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Reviews of China
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The best people to ask about a country you want to visit are people who have actually been there. The reviews below on various parts of China reflect the views of such people and as such should be very helpful.
Charming China
Enter the Dragon
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Charming China
"I was apprehensive about travelling by train in China, particularly after the image Lonely Planets conjured up of the toilets. I’m paranoid about toilets, but then you would be too if one of your formative memories is at age 3 going to use some ditch in the ground at your grandparents house and finding the hut full of lizards.
Sorry, back to trains in China. I decided to travel from Shanghai to Hong Kong by train as it was exceptionally cheap, approximately £45 in fact.
**Buying a ticket**
You can’t buy a ticket from the train station in Shanghai, you have to go to the Longmen hotel. This is about 2 minutes away from the train station and quite easy to spot if you head towards the station concourse. Once inside, you head right towards the booking office. There are 2 windows, only one sells tickets to Hong Kong, even if there is a really long queue at this window and no queue at the other. Time management techniques doesn’t seem to have reached China. You get a form to fill out, however, it’s in Chinese without translation so you will probably have to ask someone to help you here! You need to bring your passport with you and they only take cash.
Classes
China doesn’t have classes as it’s a communist country you know, not that there was much to give this away in Shanghai. So your choices are deluxe soft sleeper, soft sleeper and hard sleeper, it refers to the class and not to how comfortable your bed will be. Deluxe soft sleeper costs about £100 and for this you get a private compartment with 2 beds. The only difference between this and soft sleeper is that the next class has 4 beds instead of 2 and it costs around £75. Again you have private compartments. These ticket types are at one end of the train, which is divided by the dining car, and at the other end the masses are in hard sleeper.
I travelled by hard sleeper, the carriages are divided up into berths with 6 beds. You can choose upper, middle or bottom bunks with upper being the cheapest. I personally wouldn’t choose the upper bunk as there is very little space, you get no view out of the window and climbing up to your bed seems to be a small mountaineering feat. I chose middle bunk as people sit on your bed during the day if you are on the bottom bunk which I wasn’t keen on. Also it felt quite luxurious in the morning to lie in bed and look at the wonderful scenery passing me by. If you are less than agile I would choose bottom bunk as there is no ladder to climb up, just a small step. If you want to sleep in the day, people will move off your bed. You are provided with a pillow, sheet, blanket and small towel. The small towel is for putting over your pillow when you sleep! I would suggest sorting out your bedding before they turn the lights out. The lights are turned out at 10pm and then back on at 6am with lots of loud Cantopop. There is a small reading light as well which only works after the main lights are turned out. There is a shelf to put your luggage on inside each compartment, although all the compartments are open. There are seats opposite the beds, with small tables, where you can eat or just look out of the window. At the end of each carriage there is hot water for food and 2 toilets (squat) and hand baisins. I would definitely travel by hard sleeper again, as not only was it very cheap, you could walk up and down the carriages and get to speak to people. In the other classes you had to stay in your compartment. I imagine that would be a nightmare if you were sharing with one other very dull person.
**The journey**
The journey from Shanghai to Hong Kong (and vice versa) takes around 29 hours which seems like a mammoth amount of time to spend on a train. However, I didn’t find it as bad as flying as you got to sleep on a bed, albeit a narrow bed with a blanket that never covered my feet!
There are a number of stops at train stations ranging from about 10 minutes to 30 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend getting off the train and going very far unless you are very sure how long the stop is for. Even when they said 40 minutes at one station, they changed their minds and the train left after 10 minutes. However, about 2 hours before you get to Hong Kong you have to go through immigration in China. Everyone will get off the train and you have to take all your luggage with you. They stamp your passport and then you can buy duty free at a very small shop.
About one hour before the train gets to Hong Kong, there is an announcement (in Chinese) apparently this is saying that during the last hour the toilets will be locked and you won’t be able to use them.
**Food**
You can buy food either at the dining car, or trolleys come round the carriages during the day. You can buy tea or coffee, cold drinks including beer and breakfast, lunch and dinner. Attendants will also try and encourage you to buy commemorative stamps and night vision binoculars! Water costs 3RMB (25p)a bottle. I tried the lunch and dinner which cost 15 RMB (c. £1.30). It was edible, just! You got rice, pork in a strange sauce, tofu, cabbage and a salted egg. Lunch is at 12ish and dinner at around 6ish. I would recommend taking some food for the journey with you. You can buy the Chinese equivalent of pot noodles, except they are edible, in supermarkets. Snacks and sweets are also a good idea. Lots of the Chinese people bring tonnes of fruit and share it which was nice!
**Toilets**
There are squat toilets in all the carriages. They are sometimes a little grim though they get cleaned during the night. They weren’t as bad as the open toilets in Glastonbury if that gives you an idea. However, if you are a girl I would recommend wearing a skirt or shorts, as you really don’t want any clothing to touch the floor. The flush is a small handle to the right of the compartment; it looks like it will fall off if you touch it. There is also a tap in the toilets, I have no idea what it is for. There is no toilet roll so don’t forget your own.
**Things to do **
*Read
*Sleep
*Enjoy the wonderful scenery
*Chat to people. Some of the Chinese people speak English and Westerners are fairly easy to spot. Though I did scare a few people when I started talking to them with my southern accent. I’m sure that most of you won’t have that problem as your mum probably isn’t Chinese
*Be annoyed by the awful music
**Things to bring**
*Tissues and/ or toilet paper
*Toothbrush and toothpaste
*Wet wipes – handwashing facilities are limited
*Dried food
*If you bring tea or coffee don’t forget a cup
*Book(s)
*Phrase book – the train attendants don’t speak English
*Pen – for filling out forms at immigration in China and when you arrive in Hong Kong
In conclusion, if you get an opportunity to use the long distance trains in China I would recommend it. One of my most surreal memories from my trip was eating dinner, looking at rolling hills and paddy fields whilst a medley of Carpenters songs was playing!
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