Train to Chengdu
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 16 May 2018 22:57
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Train Journey from Xi’an to
Chengdu
 After our tandem ride around the city
wall, we raced back to our digs, quick shower and off to Chengdu on the train.
On the way we still cannot believe the numbers of blocks of
flats in such a small area.
  By the station a huge new build and outside a floral
prize-winner.
 Xi’an
Station was massive and very new-looking.
  Our
ticket, at first glance looked pretty busy. Top right A23 refers to the
platform, the station has thirty-four platforms, sixteen island platforms and
two side platforms, the largest in northwest China. Back to our ticket, G1975 is
the train number. Xi’anbei to Chendudong is the route, followed by the date and
the price of 397 Yuan or about forty-six pounds for first-class. We had been
warned away from any other class as being incredibly uncomfortable, very noisy
and the price difference not a huge amount. Below is some of my Passport number
and name on the right, the rest is beyond us. We saw a long queue at the middle
doors, so we walked to the far end and found no one before us. Airport-type security for all baggage and an xray machine
for passengers.
   Incredibly
glitzy as we went in search of A23. The station opened in January 2011,
it looks as good as new.
  I left Bear and bimbled over to the
electronic train listing. Looking at the queue at the middle door, so pleased we cam in at the other
end.
 Looking back toward Bear with our yellow cases.
  We found seats and watched the world
go by as we had about an hour to wait. The left picture shows A23 and A22. There is a matching pair on the other side of
the station called B23 and B22 for the rear of trains coming in. The guard
looked quite severe. Queues formed as the train was called fifteen minutes
before it was due in, as the train arrived people used the machines to read
their ticket or show the guard. Ten minutes and the queue efficiently
disappeared down the stairs or the escalator. A few minutes before the train was
due to leave the electronic gates automatically locked. The lady sitting on the
floor came running in and begged the guard to let her through but no, the gates
cannot be unlocked, so she slumped down and stayed
there for ages, out of breath, fed up and soon on her mobile, the other lady
waiting for our train, quietly ate her late lunch.
  We waited until everyone near us
moved, through the machine, down the escalator and down to our
train.
 Sexy
enough, but nowhere as sexy as the bullet ladies in Japan.
 Settled in our incredibly hard seats,
it was weird to see such a deserted set of
platforms.
The Xi’an to Chengdu
high-speed railway is a dual-track, electrified, high-speed rail line which
commenced service last December. The 510-kilometre journey is through Shaanxi
and Sichuan Provinces, connecting the two province capitals in less than three
hours (the previous train journey took around sixteen hours). Construction began
in 2010 and runs parallel to the old line through the rugged Qin and Daba
Mountains. We have never been on a train journey that spends so much time in
tunnels – 127-kilometres of tunnels – six of them longer than 10 kilometres. The
scenery goes from city to countryside and back to city taking in farmland,
connecting the Ghanzhong Plains with the Sichuan
Basin.
  Soon in the outskirts of Xi’an, quite pretty and very
tidy.
 Out to farmland and several tunnels.
 Oh, a
digger in a river.
    Bear settled to finishing his birthday cake. We were given a tiny snack box with the choice of water or still lemon.
No doors were closed and we could see all through the
train, not great for noise transfer. The stewards a short distance behind us
sounded like they were having a party and we were both thrilled when our opposite neighbour went to sleep, she spent the first
hour shouting into her mobile – bring us back to Japan where you are only
allowed to text.......but her snores harmonised in duet with a very loud man in
front of us.
  This journey has been
seen us spend more time in tunnels than any other journey, no sooner than the
scenery became pretty with mountains than we were shooting at high speed through
a tunnel entrance, certainly made our ears smart a
bit.
We knew as soon as we were closing in on Chengdu when the closely grouped blocks of flats came into view.
OH MY. But this is a city of thirty-three million, they have to live somewhere..............
After about twenty minutes in a taxi, it was a bit disconcerting when we ended up going down several skinny streets of dubious nature with so many tiny shops and eateries, then we pulled off down down a slope, up a ramp and there we were in front of a fancy building. The entrance was very shiny, reception where nary a smile was seen, ahead a bar and where we were told breakfast would be served in the morning.
Clearly, in a city famous for its monochrome bears. Up to the 9th floor.
Beds was certainly ready to settle to sleep – so were we.
ALL IN ALL VERY NOISY COMPARED TO JAPAN REMARKABLE ENGINEERING, PITY THE SEATS WERE SO HARD |
