Train ticket fun

(written on 10/07/09, posted on 17/09/09)

An easy day for sightseeing after yesterday's trek up The Wall. Before I leave the hostel I try and book the train I want to Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors. I'm told the train is full but I could try and get to the station. I've decided not to stay much longer in Beijing as I've come from London and it just all feels too hectic when I want to feel like I'm getting away from that. Getting on the Metro has been a pain, it seems to take forever! Even getting to the train station takes ages. And there's no Metro station near...it doesn't make sense to me.

After a 30 minute walk in heat after six Metro stops I approach Beijing West station. Nothing has prepared me for it's utter vastness. It takes 15 minutes just to find the ticket hall. People are everywhere and so are their elbows. I'm armed with my printed out web guide from the brilliant http://www.seat61.com/ which tells me there should be a English speaking ticket booth in the ticket hall. I don't which one of the 40 booths is going to be it. As people stare, I'm one of the few Westerners trying to buy my own ticket, I wonder up and down. After two turns walking up and down looking at the booths, an LED display flashes up that it's the English speaking booth. Relief as I join the long queue at booth 16. This quickly turns into surprise as a fight breaks out in queue 17 and a policeman comes over to sit on the ledge of the booth to bark down his megaphone at the waiting queue of distressed angry people. Talk about entertainment.

I notice that people are incredibly impatient and I may only get one chance at ordering a ticket before being jostled out of the way. Finally I get to the front, thrust my choice of times I have copied down from the web and get ready to use my guidebook if necessary for language translations. No need, in efficient English I'm told I can book the earlier night train to Xi'an and there is a ticket available for a middle booth in a 6 bunk compartment in a hard sleeper carriage. Perfect. I get my ticket and clutch it to me as I elbow my way past the waiting queue who are mostly tutting and shouting at each other.

Mission accomplished, I am pathetically happy I've managed to get my ticket for my first journey on a Chinese train. Now I just have to find it and get on it tomorrow night...