Trains

I spend an excessive amount of time on trains. It’s getting ridiculous. I’ve tried to break up my traveling, going from nearby city to nearby city so that I’m not on a train for more than 24 hours at a time.

When I have a long distance to cover overnight, I try to get a sleeper car, but sometimes there aren’t any. Surprisingly, spending the night on a hard seat surrounded by the 134 other people in the car isn’t quite as bad as expected. Maybe I’m just an optimist.

Ok, it’s pretty bad, but not unbearable. For some unknown reason (er… check out one of my previous posts called “Coal”) Chinese people won’t open the windows on the trains. So not only does it get a little toasty, the smell is overwhelming. And the bathroom on the train doesn’t make things smell any better, either.

The worst part about trains, other than grime and foul odors, is getting bored. I try to alternate between reading, listening to music, writing, talking to children, and avoiding talking to creepy old men. Chinese children are great to talk to. And they’re so cute. The creepy old men are just creepy and old and have never seen a foreigner before so they ask me strange questions. Real examples:

“What language is spoken in America?” I just thought everyone knew.
“Are there fields in America?” How do you think the population gets fed?
“At what age do girls get married in America?” Everyone gets married at exactly the same age… not.

But trains are part of what I love so much about China. The Chinese rail system really brings out the true nature and character of the people.

On the train, strangers talk and laugh together. They share their food and trade seats so families can sit together.

But trains definitely bring out the bad side as well. Many Chinese people don’t understand the concept of waiting in line. I always get pushed and shoved and stepped on. I’ve been knocked over on several occasions. And no one apologizes. This is all just waiting for the train to arrive. Actually getting on the train can be worse.

On my way from Hohhot to Baotou, the aisles were filled with people who didn’t have seats. At every stop, more people would get on than would get off. Upon arriving at Baotou, I grabbed my bag and tried to get off the train. But twenty or more people were trying to get on. And it was like a mosh pit.

I just started pushing people and asking them to let me off. Then the train attendants tried to help me get off by pushing other people and then by pulling me. Nothing worked. Finally, I just started yelling, “Let me get off the train! You’re all crazy!” I’m not sure if the people getting on were alarmed simply by a foreign girl calling them insane, or if they were shocked that I was speaking Chinese. There was a lot of exclaiming going on.

And they thought I was Russian. Do Russians yell a lot?

Inner Mongolia

I took a train to Hohhot from Datong. Online I happened to find a youth hostel in Hohhot. It looked really nice and there were reviews posted from just the day before.

I like to stay in youth hostels because not only can I meet other travelers, youth hostels have great services that Chinese hotels don't have like, oh, I don't know, clean bedding and bathrooms! I can also do laundry and get online at youth hostels.

Anyway, I had the address of this youth hostel as well as some rough directions from the website. When I left the train station in Hohhot, I got a taxi and told the driver the address. We started driving, and it was a good sign that he was going along with the directions I had from the website.

But that address didn't exist.

The driver was really nice and asked some shopkeepers nearby about the hostel and the address, but it really wasn't there. I don't know where it actually is.

I was disappointed and ended up staying in an expensive hotel (ok, it was cheap but not compared to a youth hostel!).

Maybe it was this incident with the hostel, or maybe I truly didn't like Hohhot, but my stay there was pretty lame. I walked around and talked to some Mongolians about their culture and language and I visited the Inner Mongolia Museum. Both of these were fascinating, but I really just wanted to leave. I felt ready to stop traveling and go home to my family and friends.

When I went to the train station to buy a ticket out of Inner Mongolia, I remembered on my way in that I had seen a ton of trains coming from a city called Baotou, also in Inner Mongolia. On a whim I bought a ticket to Baotou.

It was raining when I left Hohhot and when I arrived in Baotou, the air was fresh and clean. The streets of Baotou are wide, and so are the sidewalks. I have never before seen streets like this in China. And, the population of Baotou is low, so it's not so crowded. Buildings aren't so close together, I didn't get shoved around on the buses, and people were more friendly and personal.

And the sky was blue. It would be a lie to say that the skies in China aren't blue, but it brought tears to my eyes because I had forgotten that blue skies could really be that blue.



While in Baotou I went to a Lamasery about 60 kilometers outside the city. It was gorgeous and colorful, and the landscape reminded me of home. (And, it was a Tibetan site; aren't those off-limits to foreigners? I had no problem getting there. What are you going to do about that, China?)



Anyway, tomorrow I'm leaving Baotou for another city in Inner Mongolia, Tongliao. It's small, and I can't find any travel information on it online. I like places like this because I can truly learn about the people who live there; they want to talk because they don't often see foreigners. (In fact, I haven't seen a foreigner since I was in Datong!)

I'm really glad I didn't leave Inner Mongolia after Hohhot. I think I was getting burnt-out, but the reminders of home in Baotou have brightened things up for me, and I'm ready to face these last two weeks in China and get everything out of them that I can.

Travel Update

It's hard to get online while traveling! Here's a quick update of what I've been up to and where I plan to go:

After staying with my friend Bei, I took a bus to Yulin where there is a cool section of the Great Wall as well as some rock gorges that have Buddhist temples in them. From Yulin I took a bus to Taiyuan where my friend Lei lives. We visited the ancient city of Pingyao together.

From Taiyuan I took a train to Datong and saw the "hanging temples" on a mountainside as well as more Buddhist caves. I arrived in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where I am currently, by train from Datong yesterday afternoon.

This afternoon I'm taking a train to Baotou, also in Inner Mongolia. From Baotou I would like to take a train overnight to Tongliao, then on to Shenyang, and then to Dandong. Dandong is on the border with North Korea and seems like a very interesting city. After Dandong, I plan to go to Beijing and stay for a few days before flying home!

Based on the past few weeks of traveling, I'm sure these plans will change!