“Ying Zuo” means “Hard Seat”. I was introduced to this term in a book called Coming Home Crazy, a collection of essays on China from the point of view of an American English teacher living there during the mid to late eighties. Now, to me China is pretty wild in 2007, but I can only imagine the insane picture of China twenty years ago that this book paints and when hearing similar stories confirmed by the locals here.

“Hard Seat” is the term for the cheapest tickets on the train, the most popular means of travel in China.   The Hard Seat used to be wooden upright benches bolted to the passenger seat.   Not too long ago, people also used to climb in through open windows and stand for the duration of the trip.   Oh my God.   To me, just having people sit like this for hours on end is a violation of human rights :-p but that’s the way it’s done.   Nowadays, the hard seat is at least slightly padded an a bit reclined, but it’s still too much for me…

Michael and I left Shenzhen for Guilin around 6pm due in for an arrival to Guilin around 10:30 the following morning. Thankfully, we didn’t go “hard seat”, but we did go “hard bunk” where there are 6 bunks per compartment, stacked three high, without enough room to sit up straight, at least for me. It’s a step up though; at least you get to lie down.

While the train isn’t moving, the bathrooms are locked, so before the train left, numerous parents took their kids out to platform, yanked their pants down, then squatted with them and let the go right there on the platform.

(l-r) Crowded train station, the train to Guilin, and bathroom time:

Now, I’ve been on many extremely physically demanding climbing trips that last for days in the North Cascades where we’re working hard for 12-14 hours a day and sleeping on the ground with no more than 2 feet of 1/2″ thick foam rubber. I swear I am usually much more tired when taking long train rides, long bus rides and sleeping on uncomfortable hotel beds. Well, this trip was no different. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so sleep deprived. This first night set the stage for my lack of sleep. I normally could have easily slept through the mysterious metal bar pounding outside the compartment, but the snoring, ah the snoring. I have such a hard time. What is it with Michaels and snoring. Hee hee. I probably got some solid sleep around 3am.

Here’s a view from the top of the “hard bunk”:

There’s no way I’m going to be taking the train from Guangzhou to Lhasa.