Once we'd prepared our 'stuff', food and water, we headed to the train station fully equiped to book train tickets 4 days in advance because they sell out quickly.
Whoa ... did we have problems. Everything was written for us in Chinese script but it appears you can only book 3 days in advance at the train station. We worked this out through asking for trains on different days and it was not easy!
So we were heading into a national park in the middle of nowhere and when we came out there would likely be no trains available?!
We had to try something else....
There was a McDonald's, surely someome could speak a little English. No, but the staff did try to translate using their smart phones and iPads. Luckily a man overheard us and came to our rescue.
We went with him to the train station to try again and we hit the same problem. You can only book 3 days in advance but he did find out there is a 20 day booking machine in a few minutes away!
So, off we went in a taxi with our loyal assistant and found the machine. But... you can only use the machine if you have a Chinese I'D card and of course we don't!
Luckily the taxi driver knew a booking office a further 10 minutes away and he took us there. Great we thought until they told us their computers were down!
No problem the taxi knew another office 10 minutes away. When we arrived our loyal assistant explained what we needed and the tickets were booked! Excellent, we thought, until we checked the tickets. Each ticket must have your passport number on. Well that's ok I we gave him the passports. BUT we think it was the first time he had dealt with tourists... the numbers he had entered on the tickets were random numbers he had seen in the passports. One being a Chinese visa number and the other an Indian visa number! Do you think he would change it? No way.....so we will hope they let us on the train!
We caught the bus to the Zhangjiajie national park where they filmed parts of Avatar... it looks amazing!
Whoa ... did we have problems. Everything was written for us in Chinese script but it appears you can only book 3 days in advance at the train station. We worked this out through asking for trains on different days and it was not easy!
So we were heading into a national park in the middle of nowhere and when we came out there would likely be no trains available?!
We had to try something else....
There was a McDonald's, surely someome could speak a little English. No, but the staff did try to translate using their smart phones and iPads. Luckily a man overheard us and came to our rescue.
We went with him to the train station to try again and we hit the same problem. You can only book 3 days in advance but he did find out there is a 20 day booking machine in a few minutes away!
So, off we went in a taxi with our loyal assistant and found the machine. But... you can only use the machine if you have a Chinese I'D card and of course we don't!
Luckily the taxi driver knew a booking office a further 10 minutes away and he took us there. Great we thought until they told us their computers were down!
No problem the taxi knew another office 10 minutes away. When we arrived our loyal assistant explained what we needed and the tickets were booked! Excellent, we thought, until we checked the tickets. Each ticket must have your passport number on. Well that's ok I we gave him the passports. BUT we think it was the first time he had dealt with tourists... the numbers he had entered on the tickets were random numbers he had seen in the passports. One being a Chinese visa number and the other an Indian visa number! Do you think he would change it? No way.....so we will hope they let us on the train!
We caught the bus to the Zhangjiajie national park where they filmed parts of Avatar... it looks amazing!
