The Night Train from Shanghai to Beijing

Ready, set, go!

All the warnings about boarding the train to Beijing and wrestling luggage through the station were well-founded. There were escalators, but the trek to the rail car had to be the length of two football fields. Perhaps the fear added adrenaline to our efforts, but nothing prepared us for the reality of stuffing luggage into Lilliputian cabins. The wide-angle photos on the Railway web site were misleading.

Just imagine, squeezing toothpaste BACK into the tube and you have a general idea of what it was like to get 30 people and about one hundred pieces of luggage stuffed into car 314--scrambling to sort out which cabin belonged to which four inhabitants. Now, add an audio track of rumbling train and irritable students and screams of "Really...you expect us to fit in THERE" or "I am NOT sleeping on the top bunk."

A solid line of luggage.

As the train swayed down the tracks and left the Shanghai station behind, we managed to get all luggage pulled and pushed from the passageway--let's just say it was not ADA compliant. Our compartment was well-organized. We stuffed a big suitcase under the little useless table, then smaller stuff under the benches, then threw things onto the bunks, and stacked the backpacks and small bags wherever they would fit. Even the photos can't do this Houdini's box justice. Susan climbed into her casket-sized sleeping space; I squeezed into my bunk (we were older so we got the lower berths). One of our younger roommates found the tiny pull-down step to help her hoist up into the upper bunk and the other roommate was motion sick as soon as the train left the platform. I doled out Dramamine, but she opted to sleep next door in a bottom berth with another girl who also felt a bit woozy.

My Bunk

We boarded the train at about 8:45 p.m. and were to arrive in Beijing at 7:45 the next morning. Not much air circulated, so we did the best we could and Susan watched a little television/movie screen for a while (at the foot of her bunk, but partially obstructed by the suitcase that was also sleeping with her). We woke up well ahead of the Beijing station and made our way to the "facilities" but realized we would be less than fashionable tourists on our first day in Beijing. Two big sight-seeing adventures were on the agenda for 9 a.m. Then, there was the unloading to contend with. All the luggage was pushed to one end of the car and the "guys" were recruited to haul, toss, drag bags off the car before the train left the station again.

Breakfast in Beijing

We arrived in Beijing with all our bags and after the trek up and through the station--let's not talk about the size of the stations and the escalators and the wagon train of luggage. Breakfast was at McDonald's and then we hiked off to the bus. I don't think anyone prepared the bus driver or the tour guide for the size of our entourage. It was a toss-up whether the luggage and the people would actually make it onto the bus.