After yesterday’s fiasco, I thought that my remaining travel to Beijing would go smoothly. Yeah …I guess that’s what I get for thinking!

I hung out at my apartment until about 2am, then packed up and took a cab back to the train station. When I went to buy my ticket for the 3am train, the worker told me that it didn’t exist. Despite my repeated pleas, she insisted that there was no 3am train … but there was a 4am train! I looked very closely at her screen, double-checking the departure time, arrival time, train number, and price. Sure enough, it would arrive in Changsha at 7:18am, giving me a good two hours of padding before my airplane left from the airport. So I went for it.

By the time I boarded the train, I was exhausted … I caught a few zzz’s in the waiting room, but I didn’t want to sleep too deeply and miss the train. So once I hit the smoke-filled and crowded car, I nudged my butt onto a seat and fell fast asleep. A few times during my nap, the train worker came up and either told me the train had arrived or asked me where I was going. Each time, I told him I was going to Changsha. He always seemed confused by what I was saying … I figured that he just couldn’t speak Mandarin.

Then, at about 7:30am, the train stopped at a small town that clearly wasn’t Changsha. I didn’t think much of it, because it seemed that the train was running a little late. But then I noticed that everybody started to get off the train. Every single person. Something wasn’t right, so I started asking questions.

I asked what time we would arrive … “Shen-me-shi-hou-dao-le-changsha?”

“Shi-er-dian,” I was told. Noon.

Bewildered, I took out my ticket and the train schedule which I had smartly packed, and showed the crowd of workers that had gathered. They smiled and told me that the train schedule had changed … instead of going towards Changsha, the train apparantly now takes a huge detour in the opposite direction. We were in Shaoyang, a 4 hour train ride from Changsha. Even if I found a bus or a car, the quickest it could get there would be two and a half hours … and then I’d need another 40 minutes to get to the Changsha Airport.

Using my highly advanced addition skills, I quickly deduced that my plane, which left in three hours, was going to have an empty seat on it. Mine.

Nevertheless, I thanked the workers and bolted outside, calling my good friend Dan, who happens to live in Shaoyang. Although he wasn’t in town, he was able to connect me with Sally, another Shaoyang resident who helped to teach us Chinese during our WorldTeach orientation in August. Sally went to work, calling cabs and cars and drivers, frantically trying to find someone who could at least try to get this crazy foreigner to the airport on time.

When she arrived at the train station ten or fifteen minutes later, she had no leads. Nobody could help. I was stranded, and my parents were going to be even more stranded in Beijing without me. Helpless, I took a step back and smiled. “Well, I’ve always wanted to visit you guys in Shaoyang!”

Suddenly, one of the moto cab drivers who had been listening to the whole fiasco drove up with a man on the back of his bike. The man offered to drive … and for ¥400, I accepted. We ran to his car, filled up with gas, and he literally sped the entire way to the Changsha airport. It was a crazy trip … weaving in and out of traffic, passing cars on the right, and generally pushing his little VW to its limits. I kinda felt bad, because it was obvious that we weren’t going to make it anyways and I was going to have to try to reschedule my flight. But I let the guy go … he seemed to be a little excited to have an excuse to play real-life Grand Theft Auto.

Then it happened. We pulled off the highway and into the airport. I looked at the clock … and it was 10:15. Speed Racer had somehow shaved an entire hour off of a 3 hour and 15 minute trip! I shook his hand, thanked him enthusiastically, and ran inside to check in at the VIP counter (it was the shortest line, so I just acted Important). And a few minutes later, I walked onto the plane!

And here I am in Beijing, hungry and tired. And here.

Thank you, Jesus!

Posted to webeldotnet on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 5:01 pm EST in Stories & China (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!