火车站: The biggest train station you have ever seen

北京南火车站: Beijing South Train Station, 37ºC, sunny

We hopped off the underground, ascended the escalators, swiped our tickets to pass through the ticket barrier and looked around us. There was a huge notice board with not a single word of English. I checked the train ticket. Train D59 was definitely not listed. I rechecked the ticket and found what looked like the gate number: 24. We went upstairs. Suddenly, we were in an airport terminal. Or so it seemed.

A few days ago, I found out that a good friend from school would be coming to China. I had booked Anthony’s train ticket to Qingdao, and had promised to help him navigate the Beijing public transport network to make sure he caught his train. Now, we found ourselves in the largest train terminal waiting area I have ever seen. Clean, calm, vast, this space seemed to take the best parts of an airport waiting area and put it in a train terminal. Quite incredible.

Anthony and I in Beijing South Train Station