Eric's Beijing Diary

Bought a ticket on the through train to Guangzhou. I am in Hong Kong now. I got a one year multiple-entry tourist visa a year ago in San Francisco. It expires July 21st. Sort of. Actually, with a multiple-entry tourist visa, you are limited to 60 days, 90 days, or 120 days each stay. Mine is 90. So the visa doesn't actually say "Expires July 21, 2011," it says, "Enter before July 21st 2011." So I decided to leave China and go back in just before the 21st, which will give me an extra 90 days to decide what I am going to do with my life.

But I hadn't anticipated the level of demand for tickets. For the first time in my life I was unable to buy a train ticket to Hong Kong. I finally got a ticket on the slow train to Shenzhen, which is not too much different, because the train station is right at the border. But now I am trying to go back. I had thought of stopping to see Minnie in Guangzhou but decided against it, because the youth hostel in Guangzhou had no openings. Same with the youth hostel in Shenzhen. But now I just found out that there is only one ticket on the train from Hong Kong to Beijing, and it is a soft sleeper ticket. Those things are expensive. The extra cost would easily pay for my ticket to Guangzhou, and a couple nights in the youth hostel. So I bought a ticket on the through train to Guangzhou and decided to take my chances on getting a bed at the youth hostel, even though they are telling me they're full. Surely at least one person will cancel out.