"On the tracks to Shanghai"

After a few days I left the tranquil and peaceful city of Xi'an, for a much more busy Shanghai. With that said, I have to admit that the Xi'an train station was a bit hotter than pleasantly. There were so many people there, that I barely could get inside. Much less getting anywhere close to my gate. I started asking people around me if someone were going on the same train as me. One man reading his newspaper turned out to be heading the same way, and despite it being only 20 minutes till the train was going to leave, he seemed more occupied reading than catching a train. The man next to him was eating tangerines, throwing the peel and spitting the seeds on the floor. About five minutes before departure time, the masses started moving, and I was basically jumping people along the platform to get to my car, at least 40 cars down. Warm, sweaty and ready to crash on my top bunk, I could still see people running, just the way I had done. The sight was still the same 20 minutes later. But finally, about 35 minutes late, we left for Shanghai.

I only had about 14 hours on the train, and most of them went by sleeping.