Will This Day Never End?

The VIP Lounge, after most of the crowd had cleared out

After a nice shower in the room, with clean dry clothes on, we head off for the train station in a nice taxi. He let us off about 2 blocks from the train station - we’re not sure why- and we are once again out in the heat, schlepping our luggage with a million other people. The railway station is a sea of humanity and - you guessed it -- not air-conditioned. 


We get in line and we are literally washed into the train station with this sea of humanity. Inside the train station there are people everywhere. There is no place to stand, no place to sit, no place to breathe... and of course all the signs are in Chinese. Then Leanne spots a sign that says "Soft Lounge" - finally, someplace we can go to escape the masses. Sort of like a VIP lounge. We have to show our tickets to get in, because only the special people can go in. But when we get in, we realize we're not so special. There are about a million people there. There's no place to sit, no place to stand, no place to breathe and no air conditioning. So what's so special? There are soft seats. There  is also a speaker system that broadcast something in Chinese, over and over and over. We don't know what it is because we don't speak Chinese, but it is loud and very annoying. And the only place we find to stand is in front of the hot water dispenser. Every so often we get a little steam bath to go along with our sweat, as people come to get hot water.


For the second time in the same day, we we are soaking wet. We did meet a nice young man from Alpharetta. He noticed Patti's useless battery-run fan that spells out "Go Dawgs" on the blades, and asked where we are from. He was there with his parents and they were taking the same train which was late making us endure more time in that sauna they called the "Soft Lounge." We decided to line up, taking our cue  from his father. We're not sure why. The basic reasoning was that he was from India and must have experience with trains. So we got to stand up again and endure the heat and crowds.


This is when we discovered again that people in China don't know how to line up. We started out 4th in line,and ended up about 14th. When the gates opened, it was like someone fired a starter gun. In the spirit of the moment, we took off too. We didn't know where we were going, but golly we going fast! Down the hall we sprint -- the dark dingy hall -- with the rest of the crowd. We suddenly realize that this isn't just a sprint, its an obstacle course. We have to drag our two, way-too-big suitcases down two flights of stairs and back up two flights of stairs. 


We are neck-and-neck with the Indian family until the second set of stairs, when we edged ahead. Patti's finish line was one step shorter than reality, and down she went. She couldn't fall vertically. Oh no. She fell perpendicular to the crowd, blocking most of the staircase AND her suitcase went tumbling down the steps, towards the Indian family, and parting crowd like Moses parted the Red Sea. 


Fortunately, the sweet Indian family caught her suitcase and brought it up the steps. Two things happened next -- we heard that we only had 10 minutes to board AND we realized we had no idea which train car we were on - and of course had no idea how to read the ticket.  When we finally figured out we were on Car 5, we were standing at Car 11 -- and took off again. One more obstacle to go - heaving the suitcases up 4 steps, through a narrow door, onto the train itself. 

Finally!

Oh. Which compartment are we in ? Using our practiced technique of pointing and looking puzzled, the train attendant pointed out our compartment which was labelled 7/13-14 (???) and we went in and realized that these compartments were not made for American luggage. But at least it had air conditioning. The train pulled out and we finally were on the way to Beijing.