 hours before departure. I did not know reasons why, but this made it a bit difficult to make concrete plans for Beijing.
Mr. Eric Bratt, my friend and classmate at Heilongjiang University, however, made purchasing the tickets a piece of cake. He worked his charm with the Chinese selling train tickets at the grocery story north of campus. The vendor reserved our tickets, and Eric picked them up the next morning. Phew.
The hard-sleeper train has an interesting arrangement of beds. The train compartments have cubicles, each with six beds. Since there are no doors to separate the beds from the hallway, it is possible to see all of the passengers. Some talk over a bottle of beer and peanuts. Others read the paper in their pyjamas. This lack of privacy actually creates an even more open, inviting public space. The space felt more open and inviting. Moosey and I busted out a Chinese cowboy dance for all of the passengers to see. We're just establishing that we can be as crazy as the rest of them.
The moment the train starts its gentle rumble across the train tracks, my eyelids start to droop. The animated Chinese folks are bouncing across the walls with their excitement over the Olympic Games, but the train soon rocks me to sleep.
We departed Harbin on August 8, 2008 around 9:00 p.m., an hour after the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games at the Bird's Nest in Beijing began. We were missing the fireworks, but I counted my lucky stars that I was on my way to Beijing.
My Chinese friends were surprised that I managed to purchase a train ticket to Beijing at all. They held the perception that the train station only reserved those train tickets to those who already possessed tickets to the Olympic Games. I did not possess a ticket to any of the Olympic Games venues. There is a possibility that this was a false assumption.
There was some arbitrariness in purchasing train tickets. On Sunday (six days before August 8) the train station vendor said tickets to Beijing would only go on sale five days prior to departure. When I checked again on Monday, the rule was that train tickets could be purchased no earlier than 72 hours before departure. I did not know reasons why, but this made it a bit difficult to make concrete plans for Beijing.
Mr. Eric Bratt, my friend and classmate at Heilongjiang University, however, made purchasing the tickets a piece of cake. He worked his charm with the Chinese selling train tickets at the grocery story north of campus. The vendor reserved our tickets, and Eric picked them up the next morning. Phew.
The hard-sleeper train has an interesting arrangement of beds. The train compartments have cubicles, each with six beds. Since there are no doors to separate the beds from the hallway, it is possible to see all of the passengers. Some talk over a bottle of beer and peanuts. Others read the paper in their pyjamas. This lack of privacy actually creates an even more open, inviting public space. The space felt more open and inviting. Moosey and I busted out a Chinese cowboy dance for all of the passengers to see. We're just establishing that we can be as crazy as the rest of them.
The moment the train starts its gentle rumble across the train tracks, my eyelids start to droop. The animated Chinese folks are bouncing across the walls with their excitement over the Olympic Games, but the train soon rocks me to sleep.