P.O.’ed
(still in) Beijing, China.
So, we missed our train. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I think a combination of too much experience and too little information was our downfall. We left our hostel an hour before our train was scheduled to leav. It was supposed to take 25 minutes by taxi to get there. We figured a half an hour of wiggle room would be more than adequate to get to our platform and get on our train. But oh how we (and our hostel) underestimated Beijing traffic. I’ve noticed that the last few days have seemed more hectic and congested than before. I wonder if this is due to the fact that their big holiday is next week, that the Olympics are over so maybe they’ve let a lot of cars back in, or just a weird coincidence. But instead of taking 25 minutes, our taxi took about 50 minutes. We were sitting in the taxi, watching the time tick away and literally helpless to do anything. We couldn’t communicate with the tax driver to see if maybe we were close and could just run the rest of the way (we were in deadlock traffic), if maybe we could get out and try to take the subway (our hostel had told us that you couldn’t get there directly on the subway but would have to transfer to a bus and that it was a big pain). So we just sat and were sad. When we finally got to the train station we had ten minutes to get to our platform, but the taxi driver dropped us off pretty far away from the main doors. We had to cross a very busy highway over a pedestrain overpass, then figure out which door to go in, go through the pretty minimalistic security and then look at the board to find which platform and run like hell. According to the train station’s clock we had three minutes to spare when we got to the ticket taker, but when we handed her our tickets she shook her head ‘no’ and said ‘you are late.’ How sad! The train had already left without us and some lucky buggers with standing room only tickets were probably upgrading to our seats as we were standing defeated at the platform. The ticket lady told us to go to window 16 at the ticket office where there was an English speaking person who could help us.
We stood in line sad and angry and waited with claws out to make sure no one tried to jump in front of us (I actually saw someone jump in front of a Westerner at the very front of the line and apparently got chewed out by the ticket woman! Yay!). When it was finally our turn we told her we had missed our train and she told us that there were no seats on any of the trains to Pingyao as far as the reservation system worked. So she took our tickets away, stamped the back, and scribbled on them standing room only for the next day and sent us on our way. We hung our heads in shame and went back to our hostel which we had left a few hours earlier thinking we’d never see it again. I’ve had a sore throat for the past two days and just feel generally a little tired with a mild cold, and the day’s excitement had warped all of my energy. I just wanted to lie down and pretend none of this had happened. It was too much for us to try to figure out what to do next. We ended up taking a bus and then the subway back to our hostel (which was quick and very easy, unlike what we had been led to believe) because none of the taxis at the train station new where our hostel was (even after I showed them the little hostel card that had in Chinese “please take me to my hostel” and the address).
After sleeping for about thirteen hours and having a giant bowl of soup, I’m feeling a little better day but just frustrated and angry (at myself) for missing our train. We treated the trains in China like the buses in South America which was a big mistake. But at least now we know that the trains in China should be treated more like airplanes in the U.S. Lesson very much learned. So today we had the fun task of trying to figure out if we could get a train from Beijing to anywhere. The hostel girl who had helped us so much in the past was still very helpful and patient. She called and enquired about destination after destination (getting more far out and outlandish all the time) until we were all sad and disappointed. Somewhere in here our friend Nicole who we had gone to the music performance with on Sunday showed up and invited us to come with her in the morning to try to get a ticket to Mongolia! She’s going back to Germany on the tranSiberian railway, but she is going to stay in Mongolia for about a week before hand, taking a bus from Beijing to the border and then transferring to a train to the Mongolian capital. We know pretty much nothing about Mongolia except that U.S. citizens don’t need a visa, so we could actually go with her to Mongolia. We’ve pretty much decided to give it a go. At least we’ll go to the bus station with her in the morning to see if we can get tickets. The buses don’t book seats in advance, so you have to go the day you want to leave in order to try to get a seat. We would leave tomorrow night if it all worked out and would travel with her and basically just tag along. It would be nice to get out of China for the week to avoid the whole national day stuff and not have to worry about getting stuck somewhere or getting desperate and buying a plane ticket out of Beijing. It sounds like quite an adventure, and why not?!
I’ll know by tomorrow morning what our next steps are and I’ll try to post something of our plans. At this point it’s either Mongolia for a week, get stuck in Beijing for another week or so (which just sounds awful at this point. Not that we dislike Beijing, but we’ve been here for almost three weeks now and we’re just ready to move on. There’s also something upsetting about being stuck somewhere, no matter where it is), or I don’t know what, really. Maybe try to get a bus somewhere else nearby and then be stuck there and have to go through this all again! Mongolia seems like the most exciting option. I’ll keep you posted.
Tags: Beijing, China, Mongolia, National Day
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