As you saw in the video, we had to get off the train at 1 in the a.m.!!

At the ticket office earlier that day we were “told” it was a ten hour train journey, making it 7 a.m. when we would arrive.  We booked a sleeper and were pumped for slumber the whole night through.  At the stroke of midnight we were woken up by a grouchy, Chinese attendant telling us our stop was in an hour!!  Our ten our ride turned into a 4 hour jaunt.  The city we were arriving in was not in Lonely Planet so we had no address and No clue what to expect when we got there!!

The train station that we arrived at was in the middle of nowhere…literally in the forest.  It was pitch black and the only people around were the few others departing and about ten male taxi drivers.  No one spoke English.  Mind you we Don’t speak Mandarin!!  The station was very run down and extremely small, the size of a two car garage.  You could say we were up a creek with no paddle and a little nervous!!!!

By the almighty force of God, a Chinese man approached us and miraculously he spoke English!!  The expression on his face when we explained our situation was drenched with worry.  We later found out that he has a 21 year old daughter, so he had a special place in his heart for us.  He informed us that he has been living in”Pittsburger” for a year guest teaching at a university.  He took us to a “very cheap and safe hotel”.  This was an hour cab ride from the station through the forest.  Getting us to the hotel around 2 a.m.  After we checked in he even walked us up to his room, still worried for us.  He was our Savior!!!

With only four hours of sleep we continued our journey…