The situation is as follows: we know tickets are only available 5 days in advance, so we went on monday to get tickets for saturday. We also know there are about 10 trains daily between Shanghai and Xi'An, each of them easily carrying over 1000 people.
We aim to leave on Saturday, but in case we by then still don't have our Iranian visa (see other entry), we'd take a train on monday.
A reconstruction of the events at the Shanghai station ticket counter:
Hanna> We would like to buy a ticket to Xi'An, please.
Clerk> When? Today?
Hanna> No, on saturday 9th August. We'd like to take the fast train at 16:30, and book two sleepers.
Clerk> Sorry, no have. Only slow train. 20 hours. You want?
Hanna> Is it possible to get the ticket refunded if we would like to change our departure date?
Clerk> No.
Hanna> Well... we will take it on another day then. What about monday 11th august?
Clerk> Sorry, only can booking 5 days advance. You must return the day after tomorrow.
Hanna> Ok. Is it fine if we come here around 5pm?
Clerk> No, no. One hour, everything sold out. Gone.
So we learned that getting on a Chinese long-distance train is best compared to trying to buy concert tickets for a very popular rock band: there are over 10000 tickets available, but actually getting one mainly depends on your luck of getting through the overburdened telephone network.
Hanna> We would like to buy a ticket to Xi'An, please.
Clerk> When? Today?
Hanna> No, on saturday 9th August. We'd like to take the fast train at 16:30, and book two sleepers.
Clerk> Sorry, no have. Only slow train. 20 hours. You want?
Hanna> Is it possible to get the ticket refunded if we would like to change our departure date?
Clerk> No.
Hanna> Well... we will take it on another day then. What about monday 11th august?
Clerk> Sorry, only can booking 5 days advance. You must return the day after tomorrow.
Hanna> Ok. Is it fine if we come here around 5pm?
Clerk> No, no. One hour, everything sold out. Gone.
So we learned that getting on a Chinese long-distance train is best compared to trying to buy concert tickets for a very popular rock band: there are over 10000 tickets available, but actually getting one mainly depends on your luck of getting through the overburdened telephone network.
Just imagine: 10000 tickets, gone within an hour! Every day!
1 comment:
yes. it sounds crazy but that's normal in such a big country with such a huge population. i know it's particularly difficult to get the train tickets from Shanghai to Xi'an or some citys of Sichuan province.
__it's annie from JIANGNAN SITE OFFICE
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