What is this line? What am I doing here?
Today was very much like something out of Kafka's "The Trial" (funny, I think I have said that about several days). Tomorrow I am leaving first thing in the morning for Lijiang (will explain more later) and then when I get back I only have a day before Kurt arrives in Beijing, so I had a lot to do today. I avoided going outside yesterday because it looked like it was the apocalypse. Everything was covered in a layer of dirt and the pollution was so foul. I don't want that crap in my lungs. I had nothing I had to do, so I stayed inside. Today I had to leave the apartment, even though it looked pretty much the same.
I went to the Tourist Office that is several blocks away to buy train tickets. I knew this might be a bit tricky since I needed tickets from Shanghai to Beijing and it is harder to buy when you are not in the originating city. Anyway, I asked this one guy and he didn't really speak English, but he tried and told me the train was sold out. I know it's May Break (all of China has off for this week . . . hell), but I thought there would still be soft sleepers. Then another woman came in and he told her to talk to me. Her English was much better so she took me to the ticket window. I kept saying FROM Shanghai TO Beijing. Stupidly I did not say it in Chinese, which might have saved me from wasting my entire day. I kept telling her because I wanted to be absolutely clear that I wanted tickets from Shanghai, NOT from Beijing. So everything seems cool, I pay the 1008 kuai ($126) and she hands me two tickets. Lucky for me two of the handful of characters I can read area the characters for Beijing and Shanghai, since I have taken this train before. I looked at the tickets and they were from Beijing to Shanghai. I told her it was incorrect and she apologized and told me that she thought I said FROM Beijing TO Shanghai. Now I realize I am in their country and I should learn their language, so in a way I can't be all that upset, but I am. She obviously understood what "from" and "to" meant, so I don't understand how she confused what I was telling her so clearly and then switched the places!
So then I am like, whatever, they can just rip it up and issue me a new one. Well she tells me "Sorry, we can only issue tickets here, we cannot exchange or refund them." I got really pissed and tried to argue and fight for my money back for around fifteen minutes with no progress. She told me that I had to go to the train station and refund my ticket and buy a new one because they do not do exchanges. I thought that maybe this was some sort of procedure that they tell you but you can work around. So I told her that I was leaving tonight and did not have time to go to the train station, which is almost true, I am leaving tomorrow morning. That didn't do anything. Then she told me that it wasn't far, and I could take a bus to the train station. I have not taken the buses here and was not about to get lost on one today. So she wrote the name of the train station in characters for me and I caught a taxi. I was beyond pissed off at this point that I had to go to the train station for this woman's mistake. I wasn't as stressed though because I had been to the train station before and I remembered seeing a "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign.
I got to the train station and went directly to the sign and followed the arrow. The arrow led me to a wall. I looked left and right and there were only waiting rooms. I turned around and went to the "help" desk. The woman(#1) did not speak English, so I just showed her my ticket and then whatever the woman at the Tourist Office wrote down for me to show them. We were not getting anywhere, so I pointed to the "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign to see if she would show me where it was. Someone would surely speak English at the "Ticket Office for Foreigners." She called someone on her walkie talkie and another woman(#2) came to get me and walked me back toward the sign. I figured I was getting somewhere and she would show me this office. Nope. She walked over to another woman(#3) at the entrance of a waiting room, said something and then woman#3 told me in English, "Outside and to the left." So I walked back outside, in the complete opposite direction of this "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign. I went to the left where I saw a bunch of "ticket" windows. I went to the only one that had anything in English thinking, they would be the ones that spoke English.
An important thing to know about China (or at least Beijing) is that there are massive lines, but standing in the back of the line will get you nowhere. People just cut to the front and push, so if you want to get anything you have to do the same, and don't even think of trying to keep your own personal space around you because some little Chinese man will think it's an invitation to stand right in front of you and bring his five friends.
