How China works

Just to highlight the way in which China seems to work and the way in which it never ceases to amaze me, here is a little story regarding my lost train ticket.

On New Years Day, Anthony decided that he was going to return to Shijiazhuang, as he didn’t fancy sleeping on the floor of the hostel for two nights in a row. So as Charlie and I headed for the Hotel, he left for the train station.

About 11:00pm that evening, whilst sat in Soccer Club watching the Liverpool game on TV, I realised I had lost my train ticket for the following day. It is always difficult to get a ticket and usually needs to be purchased about three or four days in advance to guarantee a seat. Given that it was New Years Day, this was particularly unlikely.

Back at the Hotel, I was advised by a staff member that the concierge may be able to get me a new ticket the following day. So cancelling my planned long sleep in, I met the concierge at 7:00am on the 2^nd of December. I was told that it would be unlikely that I would be able to get a ticket, due to it being the same day as I wished to depart. However, a few hours later and at a price twice that what I paid for my original ticket, I was told that they had been able to buy me a ticket.

There must be about 20 carriages on the average train in China, each holding about 80 seats that are usually ALL filled. Now remembering that I purchased my original ticket the day before I got my new one, you can imagine my surprise when I found that the new ticket was for seat 29, with my old seat number being 13 (both in carriage 9). How that works is beyond me.

China though, had one last little trick up its sleeve. We knew that there would be an empty seat where I would have been sat originally, plus another one where Anthony would have been sat had he not decided to return to Shijiazhuang a day early. After the train had departed, a Chinese guy came over to us, trying to explain to us that we were sat in his seat. This couldn’t be possible, we had bought a group of tickets together! But what we didn’t realise was that Anthony had swapped his ticket for a new one and the station had then sold on his old ticket. The solution? We swapped tickets. He went and sat in seat number 29, and I continued to sit in the seat Anthony was supposed to be sat in.

So I returned to Shijiazhuang, in a seat that I had paid three times the price for and that Anthony had paid for yet not sat in it either. It also leaves me with the slight doubt as to whether the Chinese man did in fact buy Anthony’s old ticket, or in fact was lucky enough to find my ticket on the floor.

Sorry if that is a bit confusing, but that is what happened and it was just as confusing in first person.