August 7-8, Shenzhen to Beijing (via Tianjin and a sketchy night taxi)
I left Shenzhen by train on Sunday night. Despite the immense shortage of sleeper tickets for trains to the north, I was able to buy a hard sleeper to Tianjin. Fortunately Tianjin is only about an hour and a half from Beijing by road. It’s by far the best option when transport directly to the capital is fully booked.
The train journey was long, uneventful and uncomfortable. I had a hard bed (which isn’t really so hard, just like a normal mattress) up on the top level. This is always a good choice for foreigners because it gives people less chance to stare. On the downside there’s not much room between the bed and the ceiling, so it can get quite cramped on a long trip. I spent the next 28 hours sleeping, eating, reading e-books on my iPhone (thank goodness I’d downloaded some new ones before getting on the train!) and making frequent trips to the bathroom to stretch my legs.
The train arrived in Tianjin late on Monday night, at least two hours later than anticipated, at 23.30. This meant that I’d missed the bullet train I’d planned to catch to Beijing.
The last train of the day.
As I was sitting down to consider my options, a man came up to me shouting, ‘Beijing’, ‘Beijing!’
He was running a shared taxi service between Tianjin and Beijing. I waited for the taxi to fill up (4 people is the optimum number to get the cheapest price per person), but it was hard to find 3 more passengers for Beijing at that late hour. Time was passing by and i was getting fed up with waiting. In the end, one Chinese guy and I shared the taxi to Beijing for 150 yuan each (around £15).
The drive to Beijing started off tame and became hair-raising. The taxi driver had started yawning massively as he weaved in and out of slow-moving lorries on the downhill stretch of highway towards Beijing. At the toll gate, he swore, ‘cao ni ma!’ (fuck your mother) at a lorry who cut him up in the queue. The lorry was clearly in the wrong and the swearing was completely justified.
After paying the driver and grabbing my suitcase I took a local taxi to Portia’s apartment building. The driver had no idea how to find the place and drove around aimlessly while I tried to take directions from Portia on the phone. Finally arrived exhausted but in fairly good humour and all in one piece at around 2am.
