Sedentary hell: 21 hours in a hard carriage from Beijing to Guangzhou

Experienced travelers Pasha and Lena tell us: "In this post there is a number that we strongly do not recommend repeating to anyone: moving more than 2,300 km long in a hard sitting carriage of a Chinese train. How to sleep sitting down, what the Chinese eat on the road and why some passengers spend almost a day on their feet (!) — you will learn about all this under the cut."

Last time we published a story by Pasha and Lena about what it's like to spend four days in a reserved seat on the way from Moscow to Ulan—Ude. It sounds scary, but it actually turned out to be fascinating.

The theater begins with a hanger, and a train journey begins with buying a ticket. As opposed to In Russia, where you can buy a ticket on the Russian Railways website, lying on a cozy sofa, print it out right there and get on the train with a printout, there is no direct online ticket sale in China.

You can buy tickets at the ticket offices in person or online through an agency, but in the latter case you will have to pay a considerable commission, and this will not save you from having to queue at the ticket office: before the train, you need to change the agency's paid order for a ticket. In principle, you can order the delivery of tickets to the hotel, but this again increases costs.

At the main station in Beijing, they were horrified by the huge queue at the entrance, but, fortunately, it turned out that it was those who had a train today. We also need to proceed to a separate ticket sales hall.

The queue at the ticket office was defended quickly and the booked and paid agent ticket order was exchanged. The cash register was special because the cashier spoke English.

The New Year is coming soon in China, so on our date, when buying through an agent, only "hard seat" category tickets were available. One ticket cost $ 37 (about 2,200 rubles), the agent took another $ 20 as a commission. The time of the trip was somewhat confusing: we had to sit for 21 hours and 21 minutes, but we decided that it would be an interesting experience, especially for ordinary Chinese from the bottom of our hearts.

You can see the date and time of departure without prompting, 15 is the car number, 42 is the seat number, 251 yuan is the price (to convert to rubles, multiply by 9), Z35 is the train number. Category Z — high-speed trains connecting major cities are worse than high-speed G, C and D, but faster than K and more comfortable than regular trains without a letter prefix. We had to drive about 2,400 km, so the fare was less than a ruble per kilometer, it turned out very budget-friendly. It is a pity that the same cannot be said about comfort.

Early in the morning, the first portion of winter clothes was left at the hotel. The shoes are heavy enough, so it is not profitable to send home worn shoes by mail at all.

Along with the shoes, a winter sweater and sweatpants remained in the room, in which Pasha sported in the Russian reserved seat. Lena almost shed tears when saying goodbye to the Timberlands, who served faithfully for three seasons.

In the hotel on our floor, repairs suddenly began, which no one warned about at the reception. It was lucky that we were almost not in the room.

Immediately after they left the room, workers literally burst in there. Apparently, they got the little things. Bots, however, are hardly suitable for them: the 41st size is considered almost gigantic in China.

There are four railway stations in Beijing, we were leaving from the West. We took the subway and got lost already at the exit.

We poked around in all directions and accidentally came across a secondary entrance to the station "with a barrel". As it turned out later, they saved themselves a lot of time — there was a huge queue at the main entrance.

After security check, tickets and passports were presented.

And only then we got to the train station.

The future has already arrived.

You need to find your waiting room, where passengers gather for your train.

Navigation is good, you won't get lost. Thank God, trains are designated by numbers, not hieroglyphs.

Despite the fact that there is still an hour and a half before the train departs, a huge queue has lined up at our gate. Just like that, they don't let you on the platform in China, there's nothing to wander idly there.

Each waiting room has its own free toilets and a special nook where you can pour hot water. The Chinese do not sweat, they brew local doshiraki and consume them right in the waiting room. The smell is appropriate.

Boarding the train usually takes half an hour. Closer to this time, people begin to chaotically surround the organized queue from all sides.

We also got up, suddenly there is some sacred meaning in this. What if the luggage rack, when we get into the car, will already be occupied and there will be nowhere to put the backpack?