Hangzhou (CICAF)

Today is an exciting day again.

I went to Meilong Railway Station, which is next to the Jinjiang Park Metro Station, for my train ride to Hangzhou. The station was really horribly small, and you’ll be forgiven to mistake it for something else. Anyway, the fun part was that when a train pulled over, the station staffs opened the gates, and as expected a swarm of people rushed towards the train. I went onboard, only to find that the train was such an old one with hard seats that felt really hard. I was already wondering what’s wrong with the train, and seeing that it was running so slowly, I kind think that something is amiss. So I asked the train master where the train is heading. Apparently that train is heading towards Jiashan – I was left speechless, for the simple fact that it wasn’t going to Hangzhou! I was on a wrong train! The good thing was that the train master calmed me down by saying I can get off at Songjiang and catch the original train from there, cos the train that I should have been on would stop by Songjiang. Then I continued to ask:

Me: “When would the train stop at Songjiang?”
Him: “No idea – the train is already late, so I can’t really tell you.”
Me: “Then how long would it normally take to get to Songjiang from here?”
Him: “Quick. But today the train is already late, so I can’t really tell you.”
Me: “Would I really be able to catch the other train?”
Him: “Normally you would be, but the today the train is already late, so I can’t really tell you.”
Me: “So…”
Him: “Be prepared to miss that train.”
Me: “…”

That said, this wrong train was still an experience. The seats were hard, there is no air-conditioning unlike most of the other trains that I was on, there is no food and drinks available, it was horrible slow… I could go on forever. But I wasn’t feeling bitter about being on a wrong train. In fact, I was kinda happy – I mean, what chance is there to take a wrong train in China? Besides, it was really an eye-opener. In any case, when the train pulled over at Songjiang, I rushed towards the station master and asked if the Hangzhou-bound train has arrived or not.

Me: “Has this train left the station?”
Her: “Don’t worry young man, the train is late so you’re still early. But how come you are here taking the train? Shouldn’t you be taking it in Shanghai?”
Me: “I got on the wrong train.”
Her: “How can that be possible? The train you are supposed to be on is a brand new train but the one you took to get here was so horribly old!”
Me: “Well, that train arrived at the time the new train is supposed to leave for Hangzhou so I thought that is the one. Besides I saw everyone getting on the train so I just followed.”
Her: “…”

So ultimately the Hangzhou-bound train was also late, so I was happily onboard the train and made my way to Hangzhou. Upon reaching Hangzhou, I went to the Peace Exhibition Hall for CICAF. The exhibition was very interesting – I saw a lot of fun stuffs and I’m way glad that I made the trip. The wrong train was worth it, considering that I almost wanted to head back to Shanghai after reaching Songjiang. I was looking to go to West Lake after the exhibition, but somehow ended up walking along the entire Yan’an Road. The place was buzzing with people and I think that was really the urban side of Hangzhou – lots of cars and lots of people. After Yan’an Road, I took a bus from Jiefang Road back to the train station. After the lesson learned in Beijing, I made darn sure that I arrived at the train station with ample time to boot. And it was just nice, when I arrived at the train station I had another half an hour to walk around and take my time getting onboard. So there you have it, me on my way back to Shanghai.

Would be posting the pictures on the website soon. And yup, I’ve finally conjured up enough determination to start building my site. Right now “Gallery > My Trips” is opened with pictures of my first Hangzhou trip and the pics from Shanghai to Beijing. I’ll slowly update this section with more pictures.