At 10:55 on Saturday morning we were leaving from Beijing Railway Station to our next destination, Datong. Getting into the station building through the security screening and to the platform passing the ticket check went surprisingly smooth given the thousands of Chinese travellers heading the same way.
Apart from two other foreigners, our wagon is cramped with Chinese travellers, sitting in rows of 5 seats, often double occupied by mothers with their children or standing in the aisle. There is at least 150 of them - rounded up guess, given the sign above the door showing a capacity of 118 people in the wagon.
The tables are full of food and the overhead compartments of large size luggages. When not eating, most Chinese sleep or just sit patiently without saying anything. Some fiddle around with their phones, play cards or smoke at the end of the corridor near the exit. Regularly a vendor is passing through with a narrow cart carefully navigating around people's legs and selling packaged, cooked food, fruits, snacks or soft drinks. (Seeing the ice cream, I am reminded that I have learnt yesterday from reading a book review in The Beijinger magazine: Chinese like to eat everything on sticks. Yes, it seems to be true. Even sausage on a stick.)
It would be good to know at what time we arrive at our destination. (Unfortunately, we did not ask when purchasing the ticket. I guess we were so surprised about the super cheap price of 54 RMB per ticket.) The train schedule on the wall, where only the word "time table" in the header is translated into English, shows the route of 20-25 trains. Though knowing the train number and comparing the Chinese characters of our destination on the ticket, helps to identify that the arrival is planned for 17:09.
Finally, arrived. On time.
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