Changsha, Hunnan, China

At Guilin train station we queued with hundreds of others in one of the 12 or so queues (30 people per queue) for a train ticket. We usually write the destination, train number and departure time on a piece of paper and give it to the cashier as most don't speak English. We can go online and find the details before we get to the station. Sometimes someone who speaks English will offer us some help. As we neared the front of the queue people began to push in from each side of us. John tapped them on the shoulder and with a smile signalled them to the back of the queue. They obeyed him and the Chinese people in front of us were grateful but not willing to do it!

The train was a 4 hour trip to Wuhan - China's 5th largest city with a population of 4.75 million-the world's 25th largest city!

There was miles and miles of agricultural land- rice, duck farms, fish farms, and this yellow vegetable-like a broccoli gone to seed. It was so welcoming in a grey gloomy day!

There are no classes on the trains but there are soft seats and hard seats. The cashier informed us that there were no soft seats so we went by the cheaper hard seat option. At first we thought it might be like the wooden bench seats we had used in India in our younger backpacking days but they were pretty comfortable- 2 seats facing 2 other seats with a small fixed table between.

We were seated next to an elderly couple- he 68 and she 65. They didn't speak any English but we were able to chat with the use of sign language and a few words from our phrase book. We never saw any other westerners on the train at all.


This baby was so rugged up he looked so cute. He had a split in the crotch of his pants and mum just lifts him up and he gos to the toilet in the train aisle- no nappies to wash! We have to be careful where we put our bags, or sit because of this habit and many people also like to cough and spit anywhere too.

Parents love to point us out to the children and teach them to wave and say hello. If schoolchildren see us they also say hello and when you say hello back the whole groups bursts into laughter- they think it is absolutely hilarious and cannot say anything else in English.
A puzzle seller. A seller of lights to detect counterfeit notes.


On the train are sales people who wear a railway uniform and work for the railways but they sell cheap novelties and nicknacks and the commission from the sales goes to the railway. It is amusing to watch even though it is all in Chinese.

This guy sold dynamo torches and later came back with socks.


After 4 hours we took a bus for another 4 hours to Changsha to break the journey and spend the night. Here we stayed in an apartment which we booked through www.hostelworld.com - the city Public Security Bureau has blocked the development of budget accommodation-so we didn't have many choices for cheap places to stay.