If those lyrics fill your heart with longing, you have definitely not spent a lot of time in a Chinese train station immediately after train arrival in Beijing. I gave up trying to convey a picture of the humanity crowded in a winding queue waiting for a taxi. I believe an estimate of 1500 is not too out of line and may be quite conservative. It was enough to take the breath from this basically small town lady from Texas. It was nearly an hour before I was able to lay claim to my own steel horse carriage (best Bonjovi metaphor EVER!)
to find some sanity.
I read once that the reason most of the world outside of the United States has such awesome train systems is because after WWII most countries lay in ruins. They did not have enough capital to invest in the coming market for air travel as did the US. Whether a part of the Allies or the Axis, what little money that existed was used to repair their existing infrastructure. The US had a decent train system but it was allowed to decay in favor of air travel and interstate highways to accommodate the growing ownership of private vehicles. Approximately 65 years later, you can get from Tokyo to Nagoya in the time it takes to get from north Dallas to the airport by car. Traffic in the area where I lived was one of several reasons I jumped for joy when I found out it would be possible to retire. It is the reason given by a certain pitcher to leave the Texas Rangers (RIP World Series 2011) about a year ago.
Trains are fun. I rode the incredible Shenkansen in Japan, which is the bullet train, quite a few times. At one time I was standing on a platform waiting at a smaller station when two expresses not stopping there crossed in both directions. The vibrations were amazing and yet when you are on board it is amazingly smooth. The seats lay back and it is absolutely possible to sleep through your stop. I found out through personal experience when I made a trip up north to Shizuoka to see Mt Fuji and slept through my Kyoto stop on the way back, waking up in Osaka. Ironically I had missed it before from Tokyo to Nagoya a week before because I fell asleep then as well.
While in the Shizuoka area I took a train to a small town where I had read about a steam engine train. I got to the small town, which was rather risky since I spoke no Japanese and there were very few English speakers. I was able to get there with the help of a fellow passenger who noticed I was traveling alone and approached me in a very shy and hesitant way typical of so many Japanese. I was eventually able to ride the steam engine train and was serenaded by the non-english speaking conductor with a rendition of "I've been working on the railroad" on the harmonica. I'm really living right these days!
The overnight trains I took from Shanghai to Xian and from Xian to Beijing should not be construed as glamorous Orient Express trains. They were transportation. With interesting sleeping companions. The carpet is dirty. Babies cry and run up and down the corridors. Smoking is allowed in train connection hallways. And they have a lot of squatty toilets that I may or may not have mentioned (that may be because I so far have been unable find anything about them that can make me smile. Maybe one day....). I could have flown for not much more when you also consider the cost of the babysitters who make sure you get to the right place and in the right coach. Sometimes it's about the journey and experience, though. I loved every minute of it.
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