It has been a long time since I rode a train in China. The last time was 12 years ago on a 30+ hr train ride from Guilin to Beijing. Not the most comfortable of rides but definitely one of the most poignant memories in my brain.
We decided to train it to Xi'an. It was 14 hour night journey. We got 2 soft sleepers, because I wanted to sleep comfortably so the next day when we arrived, we could be fresh and ready to go. dkf got sick the day of our trip. Unfortunately that lasted throughout our entire trip, resulting in me getting sick the last day of the trip. The ride was generally smooth and comfy aside from the sound of the train gliding on the tracks, the emphysemic man coughing, a soft chinese radio playing, and muted announcements, pretty peaceful complete with a lullabic rocking back and forth of the car. The only unpleasant parts were the totally stinky bathrooms (I held in my bodily fluids almost the entire trip, peeing only once before the train started) and the smoker man who insisted on lighting his cig inside our car. The beds were sorta small which meant dkf and i couldn't cuddle on one bed. I also had a slight female problem which is a pain when traveling on train. Plus we didn't bring enough water and i forgot to take out my contact lenses. Other than that, i slept thru most of the night but laid awake as the train suddenly stopped and didn't move for quite a while. Poor dkf was feverish and coughing. We got in 2 hrs later than planned, around noon and then began our journey to find a legit cab to take us to our hotel. Lots of scammers around the train station but we finally snagged a cab, which u have to jump into before the other customer is even out.
I wouldn't really recommend travelling long journeys via train esp as a female. Maybe once for adventure sake. For me, I think holding it in for about half a day was enough. Not to mention no showers, filthy bathrooms, little privacy, smokers in the hallway, little room for cuddling and mothball and old linen smells. Even with a soft sleeper, which cost us as much as our plane ticket home, it wasn't worth the money. But we did it and trains are just as podunk as they were 12 years ago when I last rode them in China.
I do have to mention our journey to the Shanghai Railway station via metro to catch our train that night of our departure. Complete nightmare. Reminded me of my aforementioned 30+ hour train ride back to Beijing. Before we got on that train, my friend and I agreed to run onto the train and to look for each other once we got on, should we be separated. Well, we were separated. Our hands let go. She got on first, I was nearly trampled to bits. I couldn't even breathe. Dejavu of 12 years ago happened when I was trying to exit the metro that night. Imagine millions of rats trying to cram themselves thru one rathole. People bull rushing you, pushing u as hard as they could to get on the metro. No concern for human life, no ounce of human dignity. I was standing at the exit of our subway car, preparing to exit. As soon as the door opened, tons of mostly men trampled their way in, pushing me all the way back into the back of the subway car. I could not get out. I screamed for them to let me off first, to be patient. Fell upon deaf ears. I felt like I would get stampeded to death. I nearly lost my luggage. My foot got caught in the hole between the subway car and the platform. I heard of death stories like that. Finally, I was able to exit. It was so bad and ridiculous, I could only laugh at the absurdity of what had just happened. So this is another reason I would not want to travel via train from SH.
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