Stinky feet on a china train

I don't think i've ever had a more uncomfortable journey in my life!

A local friend invited me and 2 other of his friends to visit him in his hometown of luoyang last weekend. One way the trip takes about five and a half hours. Not too long, but it was a very trying 5.5 hours.

Since the chinese new year is approaching next week theres alot more commuters than usual. a friend once told me it's considered as the biggest mass migration of people in the world each year. So at the train station and on the journey itself i seemed constantly immersed in a sea of ppl. Attached is a pic of the train station from the prior weekend on a sunday afternoon. As you can see, xi'an train station isn't exactly small. Still though, the train staff have errected these massive temporary sheds in front of the station for people to wait under just because there wouldn't be enough room in the station for everyone. Unfortunately we got to the station about 2 hours before the departure time so we had to wait out in the cold for about an hour. Even if you manage to book seats it's still a good idea to queue early, since luggage space gets taken up fairly quick. Maybe it's becuase of the approaching new year, but theres constantly a massive police prescence outside the station, helping to direct the traffic of people. Most of the time they're just screaming through megaphones to not rush and push, and pushing people into a line

I don't think i've ever been pushed and shoved so much in my life. I was expecting this, but it's still pretty unpleasant. I'd often feel someone persistantly pushing up against my back and turn around to find that person wasn't being pushed by somebody else behind him/her! What is it with the mentality?! Theres zero space between me and the guy in front, so pushing me won't get you to your seat any faster! and then when you're waiting in the aisles for people to stow their luggage again you'd have these imbeciles knudging you in the back or trying to squeeze down your side to overtake you, when clearly the aisle ahead is impassable!

Many of the offenders seemed to be middle aged or older people too, so i couldn't just stand there and push them back. All i could do was turn my head and give them a scowl. It's not like i'm the only one annoyed though, as you can clearly hear and see the disatisfaction of the locals with the commuter etiquette. Because theres so many people pushing you sorta have to jump into the mass and just ride the wave of people, ensuring you don't drop anything on the floor or get pinned at doorways. Alot of the commuters like to pack their luggage using massive square heshon bags they lugg over their backs, or re-used massive rice sacks, so be prepared to be whacked in the head a few times with these.

We made sure we booked the tickets early, since they still allocate standing tickets once all the seats are taken. In my train cart there were probably at least 10 people standing. Pretty harsh ride for a 5.5 hour overnight trip. At least people do sit where they're supposed to, or move from your seat once you come back from the toilet or a smoke.

The meal of choice on train trips here is the trusty ole instant noodles in a foam bowl. They have boiled water dispensers on the train, so it's pretty easy to prepare. Otherwise there a food cart that comes around selling fruit, snacks and drinks.

Theres always some sort of sales promotion put on by the train staff, each trip being a different good. It's by no means releated to trains or ensuring a comfortable journey whatsoever though. On the outbound journey it was little counterfit-money light detectors, and the return trip was some laser light spinning top for the kiddies. Both items looked like stuff you could pick up in a cheap market. I didn't see anyone buy a single item though. Surely they could do better by selling inflatable pillows or decks of cards?

Another peril of journeying on trains here is the lack of signage at train stations. Theres no plethora of signage on the platforms to tell you which station you've arrived at (though theres plenty of advertisements!), and although there are sparse announcements over the train, if you're not fluent in mandarin like myself you have to intently listen for your city name. I don't know about other routes but on this one there was about 1-1.5 hours on average between stops, so if you miss your stop be prepared for an expensive taxi ride back or a night in some dodgy hotel in a backwater town! Train conductors aren't very approachable or helpful either. An announcment told us we were to arrive back in xi'an at 9:05pm, so we were lining up at the doors at about 9pm. Come 9:30 somebody asked one of the conductors when we'd arrive, to which he mumbled 5 minutes. So, everyone kept standing around for another "5 minutes", and we eventually stumbled out of the train at 10:05.

The other staff member that comes around is the cleaner (or one of the ticket masters). He just comes down the aisle with a little broom and gets everyone to lift up their feet as he makes his sweep. Since theres no trash bins in the carts theres quite alot of rubbish on the floor, so by the time the cleaner gets to about the middle of the cart the wave of rubish he's pushing is quite big!

I can't make any comment about the toilet since i avoided them like the plague on both journeys. Had to slightly dehydrate myself, but i'm sure i've avoided being scarred for life. Public toilets outside of trains are grotty enough, so i can only imagine what the toilet train would be like.

Although i'm hating the brutal winter here at the moment, the one upside is theres little perspiration and hence B.O. from other commuters. However, when you're tightly squeezed into a small space for a few hours with no open windows your nose starts to detect faint odours. The outgoing trip wasn't too bad, since my friends and I managed to get seats facing each other. The return trip i was by myself though, and was unlucky enough to have some feral woman opposite me taking her shoes off and sticking them on the seat beside me when my neighbour would go off somewhere. A few times she even pushed her smelly socked feet up against the front face of the seat between me and my neighbour. One time she managed to squeeze her foot into the space and i could then actually feel her trying to knudge my leg away so she could squeeze her other foot in. Naturally i held firm and gave her foot a knudge back and shot her the dirtiest stare i could muster. Of course she just acted like she didn't see my dirty look for the whole 15 seconds, but she got the message. Was a bit of a catch 20 situation though since i wanted to move my leg and avoid the scent of her smelly feet rubbing off against my jeans, but then at the same time i didn't want her to squeeze the second foot in and make it twice as stinky while i uncomfortably curled up like a ball on the edge of the seat.

*sigh* looking forward to the 12 hour overnight train journey to beijing this friday :(