Joyous Reunion

At long last, I arrived at Beijing Railway Station, the day before the eve of the Lunar Goat Year, February 17, 2015. I was expecting the traffic of people to congest the entrance to the station and be polluted by screams and shouts. To the first of my pleasant surprises, the crowd was cooperative and everyone could walk into the station in an orderly fashion. I was expecting to bump my way to get into the train. However, I did not experience any tiny bit of hassle. I realized that I have let precious knowledge decide that I should encounter similar experience as reported in the media about Chinese New Year travel in China. Without making this trip, I would not have dispelled my knowledge and substituted it with the real experience of traveling in the overcrowded Chinese world. I joined the hundreds of millions of locals in this eventful journey.  
 
I started the first leg. It was a 14 hour train journey from Beijing to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. To my pleasant second surprise, boarding began more than 45 minutes prior to departure time! This was unusual as normally it begins much closer to the departure. The carriage was fully occupied and so were the luggage racks. I had to push mine under the seat at the hint of one of the local passengers. People are going home to reunite with their families on this auspicious festive season. It is the celebration of the entire country. 

The people in my carriage were mostly family members of at least three traveling together. They were blue-collar workers and neatly dressed. They brought with them big bags of snacks that occupied the small table shared by six people. Noise and the festive spirit permeated the entire journey. Shouting across the carriage was a normal occurrence. Watching personal movies without headphones is tolerated. Spitting on the floor is a natural phenomenon. Meals were simply gigantic sized instant noodles in colorful packaging. After 14 hours, the floor of the train was carpeted with glittering litter of empty cans, distorted paper packages, smashed nutshells and dirty napkins of various sizes! The drowsy commuters woke up to the last day of the year of the horse and ushered their way out of the train in high spirits. I waited out to the hall of Nanchang Railway Station at 5 am and waited till 7.15 am for the second leg of my journey to connect to my final destination, Guixi, Nanchang district, Jiangxi Province. I arrived two hours later.

Despite the lack of sleep for the last 18 hours, I felt joyful. A little celebration had begun inside me. I was looking forward to be in a place with people who are culturally different from me. When the opportunity came to visit them, I did all I could to secure the train tickets. Indeed I was blessed to be able to buy tickets to my destination within a short time frame. There were many passengers who stood along the aisle waiting for others to leave their seats temporarily. One of the passengers waited patiently for his seat to be relinquished. Their eyes met and both smiled amicably to each other when the lady realized that the man standing near her was the owner of the seat. One husband gave up his seat so that his wife could rest in a sleeping position. Two young adults sat next to me and shared an entertainment program on iPad. The family of three sitting opposite me took turns to give up their seats so that the son and the father could sleep. I was touched by the humanity. 

Some passengers brought their own traveling stools but had to excuse themselves very frequently to free the aisle for walking passengers. They were willing to put up with the inconvenience just to catch that short moment of restfulness. The tolerance level of the Chinese is indeed remarkable. The family reunion is such a symbolic occasion in the Chinese culture that every pain is endured even if it means paying to stand on the train to reach the destination. It costs the same as a ticket with seat. As much as the Chinese are regarded generally to be uncouth, they have their own little acts of communal kindness.

My ordeal of getting the tickets started three weeks before the New Year. I had to constantly monitor the on-line tickets many times daily. Frequent trips were made to the railway ticket counter to check the spot tickets' availability. It is indeed true that when we want something, the entire Universe will conspire to help us. The Universe conspired to help me to find train tickets when it seemed remote. We cannot see the invisible that works behind our sight that is leading us on our mysterious journey. It is a miracle of life. If only we allow it to happen and let go our tension that is caused by the need to control every circumstance that falls upon us.