My First Trip to China: July 24

We caught the train to Guangzhou's East Station in the PRC
and pretty quickly realized we had a problem. We had to catch a taxi from East Staion to Old Station, which lives up to its name. This derelict was hot,humid, and dingy. The elevator was broken; so we hauled our luggage fom pillar to post until we found the waiting area for our train to Zhengzhou, T256. We were the only non-Chinese in the place. The waiting are, one of 6 was three times the size of the Nichols dining room. The seats were all full of people and luggage, and every head turned our direction -- every eye was riveted on us. We were the OTHER - more than every before. We turned our suitcases on their sides and sat with our backs to the crowd, waiting for an announcement that would send us to a less exposed compartment on the train. We took solace in reading portions of Harry Potter aloud to each other and the young woman in the red dress behind me leaned against my back listening... The train officials who are all dressed like police officers yelled announcements on bullhorns The girl in the red dress helped us buy tickets to take a golf cart to the platform and to get into the right line to get onto the right train. We stood in searing heat trying not to break andy rules and finally boarded the right car. The "soft sleeper" compartments are comfortable, but there are 4 berths; so you have to share with others. The conductor/police officer took our paper tickets and handed us two metal tags that said where out berths were. Our "roommates" were a lovely mother and her two, well-behaved, young boys. Other kids on the train screamed, ran, and crashed around with little interference from their parents. We ventured into the dining car and guessed what to order from a white board listing set meals, all in Chinese. The man taking the money didn't let us point to what others were eating and seemed to enjoy our discomfort. The adults kept glancing at us as we watched the passing countryside and the children openly stared. I finally re-gained my sense of humor when an elderly woman passed by and laughing, pointed at us and said something to her family who giggling nervously and hustled her to a table. I admired her candor. When our meals arrived, they were palatable, and Charlotte pointed out that we weren't doing too badly since we weren't starving!