Travelling China

01 Sep 2011 4

7 days before departure, there are in principle only standing seats left for the Chinese railway.

So I try my luck at one of the countless “travel agencies” in front of the station. There, a sleeper bed is no problem at all – against 50% surcharge. China’s black market for train tickets is flourishing in the holiday season.

floc: What does standing mean in “standing seat”?
Ticket seller: Standing means standing up!
floc: While travelling for 25 hours!?

Standing seats in the Chinese railway

Travel in China is not as easy as in Thailand. But after all, I absolutely wanted to see the giant country

Because China is so big, I was very lucky to find a big friend. Jeonghwan (1.94 m) from South Korea is on a world tour to Africa:

2 globetrotters on the Yangtze

Of course we took it the easy way. Nevertheless, we have experienced a lot of China in our three weeks together. for example:

• medieval city centers in Pingyao and Xi’an
• pure nature at a sandy beach in Guilin and Yangshuo
• several days on the Yangtze, where every 16th man lives
• daily craziness of the Far East
• extremely hot food in Chengdu
• a sacred mountain

 

Jeonghwan boards

To move on, there were nice and less nice methods of transportation:

1. Large passenger ferry – top:
   Ships kick ass!
2. sleeper train – top
   Transsiberian feeling, but with a view out the window
3. bus seat – top
   The good old bus
4. small bamboo boat – baloney
   Tourist attractions on the Yangtze and Li River
5. bus with beds – terrible
   On Chinese streets you prefer to sit
6. train with seats – an absolute nightmare
   Every little space on the train is sold as a “standing seat”.

 

elapsed route: purple, planned route: red - © 2010 Google

Unfortunately Jeonghwan has now fled to dive in the Philippines.

Yesterday I rejoined my world travel partner Greg again. Together with Miss M from H, we take on Yunnan now. And on the 13th of September, we will move on to Tibet!

Thank you for the wonderful time Jeonghwan!

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Ähnliche Beiträge:

1. World Tour costs: 23 days China = 1000 EUR
2. Image impressions from Yunnan, China
3. They eat dogs in China and other peculiarities
4. Great wall of China – 7 useless facts

by Florian Blümm   Chengdu, Sichuan, Volksrepublik China   World Tour   China, Freunde, Glück, Menschen, Natur, Tibet  

4 comments to Travelling China

• LUPO

  1. September, 2011 at 15:16

  Alter!
  Da les ich mir alles durch, alles sau interessant und spannend, dann kommt: Fräulein M aus H! Wer solln des sein? Wer isn des?

  Ich hab immer gedacht, ich wär glücklich, wenn bloß der Greg wieder da is. Aber jetzt will ich viel mehr wissen! Und nicht über China ;-)

  P.S.: Du magst große Menschen, gell?!

• Weltreise Kosten: 23 Tage China = 1000 EUR |flocblog

  7. September, 2011 at 3:55

  [...] Yangtze Bootsfahrt und ein verlorenes Handy sind teuer, aber der dominierende Posten ist mit 400 EUR der Diebstahl [...]

• Reisepartner und andere Partner | flocblog

  13. September, 2011 at 13:10

  [...] musste Greg letzte Woche alleine die Yunnan Provinz erkunden. Kaum zurück meinte Greg, dass 1 Woche viel zu wenig Zeit für die interessanteste Region [...]

• Stopover in Yunnan, China | flocblog

  2. June, 2012 at 12:04

  [...] zur anderen. Ein Stopover in der chinesischen Provinz Yunnan kam hinzu. Yunnan wollte ich schon 2 Mal sehen, der 3. Versuch hat [...]