Maybe that will be the last sleeper train I take...

Been a quite dull weekend although this being China, even small simple things require a lot of thought.

It was easy enough navigating Shanghai South station to find my train. The train left on time and whole system is very organised. I was in a hard sleeper carriage which means open compartments of 6. The beds are quite narrow to, I fell out once, though luckily I was bottom bunk.

It was a relatively comfortable journey. Quite like India in the sense the first 15 or so hours are fine but when you're nearing the end the whole thing got a bit much. We trundled at 120km/h across Zhejiang Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, largely as an intercity service but also dropping off migrant families. Zhejiang is one of the richest provinces in China, and that was clear from how glitzy it's capital, Hangzhou is. The cities in Hunan had more pockets of slums and empty ghost skyscrapers.

What's incredible is just how similar every city looks. Nowhere has any individual character architecturally. It's all the same, concrete and cranes. The rural areas were far more developed than I expected. Much more industrial scale agriculture than subsistence rice paddies.

I had 2 main issues on the train. Snoring and food. The snoring chorus of my compartment denied me the chance of any sleep. Food wise, things did not go well. I ventured to the dining car and was presented with a menu all in Chinese. I stupidly when for the cheapest option. Cabbage and rice. It filled me up for a bit but after a short while the stomach was rumbling. But when I came back to the dining car the attendant was screeching at me loudly in Chinese seemingly insisting I go and buy a snack from the trolley in the next car along. I can only presume the dining car had closed, but I have no idea as not a single person in the train spoke English.

I ended up with some item of food I can barely even describe. Maybe they were sticks of gelatin? Anyway, as I was giving up finally a dining trolley with 'real food' turned up. Rice cabbage and bits of meat.

It seems Chinese people struggle with the concept of people not understanding Chinese and so do the classic English thing of just saying the same thing again but louder. Combined with the fact Chinese is a bit of an aggressive language it can come across very angrily...

On arrival after 20 hours on my sleeper train I was probably the most bewildered I've ever been anywhere! Hungry, tired and surrounded by Chinese... I sort of wondered a bit aimlessly until I found a bus station and magically got the right shuttle to Wulingyuan, where my hostel is.

Wulingyuan is a bizarre touristy town set up to clean and feed the visitors of Zhangjiajie forest park. Still, it's nice enough. I appeared to give the old Chinese woman receptionist much entertainment in my inability to understand her.

Now, just chilling and trying to muster a plan for how to make the most of the national park. I get the feeling it's going to be a little difficult!

Ciao!