Taking the train from Hekou to Kunming

I think most people know that I'm geeky about trains. So it should come as no surprise that I was very excited about taking a train in China! It's not as simple as booking a train in Germany, as I had to find out. Wherever I checked, the websites selling tickets charged a commission fee of 3-6 EUR, and I was feeling a bit stingy to pay that much for a 12 EUR train ticket. I checked ahead of time and there was plenty of availability, so I figured I'd just buy the ticket at the station without any fees.

Well, it was a good plan on theory. The ticketing machines only had a Chinese language mode, so I had to go to the counter. The attendant was overwhelmed with me being there, and before I could even open my mouth called for backup. Backup didn't feel confident to speak to me either, though. Fortunately, the only other person in line with me turned out to be a school teacher with adequate English skills to communicate for me, seeing how they didn't feel confident enough to listen to or read anything that I presented them with.

There was a card payment terminal, which figured would be as good an opportunity as any to see if card payments would work here in China. It didn't, which caused my poor attendant to wail in frustration, and caused my teacher savior to dig in her wallet for cash to pay for my ticket.

Fortunately, I had prepared well, and was able to pay through Alipay, one of the Chinese super apps that completely control everyday life. When I showed him the app on my phone, they gave out a sigh of relief, and all was well.

After the completed purchase, I had to go through a security screening, bags separate from me, and I had to prove that the contents of my water bottle were safe to drink. Everybody was then gathered in a large hall in front of the check-in gates for the train, waiting for the gates to open. As a foreigner, I had to go through a manual gate, and my ticket QR code didn't work.

At that point, my passport had been checked a total of four times. That's when I realized that the ticket and my passport are connected in the system, and there was no longer a need for the ticket. All I needed was my passport.

In 2nd class, there are five seats across in the train, and everything is a bit narrower than I'm used to from European trains. The particular train I was one was a C class train, a high speed capable train of the third rank (after G and D trains). It had hot and warm water dispensers, clean toilets, power outlets, and an onboard magazine with English headlines but only Chinese text, haha. I would remain in the train for almost two hours, until my change to another train in Honghe.Baca lagi