Public transport in China, particularly buses and trains, need a special mention due to the extraordinary amount of stress, discomfort and irritation they produce, together with the ability to push tourists to the edge of madness. People here have no concept of what queuing is or means so when the bus arrives we have quickly learned that it's every man, woman and child for him/herself.When it comes to trains, staff will only open one 2ft entrance or exit and squeeze 1500 people through it. It doesn't matter how early you get to the station, all waiting lounge seats are occupied and you'd think that 20 minutes would be more than adequate to board a sleeper train.....but not when half the population of China are boarding your train, with the entire contents of their house and the train is parked 2 miles away on a route that would put an army assault course to shame. It also seems that we are missing some sort of trend or have stumbled across a little known secret society as a large amount of people are carrying around big air con units!
On a plus point, some locals are friendly and although it can go either way on that front , I shared a sleeper train cabin with a very pleasant and educated couple who's son could speak a bit of English. They loved my Chinese mandarin speaking Blackberry - I used a language application to say "It was very nice to meet you!"
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