Thirty Hours on a Train
We left Beijing for Chengdu on a thirty hour train. This was only my second experience on a train; the first being the ride from Vancouver, WA to Vancouver, BC at the beginning of the trip. We bought berths in “soft sleepers”. These are four sleeping berths to a cabin, with an actual door. We ended up rooming with a couple of University students on their way home for a break, and one of them spoke fairly good English. He and Rob talked quite a bit for the first few hours while his friend watched anime on his computer. I hung out on my top bunk and read (I adore my nook!). It was a long trip, but the space was comfortable, and we’d brought plenty of food, so it wasn’t bad at all. Some of the ride was through the mountains in the Sichuan province and that part was gorgeous. I took a few pictures out the window.