In reality, the entire journey on the trains in China is quite enjoyable. China has an outstanding, convenient and seemingly ubiquitous rail system. For short trips to Nanjing or Shanghai, the 'D' trains provide really fast, clean trips for a very reasonable price. Because there are so many people in China (I mean this, because about 97% of Chinese live in less than half of China) there are trains all the time. And lots of trains. All the time. So, getting to any of the cities nearby is really comfortable and fast. For the long distance trips, the sleeper trains are a blast. I have touched on this in other blog posts, and I really mean they are a blast. I prefer the hard sleepers, which offer a similar value to the soft sleepers at a much lower price. The sleepers are awesome, because (for me) they are comfortable enough to catch a pretty good night's sleep. Thus, by always getting the overnight trains, I can pass much of the transportation sleeping, and get a night of lodging for free (I have to get to the places somehow). As an added bonus, normally, some of the other travelers, excited to either talk with a foreigner or to practice English will strike up a conversation. These are often pretty interesting, or if in Chinese, pretty basic, but offer me free Chinese lessons. The bathrooms aren't the cleanest, but they're better than those at all the buildings on our campus (which maybe just reflects poorly on our campus). But, there are vendors selling warm food, useless toys, juice, soda, beer, and baijiu (yes baijiu on the train) constantly coming by, so it's very convenient. Sometimes the Chinese
elevator music gets old, but an iPod solves that problem. Overall, short or long trips, the trains go almost everywhere, are consistently on time, and cheap.Now for the flip-side. You may think, it sounds like the whole journey is great, so what could be the problem? The thing is, the worst part of the train system here isn't moving. It's the technologically stagnant ticket vending. The trains are fantastically convenient, getting a ticket for them is outrageously difficult. Myriad problems plague any prospective ticket buyer. Chinese language is not one of them.
The first problem is when to buy a ticket. Tickets can only be purchased by a set number of days in advance, which is pretty standard. This number of days is not. It might be seven, maybe ten, maybe eleven, maybe up to twenty or so during Spring Festival, or, as I was told on January 1, only one day. Teddy, our advisor, who due to his job has an acute knowledge of the ticket buying process, told me that in some places the daunting challenge of a new/different (different is not good in China) year prevents them from issuing tickets until the first of the year. I have been told that seven days is normal, but I don't really believe this. It's a problem because this asymmetrical information means that I might miss out on getting the ticket I need if it sells out. If I want to make sure I can get the ticket, it means anywhere from one to three trips to the train station. I am not a big time planner when traveling, but can see how only being able to secure transportation seven days ahead of time could hinder one's planning.
The second problem and bigger problem is that tickets can only be purchased from the city of departure. No round trip train tickets in China. For a huge proportion of Chinese travelers, this is no problem. Migrant workers and students just travel from home to work/school and have plenty of time in each location to buy tickets. How about my students on their frequent weekend trips home, well, they have a family member buy the return ticket for them, so no worries. For me, this system is the most inconvenient and inexcusable organizational mess. I don't have a friend in every city I want to travel to to buy me a return ticket. And multi-city trips are a huge risk, as getting stuck somewhere is incredibly likely (and has happened to me). There are two ticketing offices in Changzhou, and they are connected. Because I know they aren't running a massive 'train ticket office only' wire between the two, I know they are connected by Internet. If teenagers can illegally download trashy South Korean soap operas everywhere in China, the rail system can communicate online. Plane travel isn't too expensive here, but would be totally unappealing to me if train tickets were more easily purchased; (maybe this is a secret ploy to keep up the 8% GDP growth).
The last problem is scalpers or 黄牛 (huang niu) as they are called here. Scalping is certainly not unique to China. But the absolute ignorance or lack of enforcement seems very Chinese. It is illegal, but the police officer mindlessly watching the scalpers work the lines wouldn't suggest it. My students tell me that being a ticket seller is actually a pretty good job because most of them work with the scalpers (thus augmenting the asymmetrical information) and make good commission off this. When Dave was trying to buy tickets for our trip back from the marathon, he was told there were no tickets. While still at the window, a man started trying to sell him the tickets he was just denied. I don't think they are entrepreneurs in the distribution market, I think they're market manipulators. I don't like being manipulated, and like it even less when those ostensibly paid to enforce the law turn a very blind eye.
Well, that's my two cents on the train system, and it's probably not worth much more than that. But, I spend a fair amount of time on the trains, and plenty waiting in train stations, (significantly less clean than the trains), so figured I'd share a bit about it. The guys in the picture don't seem to have been able to get quite the right tickets and are part of the inevitable wait for the ticket procurement process to improve.
***Note: since posting I have realized that D Train tickets can now be purchased round trip (return) and also sometimes outside the city of origin or destination. I think this is due to policy change-but my earlier failed attempts may have been due to misinformation or my abysmal Chinese.
hi
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