Trains in China are very interesting. There are many different options, standing-space, hard seat, hard sleeper, or soft sleeper. In my China Train experiences, I have had a hard seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. The seat is an average seat with a table, with people who have standing room only leaning on the chairs and standing in the walk ways. Thankfully, the only time I have ever had a seat was back in June when my Weihai group and I took a 1 hour train from Jinan to Taishan, when we hiked Mt. Tai. However, a few girls in my group ended up getting the hard seats for the 19 hour train ride. They are such troopers, I can't imagine having a seat for 19 hours. The hard sleepers are actually pretty comfortable. There are 3 beds stacked high, with 6 beds in one section. All the different sections are open with no doors. You also can only sit up on the bottom bed, the top 2 beds you can't sit up all the way. The soft sleepers are the most comfortable all around. There are 2 beds stacked high, in which you can sit up in both of them. There are only 4 beds to a room and there is a door, also you can control the lights, which is really nice. The soft sleepers were basically just like the trains I took when I was living in the Ukraine.
The train bathrooms are generally a squatter with a bar that you can hold onto, because lets face it, its hard enough to use a squatter, now imagine using one on a bumpy moving train. The bathrooms range from awful and disgusting and really smelly, to not that bad with just a slight smell. Also, when you flush it just falls onto the tracks. Kinda gross, but welcome to China. ;P There are a few rare times where there have been a Western Toilet, and those are always a nice surprise. :)
Magical Bathroom:
Xi'an: Home of the Terracotta Warriors. I saw the Terracotta Warriors back when I was in China for the first time, so I waited in a Subway (yes the American restaurant chain) with every ones bags as all my girls went in to see them. Don't get me wrong, the Terracotta Warriors are really amazing, but I felt like it was a one time thing to see and that I could save that money and spend in on something that I haven't done before. But, here are some pictures that I took back in April.
After my girls met up with me again, we went souvenir shopping. It is seriously so much fun to barter and to see how low you can get different things for. I don't wanna brag or anything, but I am pretty good at bartering I got everything that I wanted for the price that I wanted to get it for, it's so funny to me when I state my price and the shopkeepers call me "crazy.. you crazy", so I just state my price again and tell then that it's so expensive (in Chinese) and then if they won't give it to me and I know that I can find the exact same item from someone else for the price I want, I just leave.. and there have been a lot of times that the shop keepers literally run after me saying "ok, ok" ;).. and if not, I always end up finding the same item for the price I want it for. I love it, it's such a rush.
After spending the day in Xi'an, we left that evening on another train to Beijing! This one was only 13 hours, a little better than the last train ride. Here's a happy little reminder from the sign above the sink on the train.
Next stop: Beijing!
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