Zibo - The Journey

Barbara and I had decided to take a trip to Zibo to check out the sights. We went to the train station and booked our tickets. We were so proud of ourselves because we got the tickets without to much drama. Later that night Barbara was studying the ticket and rang me to tell me that she thinks that we don't have seats.

The next day we went to see the Chinese teachers who confirmed Barbara's suspicion. Apparently in China once the train is full they still sell tickets but these are standing. This was going to be a long journey. A little over 2 hours standing. Not much we could do about it. Explains why the ticket was only Y29.

So off we headed to the train station on Tuesday. Train left at 2.31 pm. We left our apartments at 1.30 pm. Better to be early than miss the opportunity to stand for 2+ hours!

The train arrived we boarded. We really didn't know where we were supposed to stand. We decided we would stand between two carriages. A couple of moments after the train departed we got a whiff of the bathroom. Barbara said that if she had to stay here any longer she would be sick. I was already covering my nose.

We moved into one of the carriages. There was a seat that no one was sitting on. I told Barbara to sit down. With her best Marcel impersonation she asked if anyone was sitting there. There was really no confirmed answer so she sat. This Chinese boy on the other side of the aisle with English as clear as day said, "Someone is sitting there." Barbara said, "That's OK when they come back I will get up." The Chinese boy started a conversation with us. Before you knew it I had a seat. So basically the whole trip we had seats. We scored well.