A Night on a Train

It's amazing to me how Chinese people can at once be so incredibly rude and so incredibly friendly. Take, for instance, our train ride from Beijing to Shanghai:

Lindsey and I have a plethora of luggage. That is the only way I can think to describe it. We both panicked a little at spending a whole year abroad and I think we both brought everything we owned. At any rate, upon arriving in our taxi with our abundance of baggage, an old lady met us at the taxi with a small hand cart and offered her services in taking us across the very busy intersection from the taxi hub to the station. We agreed, knowing that we would never be able to carry it all ourselves, and suddenly a male counterpart materialized, who also asked to be paid. We shrugged - it was only $2 US a piece, and they probably needed the money more than we did anyway - and allowed them to take our stuff. Then they abruptly stopped a foot away from the crosswalk and demanded payment. Lindsey adamantly refused and told them they would get nothing until we made it to the station, whereupon they angrily (and loudly, and two inches from our faces) responded that they had no way of knowing whether we would cheat them. We finally arrived at a compromise where we would take the money and hold it visibly in our hands until we got across the street. When we finally got there, we somehow got mixed up and Lindsey and I both paid them the full amount, which meant we were taken for what ended up to be a good five dollars.

Then another lady charged us ten kuai a piece for the privilege of putting our baggage on a cart that we had to get on in order to go into the station. Then another man charged us another ten kuai for physically putting our bags onto the train. Only he did it before he told us he was charging us. When we finally got to the train, we discovered that our tickets were for two different cabins in two different cars, and the "customer service" agents were less than sympathetic. Honestly, I think they thought we were crazy for complaining.

On the other end of the spectrum, though, were our cabin-mates, who ended up being the nicest people on earth. I shared my room with an engineer from Microsoft and two Ph.D. candidates from Fudan, who amused themselves for a good portion of the ride by asking me questions about the U.S. and practicing their English with me. They apparently found it utterly humorous that a dog in the United States would be so spoiled as to have a place on his master's bed at night. Lindsey's roommates were also quite entertaining, one of them even treating all of us to dinner in the dining car. When we finally arrived in Shanghai, all of them banded together to help us with our luggage, each one dragging a different suitcase. One even went so far as to help us all the way to the car.

The train itself was really nice, with the obvious exception of the bathrooms. The beds where comfortable and the rooms were clean. I highly recommend them if you ever have occasion to travel in China.

Shanghai is just as I remember it: hot, muggy, and full of life. It's nice to be back and to see my old friends again. Odd how the once-so-foreign Shanghai would be the only thing that really feels familiar in my life right now....