Train Station

Today, Kevin and I met up with our friend Eric to buy train tickets for upcoming holiday. Originally, National Day was a day off, but now its gradually developed into a week long vacation for the country. We're heading to Yanji and then to Chang Bai Shan near the North Korean border. Since its a national holiday, needless to say, the station was flooded with people, waiting in orderly lines.

I was a bit surprised because prior to coming here, I was informed that its pretty much everyone for themselves. Just try to imagine 1.3 billion people trying to travel and then throw us non-Mandarin speakers in the mix for a good comedy show. Luckily, our friend, Alec is a native speaker, who speaks English very very well. Kevin mentioned that there was some sort of national campaign to deter people from shoving and to respect the LINE. (something that Americans are surprisingly good at)

Nevertheless, as we got closer to the ticket booth and the cashier made an announcement that he was going on lunch break in 3 minutes, a small pocket of chaos ensued at our line. A random guy came up to me and started asking me questions and of course my level of Chinese is still pretty basic so I passed him to my friend, Alec. He was asking us to him a favor of buying his ticket with his money for him.

Plus, there was this woman was trying to shove her money under the ticket window, in front of us, as we're getting standing there, trying to acquire tickets. Thankfully, the ticket man shooed her away and we were the last customers before his respite. There were tickets available only for the standing section, but they were so cheap, only 45 kuai ($5.50). So, Kevin, Matt, and I will be on our feet for about 7 hours. Its going to be an adventure and build character!