Anyway, I go to the window and after having two people cut in front of me, I pushed my way to the front. I gave the woman(#4) at the window my tickets and the sheet of paper explaining I wanted tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. She did not speak much English but she said something about 20%. This did not sound cool at all. Then she pointed for me to follow her to another window (she went through the back, being that she was behind the window, and I had to try to keep an eye on where she was going while trying to navigate between a ton of people in other lines). Three windows over I get to a woman(#5) who speaks English. Success! Or so I thought. She told me that if I refunded the ticket, they keep 20%. I was soooo pissed off. I tried to explain to her that I had just bought it and that the woman who sold it to me made a mistake. She wasn't really listening. Then she told me "1" and pointed. I walked away and looked for a number 1. I was at ticket window 36 or something and the numbers were only going higher in the direction she was pointing. I was utterly confused. I went back to her then she said "Ticket Hall! Ticket Hall!" So where the hell was I?!?!?!
I kept walking as the numbers increased and saw a sign that said "Ticket Hall." I walked in and it was under construction a bunch of Chinese construction workers started to yell at me. So I left and kept walking until I saw another sign for "Ticket Hall" that was in another building next to the train station. I walked in and it was much less crowded. I found window 1 and did the same thing I did at the other ticket windows. The woman(#6) said 20% again and I tried again to explain to her why I didn't think I should have to pay it. At this point though, I just wanted money back, whether it was 80% or not, I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Then she wrote down "25" on my piece of paper and pointed. Notice a trend?
I walked over to ticket window 25, but it was closed, however 26 was open and there were a bunch of people crowding around it. No semblance of a line whatsoever. So I tried to start squishing in and about six or seven Chinese guys were staring at my tickets in my hand trying to see what they said. I was in no mood to deal with anyone giving me funny looks, so I hid my tickets. Maybe they have x-ray vision, I don't know, but they kept trying to look. The best is that when I tried to listen to them and didn't understand I would say, "Ting bu dong" which means "I don't understand." The best part is they all laugh. They thing it's the funniest thing in the world when you said you don't understand. I know Americans get a lot of crap talked about them, but I have never laughed at someone to their face because they didn't understand or because they didn't speak English. It is really frustrating.
While standing in this mob, I watched what everyone was doing and tried to figure it out. I figured this was the refund window because people were giving tickets to the guy(#7) behind the window and he was giving them money back. I also noticed that the person who went next in line was the person whose hand made it to the little window to give their tickets. I probably have longer arms than others, so I joined in and pushed my way until I got my hand to the window. I put in my tickets and the paper and the guy showed me his screen. It had the numbers in this order on it: 499, 100, 399. I figured, each ticket was 499, and 20% of that is 100, so 399 . . . ok. I get it, I guess. But he just kept yelling this number and pointing to 399. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if he was telling me I would get that amount back or what. I tried to motion "Sure, ok" but he was not taking money out to give to me. Out of nowhere the mob behind me multiplied ten fold and all these people were yelling "Si bai ar! Si bai ar! Si bai ar!" Which is 402 . . . I think. But what the hell did that have to do with anything?!?!?! The guy put the tickets back into the window and I moved out of the way. At this point I was at my end. All of these Chinese guys (the same ones who laughed at me before) were coming up to me and showing me money and wanted to see my tickets. I guess they were scalpers? Since I don't know China's laws, I did not want to get busted and have some cop see me sell my tickets and then throw me in prison.
I walked away and called Alex because I was at a total loss. I had just spoken to seven different people and no one was helping me out. I was even willing to take only 80% back and I couldn't even do that. I totally broke down on the phone and was crying. This little Chinese boy was watching me the entire time too. Alex told me to call MCK because his Chinese is really good. So I called MCK luckily I caught him while he was on a bus not too far away. He said he would be there in 20 minutes to help me out. In the meantime I figured I would try going to another window to see if anyone spoke English. I did not want to make MCK go out of his way to help me with this insanity. I went to this woman(#8) and as usual, she told me to go to window 25. I looked over there and the line had grown so much. It was actually a line now, but there was still a mob at the front. I was tempted to go right to the front but what was that going to do? I went to the back and figured I would wait there until MCK came. The the group of Chinese scalpers came back and they even multiplied! There were so many of them. At this point I figured I was somewhat "hidden" and I think I managed to decipher that they were telling me I would only get back 402 per ticket from the refund man. So then this random guy showed me 820, I took it, gave him my tickets and walked out. I was so sick of it.
