From Shangri-la, we took an overnight bus to Kunming. Upon arrival at 6am, we went to the train station and bought two tickets for that morning’s 27-hour train to Guangzhou, in Guangdong Province. The travel wasn’t too bad. In fact, travel is quite comfortable in China, if not a bit expensive. The worst part of the 40-plus hours of continuous travel was the lack of English reading material. There was no English newspapers to be found in all of Kunming and all we had between the two of us was an old The Economist, which I’d read cover to cover already. We were also ill-prepared in the food department, as we had assumed that the train would have plenty of food vendors hopping on and off at stops, as well as long stops at which we could grab some grub. No so and hence the reason why many families carried boxes or bags of instant noodles onto the train with them.

The one upshot though was that the train was nice. It was incredibly clean (very China), had good climate control, and was quiet. The hard-sleeper class that we rode in was hardly hard, with soft bedding, fluffy comforters and pillows. Additionally, our 6-bunk compartment only had one other person in it, a Burmese guy named Hakeem. I felt kind of bad for him, because Chinese passengers stared at him as they walked by. He was a Muslim and dressed in traditional South Asian Muslim clothes: lungi, kurta, a circular cap, all with a long beard. We were lucky to be in the same compartment with him as he translated a lot for us. He helped us find the food car and even bought us some fruit to eat at the end of the day. After Joylani fell asleep, I sat up and talked with him for awhile. He’s travelled Asia pretty extensively too, although he mentioned only to places where Islam is. We talked about India and Malaysia, among other countries we’ve both visited. He told me about his Haj trip and showed me the compass I saw him use everytime before he got out his prayer mat. He even gave me some pan, which I quickly chewed and spit. He sells handtools in China and he asked me where in America would be a good place to sell handtools. Not the typical person or conversation I would have expected on a Chinese train. But as Paul Theroux wrote in his famous book “The Great Railway Bazaar,” “I sought trains, I found passengers.”

And so the long journey was not as bad as it could’ve been. For the most part, it was comfortable, and we met a kind fellow passenger. Next time, we’ll have to remember to bring our own instant noodle so as to avoid the awful train food. After two weeks in cool Yunnan and two days on AC’d transportation, stepping off the train into Guangzhou was like stepping into a sauna. Not only was it hot, but it was way more crowded than Kunming. I could see how Guangdong is the most populous state. Guangzhou is hotter and more crowded than anywhere we’ve been in China so far, but it is more modern too. We took the efficient metro from the railway station to our hotel and city bustles in the way that big cities do. Everyone’s told us that Yunnan is totally different, so I guess its time that we see what the rest of China is like.