Nearly ready, and a bit about trains
In four days I leave Dunedin, and I fly out of Auckland in eight days. Checking my airline booking, I discover that it is not what I asked for. My first stop in China is at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and then I fly on to Shanghai. China Southern has lots of domestic flights between the two: I have no idea how long it will take to transit, so opted for a four hour gap. They’ve booked me on a flight that gives only 2 1/2 hours, but also say that my luggage will be checked all the way through. I should be fine.
When I dropped off my passport, the Chinese Consulate said it would be sent back to me last Wednesday. They were even better than their word: when I woke up on Wednesday, I already had a message to say it had been delivered. I haven’t done much else by way of preparation this week - my time has been rather taken up with a book I’m writing, which I wanted to submit before I go but now can’t, because the Government says new rules are coming out in July.
I have settled on a travel insurer (World Nomads), got myself a fresh International Drivers Permit and some US cash, just in case it comes in handy in Central Asia. My plan of attack for Central Asia is even more up in the air now I can stay longer in China - it opens up the possibility of going from Kashgar to Osh in Kyrgystan. Oh, and I’m eating loads of frozen veg and steak, in a desperate attempt to empty my freezer before I leave.
I have become a bit nervous about getting bookings on trains. There is an official China Railways app which allows me to buy tickets, even select seats or bunks, without any booking fee but only from the time bookings open, 15 days before travel. The particular train I want on my first day of train travel is selling out very fast - I’ve just checked, and the train the day before I want to go is sold out, but bookings aren’t open yet for the day I want to travel. The alternative to waiting is to use an agent - Trip.com in my case - to get a seat for me. It costs more, and I can’t select what I want beyond class. This will be a problem for sleeper trains, as I won’t be able to book the lower bunk, will just have to take what they give me. Score! I’ve just received an email to tell me I have a ticket on the Shanghai - Qingdao train at 8:40 on 1 July. Just as well, because that train is already showing up as sold out.
If you understand Chinese pronunciation and say Qingdao to yourself, it might sound familiar, because there’s an alternative spelling:
Yes, I’m going there because of this - the Germans were there from 1895 - 1914 and set the brewery up.
I watched a youtube video of a couple of young Brits going across north west China on the train - they couldn’t get a seat, so bought a standing ticket. They were lucky - the train guard found them a pair of seats they could use for almost the entire journey. This looks awful! Around where they were sitting it was like this the whole way.
Honglin is a slightly more delightful person to travel vicariously with - she’s Chinese, travelling China in a camper van, and making beautifully shot, completely non-frenetic videos: China Road Tales. Oh, and she has a wee dog.
I have discovered my old blog about my last visit to China - I went looking to see what I had to say about trains then, and even found several pictures of them. Better than the train pictures, here’s a police car I saw in Chengdu.
I was there in November 2013, which has cleared one thing up for me: I had completely forgotten how I got there. It turns out I flew to Chengdu from KL. I had time there, Kunming, Chongqing and a few smaller places like Zigong before I went across the border to Vietnam.
I remember enjoying the trains, particularly the slow ones that didn’t run on the high-speed lines through tunnels and on elevated rails. Instead, they curled their way slowly around the geography - even at night, when I couldn’t see much, I still felt connected to the place. After leaving China, I had to travel by bus in Vietnam - that was the very worst travel experience in my life. I was stuck in the upper back corner of a sleeper bus under the speakers, for 12 hours, travelling by day, and got very car sick.
Reading these old posts reinforces why I started this substack rather than persist with just posting on Insta or FB - longer form writing and the posts are more accessible. There were lots of little incidents I don’t really recall, but one thing that’s coming through quite strongly is how willing the people were to help me when I got stuck or to chat to me. Reading the posts after so long, they are almost as if they were written by someone else, and some are really good.
Maybe you’re interested in trains, food, dinosaurs, salt mines, pandas, river cruises…? Check out the first post - https://nzbarry.travellerspoint.com/133/