I tried texting MCK to tell him he didn't have to come, but he was less than ten minutes away. It is a good thing too because I am not sure that I would have been able to buy the correct tickets. He came, we went to a ticket booth and did all of the talking and I now have two tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. It was pure insanity and I have a massive headache now. The combination of horrible pollution, bureaucracy and too many jelly beans has sent me for a spin. I just want to sleep.
I went to the Tourist Office that is several blocks away to buy train tickets. I knew this might be a bit tricky since I needed tickets from Shanghai to Beijing and it is harder to buy when you are not in the originating city. Anyway, I asked this one guy and he didn't really speak English, but he tried and told me the train was sold out. I know it's May Break (all of China has off for this week . . . hell), but I thought there would still be soft sleepers. Then another woman came in and he told her to talk to me. Her English was much better so she took me to the ticket window. I kept saying FROM Shanghai TO Beijing. Stupidly I did not say it in Chinese, which might have saved me from wasting my entire day. I kept telling her because I wanted to be absolutely clear that I wanted tickets from Shanghai, NOT from Beijing. So everything seems cool, I pay the 1008 kuai ($126) and she hands me two tickets. Lucky for me two of the handful of characters I can read area the characters for Beijing and Shanghai, since I have taken this train before. I looked at the tickets and they were from Beijing to Shanghai. I told her it was incorrect and she apologized and told me that she thought I said FROM Beijing TO Shanghai. Now I realize I am in their country and I should learn their language, so in a way I can't be all that upset, but I am. She obviously understood what "from" and "to" meant, so I don't understand how she confused what I was telling her so clearly and then switched the places!
So then I am like, whatever, they can just rip it up and issue me a new one. Well she tells me "Sorry, we can only issue tickets here, we cannot exchange or refund them." I got really pissed and tried to argue and fight for my money back for around fifteen minutes with no progress. She told me that I had to go to the train station and refund my ticket and buy a new one because they do not do exchanges. I thought that maybe this was some sort of procedure that they tell you but you can work around. So I told her that I was leaving tonight and did not have time to go to the train station, which is almost true, I am leaving tomorrow morning. That didn't do anything. Then she told me that it wasn't far, and I could take a bus to the train station. I have not taken the buses here and was not about to get lost on one today. So she wrote the name of the train station in characters for me and I caught a taxi. I was beyond pissed off at this point that I had to go to the train station for this woman's mistake. I wasn't as stressed though because I had been to the train station before and I remembered seeing a "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign.
I got to the train station and went directly to the sign and followed the arrow. The arrow led me to a wall. I looked left and right and there were only waiting rooms. I turned around and went to the "help" desk. The woman(#1) did not speak English, so I just showed her my ticket and then whatever the woman at the Tourist Office wrote down for me to show them. We were not getting anywhere, so I pointed to the "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign to see if she would show me where it was. Someone would surely speak English at the "Ticket Office for Foreigners." She called someone on her walkie talkie and another woman(#2) came to get me and walked me back toward the sign. I figured I was getting somewhere and she would show me this office. Nope. She walked over to another woman(#3) at the entrance of a waiting room, said something and then woman#3 told me in English, "Outside and to the left." So I walked back outside, in the complete opposite direction of this "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign. I went to the left where I saw a bunch of "ticket" windows. I went to the only one that had anything in English thinking, they would be the ones that spoke English.
An important thing to know about China (or at least Beijing) is that there are massive lines, but standing in the back of the line will get you nowhere. People just cut to the front and push, so if you want to get anything you have to do the same, and don't even think of trying to keep your own personal space around you because some little Chinese man will think it's an invitation to stand right in front of you and bring his five friends.
Anyway, I go to the window and after having two people cut in front of me, I pushed my way to the front. I gave the woman(#4) at the window my tickets and the sheet of paper explaining I wanted tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. She did not speak much English but she said something about 20%. This did not sound cool at all. Then she pointed for me to follow her to another window (she went through the back, being that she was behind the window, and I had to try to keep an eye on where she was going while trying to navigate between a ton of people in other lines). Three windows over I get to a woman(#5) who speaks English. Success! Or so I thought. She told me that if I refunded the ticket, they keep 20%. I was soooo pissed off. I tried to explain to her that I had just bought it and that the woman who sold it to me made a mistake. She wasn't really listening. Then she told me "1" and pointed. I walked away and looked for a number 1. I was at ticket window 36 or something and the numbers were only going higher in the direction she was pointing. I was utterly confused. I went back to her then she said "Ticket Hall! Ticket Hall!" So where the hell was I?!?!?!
