Saturday, May 22, 2010

Hurried Hong Kong and the cattle car to Shanghai



Hong Kong is definitely part of my overland trip, but it was essential because I had to pick up medicine that I had left with my friend and break my trip in mainland China so that I did not have to apply for a Chinese visa.

There is not that much to say about it except that I think I did a lot. Besides getting my medicine, I bought a few needed supplies like a thermos flask for the long train rides and a toothbrush. I have been finding it hard to change traveller's cheques in most places and I have not seen an American Express outlet so far on this trip. I did find out that I could change traveler's cheques at the Bank of China. So I took the opportunity to do that. (I do not think I will ever buy traveler's cheques again)  I met up with a couple of people and generally prepared for the next leg.

What was surprising was how difficult it was to get a ticket from Hong Kong to Shanghai. The Hong Kong underground has a train that goes directly to Shanghai, but the train was completely full. In the end, I had to get a train to Guangzhou in China and then get a train to Shanghai from there. I was giasu enough to get my ticket before I left Guilin, but even then all that was left were seats. What I did not expect was the coaches to be packed like sardine cans. They Chinese railway sold standing tickets for a 16 hour trip. And some of the people who bought tickets were old enough to be my grandparents! I shared my seat with a businessman but stood up once in a while to let other people have a chance to sit down as well. Suffice to say, I did not get much sleep on the way to Shanghai. But still, I have been having relatively nice trains rides up to now, even the hard sleeper is actually quite comfortable. So this human chaos was really an eye-opener. I wanted to take more photographs, but somehow it did not feel right.

Shanghai up next.

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