If I had a hard time sleeping on a soft seat, I hadn't experienced standing room. When we arrived in Xi'an we had to book train tickets right away. The only problem was everyone goes home for the new year. No trains had seats. What happens with the most populated country when there aren't any train seats left? You fit as many people on the train as possible by charging them to stand in the aisle for the entire length of the train ride. Our trip from Xi'an to Chengdu just happened to last almost 16 hours.
This was an experience that made me say, "I am thankful for soft seats." Our train left Xi'an later in the day and we even bought tiny stools on which to sit in the aisle during the train ride. If you sit in the aisle, people will walk up the aisle to go to the bathroom, to refill their water, or simply to walk up the aisle. Service carts with food and other trinkets also come through every 10 minutes or less. Whenever I sat on my little stool it may be for a matter of 1-2 minutes. Then I had to stand up, collapse the tiny stool, and let whomever was walking through to squeeze by my fat American body.
If this hasn't peaked your interest yet, within the first hour 2 of our 6 stools broke. We feared for the others and began to sleep in shifts. Of course, my stool was one of them to go. Just before the stool broke, I enjoyed the company of the gentlemen around me as they lit up their cigarettes in the cabin instead of going to the end of the cabin by the doors in between cars. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) These men were 37 going on 4 and they also made this trip enjoyable.
I spent most of the night leaning against a seat trying to sleep while standing and jostling as the train bounced up and down and yanked back and forth. Thankfully, the next morning some passengers got off at one of the many stops we made on the way from Xi'an to Chengdu. A few seats opened up and as people walked around the train cars, I got to sit down from time to time. I caught 15 minutes of sleep here, 5 there, and 3 in another seat. About 2 hours from Chengdu, 3 of us made it to the dining car just to sit down from as long as we could. The lady wanted us to buy something of course, but it was a small price to pay in order to sit down.
This is one of my travel horror stories. Standing room on a slow train from Xi'an to Chengdu = character building. I have so much more to be thankful for now. May you never complain about the leg room on planes again.
