CHANGSHA, HUNAN — Planning is important when traveling, but maybe I didn’t plan as carefully as I should have.
I am on my way to Beijing, to meet up with some friends and do the sight-seeing I couldn’t do in February. I planned to get to Beijing the same way as last: shuttle bus to Changsha, then overnight express train to Beijing. Only this time, I was going to stay overnight in Changsha.
And a good thing, too. Because my plans for train travel were dashed yesterday evening.
China has an extensive passenger train system. It also has a huge population. Normally, getting a train ticket is not a big issue, but the end of the summer holiday is two weeks away.
So, when I went to the ticket office last evening, I found a horde of people trying to buy tickets. And I found there were none for me.
The Changsha ticket office has two big LED boards listing available tickets for northbound and southbound trains. For the Beijing-bound trains, there were no sleeper berths available until after the 22nd, no seats until the 19th. If I wanted to travel standing for 16 hours, I could have gotten a ticket for the 18th.
But I was expected in Beijing on the 16th. And standing that long in a crowded train has little appeal. It’s bad enough on short trips.
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