T3: 海口 → 三亚

January 26, 2025

The first time I had an inkling of the existence of Chunyun (the 40-day long Spring Festival travel season) was in December 2002.

As was my habit, I had taken the train to Beijing for the weekend. Since buying tickets could only be done for trains leaving from where you currently were, required going to a completely different part of the station, and locked me in to needing to get back to the station at a specific time, I didn't bother getting my Sunday return fare to Shijiazhuang on the Friday.

Arriving back at the train station at a reasonable time on Sunday afternoon, I expected things to go the way they had for my past eight or ten train trips from Beijing to Shijiazhuang. Stand in line, get to the window, say the name of the city where I was going, and stroll over to the waiting hall where—because Shijiazhuang is the second stop out of Beijing on the trunk line south—I would sit for as much as a 15 or even 20 minutes.

Achievement Unlocked, first time discarding a ratty t-shirt that was chosen specifically for it's discardability

Laobacha is the local coffee garden, and the orange lizard is a kind of chameleon that's also a tourism mascot

Once, I had a ticket seller who sold me a more expensive ticket for what would turn out to be a "soft seat" carriage instead of a "hard seat" one¹ and I had to wait nearly an hour for my train.

So, imagine how surprised I was to be made to wait three or four hours in order to get the next available standing room ticket.

Standing. On a four and a half hour train journey².

It was, shall we say, a very eye-opening experience.

However much it opened my eyes, fast forward 22 years to my buying a train ticket from Haikou back to Sanya during the middle of Chunyun, it didn't teach me anything.

Tomorrow's breakfast oatmeal (red date, walnut, sweet milk powder, and sweet soy milk powder)

Now, the only time I go to the ticket window is if I want a physical paper ticket as a souvenir; and I buy my tickets through a phone app that—even though it's still throwing errors regarding verifying my identity and, until it gets fixed, will lack some important functionality like QR codes for ticket check—lets me pick which seat I want.

However, I still hate the worry that I might not make it to the train station on time, and I wait until the last possible minute to buy a ticket.

Which, in this case, is after I'm already in a Didi on the way to the train station. And which, as recently as a week ago, would have been perfectly fine...

When was the last time you saw one of these TVs?

I'm thinking about two years for me, and I also didn't try turning it on that time

Instead, I'll end up waiting at the train station for over an hour (on a route that runs trains every 10 minutes) in order to get a standing ticket.

I hate standing. My bad leg gets really whingy. But I've got no choice. And, maybe it's all the walking or maybe it's the weight loss, but, by the time I've arrived in Sanya, it's barely even complaining at me.

Even with the not very carryable panniers slowing down my already slow walking speed and my turning the wrong direction when I left the tram station, I still don't understand how it is I don't arrive at Cucina Italia until it's gone on half four, but it means I don't have too long wait before they start prepping for dinner service and I can get to my bike.

Somebody, somewhere told this guy that Step One is "photo of the passport info," followed by giving them the key and slowly entering it into the computer on your own. I'm impressed

However, even after I came back downstairs to help, we still had a problem and I just used the provincial government's Haiyiban app instead

Ordering soft potato cheese dumplings with mint and basil from Daniele's home region of Sardinia, accompanied by a meatball dish that uses local black pigs and imported Australian Black Angus beef, I know the ice cream was free but I think I might have been charged for one of the glasses of Prosecco.

In any case, the amount that the bill comes to is still less than they saved me in storage costs. So, as far as I'm concerned, even though they're also getting a "Go Eat Here" video out of me, I came out ahead on the deal.

Then, pleasantly full, I book a very cheap hotel nearby in the half hope that I'll be able to Consumer Protection Law myself into someplace nicer. Only, the rejection (by the police) doesn't come until after I'm in the room, and this grinds my gears enough that I refuse to accept it.

First fibreglass police officer of the Tour

A calm, well-rested complaint is lots more fun than shouting at people until I get my way

Unfortunately for the police officers who—like most officers who have told the boss over the phone to get rid of me—refuse to show up to deal with my saying "someone needs to be taught a lesson," a formal complaint via the Municipal Services Complaint Hotline is an even harsher and longer lasting lesson.

¹ By this time, the only functional difference between the two categories was whether or not your train car had doilies and hot water thermoses at the tables.

² People would get multi-day standing tickets in order to go home for the holidays

³ Television Dust Quotient

Instead of Quotations from Famous Philosophers or Important Politicians, they've got koans on cycling. "When Riding on the Road, the Scenery in in Your Heart"

"A single rider can go faster, but a group of riders can go farther."

Today's ride: 2 km (1 miles)
Total: 816 km (507 miles)

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