To the train!

And then we went to the railroad station. There seemed to be a big mess of people in the entrance, just where we had to put our luggage through the scanners, but when we stepped into the waiting hall, that seemed closer to a madhouse. Not too terrible though. The good part came when our train was announced.

Two queues were made to go through the ticket controllers and then I could finally savour the queueing style of China, which is, let's say, rather relaxed. If you don't jump the line is just because you did not really try. No shame at all, with all the calm you can imagine. There was a guy with a megaphone trying to establish some kind of order, shouting himsel hoarse, that for a moment looked as if he was about to jump onto somebody. And with good reason. But once we were past the gates, oh it got even better. It looked as one of those old movies about Asia where people are fleeing from the imminent invasion of some army. People everywhere, running, pushing, with bags here and there. A real assault of the platforms. We had a reseved place, bunks; I don't know if people ran to get a seat or if it's just their style.

A curious thing, in order to check the tickets, you get a card instead of your ticket when you go up to your car. When you must stop, they do the inverse change. The inspector had a big binder where she kept her "card collection". The bunk cars do not have compartments. This may provide even less privacy, but I think it's healthier than those were personal aromas tend to accumulate.

I got the bottom bed. Setting up our bags was also another story by itself, because you can imagine that there were many restless people inside the car. But we managed to get them right fairly well. I fell asleep very fast. I had woken up that day at 3:30 and was really tired. And I could sleep a lot, much more than when I used the spanish trains. Of course, there was that fraction of people that are always going up and down the aisle. And they are always the same. Ah, mankind!.