Kevin, George, & I
Loaded in the taxi with luggage in our laps
Our taxis took us right to the Beijing train station and we had to go through a security check to get in. Kevin had a slight issue with his ticket/passport but they waved him through. Once we were inside, we checked the giant screen for our train’s platform number. That was simple enough.
We then followed the signs to our platform. One of the considerations for taking the train was having to handle our own luggage. We had this in mind when we chose our luggage. Kevin and I each had 1 large suitcase on wheels and 1 backpack. We found this very manageable! Really, we only had to walk a little ways, go down an escalator, and walk a little more. When we got to our platform, we could see we were going to be standing until boarding the train. It was getting close to Chinese New Year, so the trains were packed.
FULL waiting area with some people even sleeping
Here you can see the blue & red/pink signs with arrows
We waited about 15-20 minutes and then heard something in Mandarin over the speaker and saw everyone moving. We got right in line and boarded the train with our luggage, no shoving involved! We had all bought business class seats and it was SO nice!
Our seats were at the very end of the train, facing backward. I was concerned this might cause some motion sickness issues for me, so I put on my Sea Bands, but it turned out to be no problem at all.
PLENTY of room for our luggage right in front of us. No need to put our luggage with everyone else’s and then worry it would be taken.
This seat was behind mine. A man slept in it the whole way, alternating between coughing, snorting, and snoring. It was slightly comical. Kevin had a single occupied seat behind him. The rest of our group was in the very next car.
Seat reclined slightly. I could have reclined it more.
I didn’t take these out to see what they were, but one of the families said their son played games on one of them. There was a different one on each side of my seat.
Slippers, anyone?
The contents of my goodie bag. I ate the Oreo. I can’t remember if I tried anything else or not.
Kevin and I both enjoyed seeing the countryside through the pollution haze. The ride was so smooth and quiet (other than Mr. Snore behind me). I would so travel this way again, if given the option! This train went up to 300 kilometers per hour. Each time a stop was coming, a pre-recorded message played over the speaker in a few languages, including English, to let you know which stop was coming. We watched our list of stops and knew right when to get off the train. We took a ton of pics of anything that looked interesting, so I will just share some of them here.
The train tracks
Stopped at a station, looking at the train next to ours
I took some short video. I turned my phone during the video, so the picture goes sideways. Sorry! My nice brother is going to fix it for me soon.
Our first views of Zhengzhou
Pulling in to the Zhengzhou train station. We hopped out of our seats and stood at the door with our luggage. No way were we going to miss getting off at our stop!
Here’s where we got off the train. We just followed the signs to the taxi line.
We watched the other families ahead of us get right into taxis without a hitch. When it was our turn, we handed the driver our note. He looked at it and shook his head no. Yikes! We were a little unsure what to do but figured out to just move on to the next driver in line. He read the note and motioned for us to put our luggage in the trunk. Well, the trunk was rather full of junk, so our suitcases barely fit in and we could not close it! Oh my goodness! We watched the hatch flop up and down the whole way to the hotel, half expecting to see a piece of luggage go flying! Luckily, it all stayed in and eventually we made it to the hotel. It takes longer to go anywhere in China with the huge population.
Do I look scared?!
