Getting to and from Xi'an took 16 hours by train. I caught the evening train out of Yancheng and arrived in Xi'an in the morning. I was able to get a nice (expensive) sleeper cabin, upper bunk, and the most memorable thing that happened was my fellow passengers were snorers. Thank goodness for earplugs.
merged photos of a sleeper cabin
I climbed up with that handlebar by the top of the door and that step, which is pretty high
considering the light switch is just above it.
considering the light switch is just above it.
My return trip was no where near as agreeable. First of all, by the time I could get a ticket there were only cheap seats left, and I was lucky to even get one of those. And I do mean lucky: I was in the last car, 17, and in the last section of seats--of 118 seats, I was in #114.
All of these people (stretching down to the opposite end of the hall) got on my train, besides those already aboard and those boarding at subsequent stops.
It took so long to walk down to car 17 that by the time we got there, the handlers literally shoved us boarders on because the train had to get going.
I was fortunate in other ways. For example, because we were the end car our disgusting bathroom was only used by half a car of people, and thus stayed slightly less disgusting than bathrooms located between two cars. Also, I was seated facing backward, away from the rest of the passengers, keeping me mostly out of sight, helping me avoid unwanted attention. Well, excepting all the obnoxious men who stared and made jokes about me as they used the back of the car as a smoking area.
The aisles were filled with people forced to make due with "standing" tickets.
