No Tickets!...No Tickets!...the Big Jostle
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
18
26
Trip End
Feb 06, 2008
Shanghai,
China
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
"I'm sure you can get a train ticket."
From thin air; making one person disappear.
"I'm going to the train station to see if I can book a ticket to Hong Kong."
"One thousand nine-hundred and ten yuan is too expensive; extortionate for China. That's a hundred and forty pounds."
I wasn't convinced I wouldn't get a ticket. Still, it's best to explore all avenues. I still wanted to get to Harbin. Hong Kong, not being part of mainland China, was easy. I tagged along. It would be nice to try to get up there cheaply.
"Besides, flying is cheating, cheating when you're traveling
Close up of people outside Caoyan Rd station
. You get to experience the passing land by train."Outside the station area it was critical to almost impossible. The entire area was pulsating with people like maggots from migrant workers to everyone else. Security guards were stationed at key points to cope with an almost impossible situation.
I didn't feel much hope; despondent, in fact. A traffic warden had to use tape stretched across the road to prevent waifing and straying.
Shanghai Railway Station is a complex web of rooms, offices, kiosks, entrances obscured by the constant influx of people. It beats me how these workers cope with the demand, but they do. Some were sleeping on duvets as though it was a scene from the shelters during the London Blitz.
I waited in a queue discussing the prospects for China;
'It's due to overtake the U S as the world economic superpower in five to ten years."
"Yes, but this will remain."
"True, but there's a rich social nomenclature which will conduct itself well."
It won't be the mainstream, though.
Passengers and Pedestrians leaving Caoyan Rd, near
We queued in the wrong queue. Number 10 was especially reserved for English, non-Chinese, speakers.Before we discovered it, I used my limited Chinese to explain where we wanted to go.
A female ticket clerk affirmed there were no tickets left for Harbin.
"Not until February 8th"
"How about Hong Kong?"
"For the first and third; not the second."
"Which bed can I get? The bottom...middle?
"No, no! Up! Up!"
I got an expectant nod and resigned mumble.
500 RMB was carefully selected, delayed, and organized at the counter. If Chinese could behave like this, things would be so much easier.
We left the booking office, heading back out alongside the station entrance was confusing. I got caught in constant crush. One section was crawling with heads. Before we had time to hit the worst area, an extreme jostling and bumping, we doubled back:
"I'm not going through this!"
"Me neither."
It was just too much
Thick with Passengers, outside Shanghai Station
.We skirted round.
I navigated myself to the long-distance bus station, where a miserable journey could only be found as far as Shenyang. from there, I'd have to change.
I gave up on the cheap idea, and resigned myself to the expensive option.
Later, I withdrew 2,000 RMB, booked and payed for a four-hour journey to the frozen north; so much more relaxing and convenient than the cramped overcrowded train journey. If you saw all those people, you could see why it would be....yes...cramped and overcrowded.
