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Sanity departs with the train
By Joseph Christian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-08 10:21
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It's that time of the year again, a time that I loathe. Many times I awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, my hands trembling, my heart racing. I have to take a drink of water and calm myself because in a few hours I have to go and buy train tickets.
I am shocked when I actually hear that people like taking trains during Chinese New Year. For me it's a nightmare. The whole experience is exhausting.
First, you have to get the ticket. For those of us who don't have connections, that means waking up at 4 am to go to one of Beijing's train stations to stand in an ever-growing line of tired, discontented people. In the lines, some try to distract themselves with a movie on their MP4 while others listen to soft music. Some talk with their friends on the phone or take turns waiting in line while their companion gets some rest. It's not too bad ... well at least until the ticket counters open at 9 am. Then all hell breaks loose, like a bunch of hungry tigers fighting for a bowl of rice.
The air is thick with tension.
In the beginning, there are a few cries of delight as a few happy customers gleefully skip away with their tickets in hand. But as you snake your way ever closer to the ticket counter, things quickly go from good to bad.
"What do you mean you have no tickets!" some shout.
"Your mother this ... your mother that!" yell an unsavory few.
"Hurry up ... hurry up!" a man a little way in front of me let loose with thunderous force.
You pray, you hope, you wish ... you just want a ticket. I must be cursed, because by the time my turn comes the train is sold out.
I leave the line my shoulders slumped in defeat and then I find the culprit responsible for the fact that there are no tickets to my destination.
Standing behind the now dwindling lines, with a small throng of 
people around him, is a "yellow bull" as the Chinese call them. In English maybe you could call them "scalper extraordinaire", or as I call them "the scum of the earth". His tickets are going like hot cakes. I just walk away in disgust.
Finally, after several tries I get a ticket; it wasn't what I wanted. It didn't even get me to my destination, but if you want to make it anywhere during Chinese New Year then you better make some compromises.
Now I can relax for a few days. Then I have to get on the train. If I had a soft or hard sleeper I wouldn't worry, but I have a hard seat and for any of you that have taken a hard seat during Chinese New Year you know what that entails. Many hard seat cars are as crowded as a Beijing subway during rush hour.
A trip to the bathroom might take you an hour of crawling over bags and people. It might be good exercise, but it's not fun.
Especially when you finally make it back to your seat from your marathon bathroom journey, only to find that in your absence a whole family has crammed themselves into the small space and is now sleeping in bliss.
You can huff and you can puff, but you aren't going to blow any houses down, so it is better just to suck it up and "eat your bitterness".
I am just glad that this is only a one-time-a-year experience.
