It was Christmas time, 1953. My Uncle Jim was home from Korea. My mom and stepfather and I lived in Rockville, MD. My Uncle Jim came to visit. He was on his way to my grandma’s in Kentucky for Christmas. I wanted to go with him and he persuaded my mom. We went by train. I remember the train was filled with servicemen. I remember the clean dining car and the privacy of the Pullman car. What a grand time I had with my Uncle on that train.
When we came to China we found that it was quite inexpensive to travel by train. Very expensive to fly. Most Chinese travel by bus or train. The train stations and trains are extremely crowded. Chinese people have no concept of waiting orderly and calmly in a line, whether it’s in a supermarket, bank or train station. So, in the station when they call the number of your train you take your life in your hands to try to get through the gate and board the train. You can be trampled! This is so ridiculous because your ticket has your cubicle and bed or seat number on it. It’s not first come, first serve!
If you happen to be traveling overnight there are three choices. The first choice is The Cheap Seat. This is a hard seat that folds down from the wall into the aisle. The second choice is called the hard sleeper. This is a hard bed. The train car is divided into cubicles and each cubicle has six bunk beds, three on each side of the cubicle. The cubicle is not private, has no door. There’s a small table under the window between the stack of bunks. The third choice is called the soft sleeper. This is also a hard bed but the cubicle has a door for privacy. These are more expensive and have a small storage space above the door that the hard sleeper cubicles don’t have. There’s a small ladder at the foot of the bunks for the top tier bunks. People take their shoes off before climbing up.
