On that midnight train to Hong Kong...

The following content was written on a night train to Hong Kong. It was a grueling trip on a  crowded slow train. I didn't post right away because there's no internet connection on the train, though I should have thought to do it when I first got into the city, I didn't and the post has languished for a while:

I find myself on a train crossing southern China overnight. The temperature is low, though only by subtropical standards. I'm in shorts and a t-shirt because it was fairly warm when I left Chenzhou and two people have shown concern for my well being so far, one managing to choke out, in English, “Where are your clothes?” I've been surprised and delighted so far by how nice everyone is and how willing to help at every turn. A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk along the river that flows through Chenzhou and ended up on the north side of town in a n unfamiliar neighborhood. As I walked, I realized that there wasn't a main road that ran through the neighborhood and I had no idea how to get back to town. A man, apparently, walking home from work intercepted me and walked me back out to the river, crossing rail lines and walking through his neighbors' back gardens to get me there. I thought it was on his way the whole time until, upon reaching the road that ran beside the river, he waved goodbye and turned to head back to where we had first met.

I have no particular reason for writing this post except that I don't often take the time to write as things are happening. Tonight I decided to pull out my computer and put down thoughts in the midst of action, since I may not get another chance. I'm headed to Hong Kong Pride for the weekend, taking the overnight train to get there. I opted for the seats, not the sleeper in order to save money. It has been quite the experience, and not an entirely unpleasant one. The train has been conpletely full for the majority of the trip, though in these last couple of hours it has begun to empty out some. Most of the people around me slept for the majority of the trip, but I've been unable to do so, since the seat, while soft, do not recline at all.

When I arrived at the train station I was ushered towards a desk where I was asked to pay an additional 10 yuan over the ticket price so that I could be escorted to a small room filled with people in terribly comfortable chairs watching an American movie. I got to see about seven minutes of an aging Arnold Swartzeneggar apparently fighting more terminators before I was retrieved by the people who took my ten Yuan and sent out to the train platform to wait for twenty minutes on the train to arrive. When I boarded the train it appeared I had missed the party because most everyone was already passed out and the floor was covered with all manner of trash: snack food bags, candy wrappers, sunflower seed shells and what appeared to be a bedpan were among the plethora of discarded items. It looked as if the train company must not have been cleaned for months. As I soon discovered, however, they do a complete sweep of every car at every stop.

In any case, the trip has been exciting so far, though I am now quite cold. It's close to five AM, so hopefully it will start to warm as the sun comes up, though I think I'll be in Shenzhen before that happens. That this train's destination. A trip to Hong Kong is quite involved. If you're not familiar with the area (and I assume you're not), Shenzhen is the border town on the mainland side of the Hong Kong border. Twenty years ago there was nothing in this town, I'm not even sure there was a fishing village there, which is usually how these stories start in China. Then the Chinese government began to pour money into the town in anticipation of the handover of Hong Kong to China from Britain. And the town began to grow, continuing, of course, after the handover. Today, Shenzhen is a metropolis of about ten million, larger than Hong Kong itself. It is also one of the richest cities in China, perhaps even wealthier than Shanghai.

From Shenzhen, I will cross the international border (yes, Hong Kong is still considered an independent nation in most respects) into the Special Admistrative Region of Hong Kong, where I will then board the Hong Kong rail system and begin the final leg of the journey (about an hour and a half). The train will take me all the way to Kowloon, which is the peninsula that juts out into Victoria Harbor. From there, a bus will take me across the harbor via tunnel onto Hong Kong Island, where the actual city of Hong Kong lies. I've booked a hostel in the city just a few blocks from Victoria Park, where the pride parade will begin.

That's all I know at the moment. I'll try to stop to write as it all happens, but if not, I'll be writing another post on the return train. (I have a sleeper for that one.)