A "Welcome to China" Moment

As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent part of my vacation in the beautiful city of Xi'an. I had planned to leave Xi'an on Sunday afternoon, and arrived at the airport with my bags packed and reservation in hand. When I got to the airport, I went to the ticket booth and handed them my reservation. The ticket agent went to the computer, looked up my reservation, and said to me that my ticket has been cancelled. I asked him to check again, which he did, and confirmed that I had no ticket on the flight. So I had to be back in Shanghai for school on Monday, and with no flight available that night, and without a ticket, my only option to arrive back in Shanghai was a train ride - the same 19 hour train ride I was on from Shanghai to Xi'an. I went to the train ticket station to buy a return ticket home. The ticket agent squinted at her computer screen and told me that there was a ticket available - but it would be a standing room only ticket. So the only way for me to get home was to stand on a train for 19 hours...and since I had no choice, I winced as I bought the ticket, knowing what awaited me. It was as bad as I thought - the worst part of the ride was that I got stuck in the smoking room between the two train cars - so for the better part of the ride I was forced to inhale cigarette smoke from the many smokers on the train(the Chinese love to smoke - especially the men). Needless to say - when the train pulled into Shanghai's train station some 19 hours later - I was never so happy to arrive somewhere in my life.