Asian Invasion: Standing Room Only

Our return from Beijing happened to coincide with the Tomb Sweeping holiday here, so the train was packed beyond capacity and we were unable to purchase any tickets that included seats. Instead, we were left with tickets that guaranteed us arrival in Shanghai, but no seats for the 13 hour overnight journey. Chinese railways be damned!

We started off crammed in the aisle between seats on car 3 (a hard seat car). Our plan was to make our way to the dining car as quickly as possible and chill there until they kicked us out. Unfortunately, the Chinese railways were one step ahead of us. Knowing that the hard seat compartments would be crowded well past capacity, they locked the doors between hard seat cars and the sleeper cars (effectively sealing us in the 3rd class seating). Luckily, Phil's smooth talking got us entrance to the sleeper cars. We chilled in the dining car just chatting and celebrating Sara's birthday with a little cake until around midnight. At this point, we were kicked out of the dining car. We all spread out in the sleeper cars in a weak attempt to avoid being kicked back into the crowded hard seat compartment. This weak attempt did little good and I was rounded up by an attendant and booted back to where I belonged. Since I was stuck in the hard seat compartment (without a seat), I decided to make the best of things and struck up some friendly conversation with my neighbors. We ended up playing Chinese card games until 3:30am! It was a blast :) After some sweet card games and chatting, I ended up just lying down in between the seats and falling asleep. It was more comfortable than I expected...

Here are some pictures from the trip to Beijing (in reverse order):