Spin Cycle

There are days when it seems like a learning curve is so steep it curls upon itself and lands you back to where you started. There were two things I wanted to accomplish today -- procuring a ticket to Xi'an and looking into the possibility of sending my bike back to Shanghai

I packed up the bike carefully and properly into the suitcase and went down to the hotel reception to ask them to write me a note in Chinese to hand to the post office. I prebooked a hotel in Shanghai so I had an address to send it to. I also asked them to write a note for the hotel manager. It is fascinating to someone watch someone compose and write in Chinese.

I marched off to the post office and for some reason I didn't understand then, they refused to take the suitcase. Puzzled, I went in seach for the DHL office mentioned in my guide book but could not find it even after walking around the block where it was supposed to be a couple of times. Frustrated, I headed back to the hotel and they were helpful enough to call a courrier service that they use. The courier representative arrived 3 hours later and inspected the suitcase, and after a few calls to his office the big picture was made clear to me: the government has prohibited the shipping of large unofficial packages to Shanghai for security reasons associated with Expo 2010. I could ship the bike to anywhere in China, just not to Shanghai until the end of the month when the world's fair closes. Grrr.

So I am commited to taking this bike along for the rest of the trip. Maybe it's not such a bad thing. I've only cycled in China's biggest cities so far, maybe the smaller places will be different. The problems I face though, is that the suitcase did not fit under the last train's sleeper compartment, and getteing through a crushing crowd with it takes a bit of effort. I'll live.

I went to the train station ticketing area and studied the LED boards to see if I could figure out the information they were displaying. After slowly comparing the characters mentioned in my guidebook, I deduced that it was a table of available tickets for trips leaving the station for the next few days. Train tickets only go on sale about 10 days before a departure, leading to the mad rush when they become available. Tickets are cash only and you have to buy them yourself or get a travel agency to do it for you for a commission fee. There are 5 types of tickets you can get: a soft sleeper, a hard sleeper, a soft seat, a hard seat, and no seat (which I gather you can upgrade once you are on the train). While I was proud of myself that I finally figured out the system, I was dismayed to see zeroes under the following days of departure for the train I wanted to take.

In most of the train stations in large cities there usually is a ticket booth manned by a person who can speak some english. I lined up in one and told the guy I wanted a ticket to Xi'an and I had wanted to leave tomorrow. For some strange reason there was a spot available. When I asked him why the boards said there were no places left, I think I reached the limits of English skills and he could not explan.

I was happy that I got the ticket and my schedule can get going as I planned, but the day was wasted on the run around.