Still sunny but the smog has started to descend again. Today we are leaving Xi’an on the 22:18 overnight train, the ticket saga having been successfully resolved. We are planning to spend a few quiet days in an old riverside village within the city area of Chongqing, before taking a boat down the Yangtse to Yichang. We check out of the room at noon and spend the day shopping and looking around more of the Muslim and artists’ quarters. Catching the train turns out to be something of an experience and at first we end up in the hard seat/sleeper waiting area until, with the help of some friendly Chinese and a railway attendant, we discover that we are actually entitled to wait in the soft sleeper waiting room. It is sheer luxury in comparison, with a television, plush seats and toilets. Not to mention separate and crowd-free access to the platform and sleeper carriages.
The ticket saga took another turn this morning when we went online to check the arrival time of our train. According to the online timetable our train ticket for the K165 didn’t go to Chongqing but to Kuming. A call to Jackie this morning resulted in one of his colleagues appearing at the hotel, thinking we wanted to buy boat tickets! After explaining the problem he is also confused by the online timetable, further investigation reveals that the timetable had changed – the K165 now goes to Chongqing!
Jackie has organised a pick-up at 8pm to take us to the station, but come the allotted time, there is no taxi (why are we not surprised?) We wait 20 minutes and then get a cab on the street. Contrary to Jackie’s advice, we needn’t have left so early as the queues of a few days ago have dissipated and we get into the station with minimal delay. Now the holiday is over everywhere, including the station, is much less crowded. But it still seems chaotic in the station, which to confuse matters is on two levels. After baggage scan we are directed up to the 2nd floor (there is no ground floor in China.) and after several redirections we find our way the the soft sleeper waiting room and relative calm and normality.
On the train we are sharing with a Chinese couple who seem friendly but can’t speak any English. They allow us to stow some of our luggage under their seat and we share some of their unshelled sunflower seeds, but they won’t accept anything from us. The wife is a consummate and unself-conscious burber – better even than Andy, but at least there is no clearing of throats or spitting. Bed-time is determined by our companions who turn in shortly after we leave Xi’an. The husband already has his PJs under his clothes which he wears all the way to Chongqing.