I kept walking as the numbers increased and saw a sign that said "Ticket Hall." I walked in and it was under construction a bunch of Chinese construction workers started to yell at me. So I left and kept walking until I saw another sign for "Ticket Hall" that was in another building next to the train station. I walked in and it was much less crowded. I found window 1 and did the same thing I did at the other ticket windows. The woman(#6) said 20% again and I tried again to explain to her why I didn't think I should have to pay it. At this point though, I just wanted money back, whether it was 80% or not, I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Then she wrote down "25" on my piece of paper and pointed. Notice a trend?
I walked over to ticket window 25, but it was closed, however 26 was open and there were a bunch of people crowding around it. No semblance of a line whatsoever. So I tried to start squishing in and about six or seven Chinese guys were staring at my tickets in my hand trying to see what they said. I was in no mood to deal with anyone giving me funny looks, so I hid my tickets. Maybe they have x-ray vision, I don't know, but they kept trying to look. The best is that when I tried to listen to them and didn't understand I would say, "Ting bu dong" which means "I don't understand." The best part is they all laugh. They thing it's the funniest thing in the world when you said you don't understand. I know Americans get a lot of crap talked about them, but I have never laughed at someone to their face because they didn't understand or because they didn't speak English. It is really frustrating.
While standing in this mob, I watched what everyone was doing and tried to figure it out. I figured this was the refund window because people were giving tickets to the guy(#7) behind the window and he was giving them money back. I also noticed that the person who went next in line was the person whose hand made it to the little window to give their tickets. I probably have longer arms than others, so I joined in and pushed my way until I got my hand to the window. I put in my tickets and the paper and the guy showed me his screen. It had the numbers in this order on it: 499, 100, 399. I figured, each ticket was 499, and 20% of that is 100, so 399 . . . ok. I get it, I guess. But he just kept yelling this number and pointing to 399. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if he was telling me I would get that amount back or what. I tried to motion "Sure, ok" but he was not taking money out to give to me. Out of nowhere the mob behind me multiplied ten fold and all these people were yelling "Si bai ar! Si bai ar! Si bai ar!" Which is 402 . . . I think. But what the hell did that have to do with anything?!?!?! The guy put the tickets back into the window and I moved out of the way. At this point I was at my end. All of these Chinese guys (the same ones who laughed at me before) were coming up to me and showing me money and wanted to see my tickets. I guess they were scalpers? Since I don't know China's laws, I did not want to get busted and have some cop see me sell my tickets and then throw me in prison.
I walked away and called Alex because I was at a total loss. I had just spoken to seven different people and no one was helping me out. I was even willing to take only 80% back and I couldn't even do that. I totally broke down on the phone and was crying. This little Chinese boy was watching me the entire time too. Alex told me to call MCK because his Chinese is really good. So I called MCK luckily I caught him while he was on a bus not too far away. He said he would be there in 20 minutes to help me out. In the meantime I figured I would try going to another window to see if anyone spoke English. I did not want to make MCK go out of his way to help me with this insanity. I went to this woman(#8) and as usual, she told me to go to window 25. I looked over there and the line had grown so much. It was actually a line now, but there was still a mob at the front. I was tempted to go right to the front but what was that going to do? I went to the back and figured I would wait there until MCK came. The the group of Chinese scalpers came back and they even multiplied! There were so many of them. At this point I figured I was somewhat "hidden" and I think I managed to decipher that they were telling me I would only get back 402 per ticket from the refund man. So then this random guy showed me 820, I took it, gave him my tickets and walked out. I was so sick of it.
I tried texting MCK to tell him he didn't have to come, but he was less than ten minutes away. It is a good thing too because I am not sure that I would have been able to buy the correct tickets. He came, we went to a ticket booth and did all of the talking and I now have two tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. It was pure insanity and I have a massive headache now. The combination of horrible pollution, bureaucracy and too many jelly beans has sent me for a spin. I just want to sleep.
posted by Ramune at
4/18/2006 07:25:00 PM
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