European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 29, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Off Loffl a by rail 1" Bokath Wilhelm associated Pressi t s 3 30 . On the Chengdu Lanzhou local and for me Lisl Timo since the i ram began ils journey 6vj hours ago. Car no 13 is quiet. A noisy drinking game among a group of Young workers ended abruptly and Blo Odily with a tight and the combat ans have been led off to coot Down. Someone i Rcd to Lake advantage o the contusion to steal a suitcase but it has been recovered and the Pihiel caught. Finally most of the 150 people in the car Are asleep. They Hall lie Hall sit on the hard seals bodies propped against bodies. Some stretch out on the floor under the seals Leel clicking into the aisles. Three people sleep crouching in the sink compartment in nobody s Way because the faucet does l work. A dozen More sit or tie in the enclosed spaces Between cars Lor most of Iho 24-hour, 7bb-mile journey Isom Chengdu in Southwest China s Sichuan province North to Lanzhou in Ginsu province. But by chinese standards the train in t even crowded trains Are the main form of Long distance travel in China carrying 1.2 billion passengers per year 30 percent More i Nan the Nal Ion s state owned train system has seats to carry. More than half the trains Are s learn powered old fashioned trains that chug Amoss the searing Gobi desert in the North or through Semi tropical Mountain Jungles in Iho South at the Speed of a mini motorcycle travel this year is up More than 5 percent the railway minis Liy says As China s Market style economic Tel orms create an army of Irav Oling businessmen making deals for factories Hal used to buy and sell Only through the slate. More and More chinese also have the Money to Sig Tseo and visit relatives. Rait of Licals said tourists. Foreign and chinese now comprise 40 percent of summer passengers. Many Are Young couples splurging their savings on honeymoons something not even Houghl of a decade ago. Chang Hua a 28-year-old factory executive from the Eastern Indus Riat cily of Shijiazhuang who was Riding the Lanzhou Bei ing express said she and her bridegrooms Penl 1,800 Yuan t,w85 iwo years ago to visit Scenic Suzhou. Hangzhou and Shanghai in Eastern China. That amounted to More than a year s salary for her although her parents helped out Chang Hua laughed at the suggestion that she was too extravagant above there is Paradise on Earth there is Suzhou and Hangzhou she quoted a saying reflecting the widespread chinese Beliel Hal they Are the world s most Beautiful cities. Five Lanzhou Oil refinery workers Vilh six children were returning on car no. 13 irom a week s vacation in Chengdu and mount Temei a famous Scenic spot in Sichuan. Unlike Chang Hua and her husband the went budget Little More than 100 Yuan $27 per adult for the whole trip that s almost a month s salary but like Many Urban chinese they had much More than that in savings. Planes Are too expensive for most chinese. A ticket in car 13, called hard Seal because Only the thinnest of padding graces the straight backed benches costs 19.90 Yuan $5.35. Thai s less than one tenth the Price of Hying. Foreigners travelling in China usually take soft Seal comparable to Western trains at four times the hard Seal Price. Car 13 soon was hazy with cigarette smoke and Grimy with engine soot. The soot was even worse on the Lanzhou Beijing train pulled much of the Way by a Coal engine that showered ashes on the seals and passengers. The floors were Slippery with Melon seeds fruit peels Peanut shells cigarette bulls Lood wrappers and Spillie. Train attendants occasionally shovelled the mess out the window. The crush of unwashed bodies in the hot cars reeked but not As much As the squat toilets. A steady Stream of passengers edged around bodies to gel drinking water from a boiler and train attendants periodically wheeled through trolleys with Beer soda and boxes of boiled Rice and noodles. Those on trains even hard Seal Are glad to be there. The Beijing train station turns away More than 15,000 would be ticket buyers every Day and More 1han 10,000 people sleep on cots in the Chengdu station s Guesthouse each night because they can l gel tickets to continue their journeys according to official figures. During the lunar new year Holiday in february when millions of chinese visit relatives and trains Are especially jammed hundreds of desperate travellers stormed trains in Chengdu and Canton broke the windows and crawled inside. The railway Sells standing room Only tickets when seals Are tilled but people gelling on at the Start of a run usually hold Oul for a scat. Those boarding at later stops often have no Choice. Ticket buying is a mob Sporl with dozens or even hundreds of people shoving and elbowing to gel to the windows. Asked Why they Don l form lines most sumptuous dining in China f Efful Valint at tint Eta. Chinese laugh incredulously. There s no such thing As a round trip ticket or a ticket thai covers connecting trains. On the Lanzhou Beijing train Chang Hua said a Friend in Beijing Bough her connecting ticket Home to Shijiazhuang. So she would t have to spend Days in the capital waiting Tor a Seal. A male colleague like her returning from a business conference in Lanzhou was not so Lucky. He planned logo to the Beijing Airport to try to buy a plane ticket to his Home the Norl heal City of Harbin but did nol expect to succeed. His Fallback plan was to return to the train station and Light for a ticket to Tianjin. A City just East of Beijing with frequent train service and iry from Here to gel to Harbin. Together with a third Man he and Chang Hua played musical chairs with on the Lanzhou Beijing train with one empty Seal hoping sleeping berths would become available. None did. We called five Days ahead of time to Reserve berths Trade livens chinese town on soviet Border t Bojoh Pomfret associated press he Clatter of freight trains has replaced the crackle of gunfire and the whoosh of combat jets at Manz Houli at chinese town on the soviet Border. Criss crossing the rolling grasslands of inner Mongolia and Siberia the trains provide noisy testimony to improving relations Between China and the soviet Union while of Licals in Beijing and Moscow Stilt Haggle Over political matters businessmen in Manz Houli and dozens of other towns along the 5,000-mile Border Are eagerly cementing closer economic lies. The russians Aie very easy to Deal Wilh said Zhang Chengbin a businessman from a slate run firm Hal sold $31.4 million in meat to the soviets in the first six months of this year. They re like the americans they Don l worry too much about  now s the time to get in on Tho Trade said Zhang pags14 the stars and stripes Wei a private businessman in Harbin provincial capital of Heilongjiang. In the next couple of years ii will explode. The soviets Don t have enough things and they like chinese  in Lanzhou i. Connected to Russia by rail since 1901, soviet trucks chemical fertilizer Wood steel Iron Ore electrical generators and bulldozers cram freight cars moving South Inlo the chinese heartland soviet railway workers and Trade delegations walk freely around the town of 30,000, dotted with traditional russian houses their log Cabin Waits painted yellow and Blue. It s fascinating to be Here said Andrev Vede Nikov a russian railway worker As he strolled Down sino soviet Road Iho Lown s main Street. " Manz Houli is like a Small museum of Russia 50 years  across the Border in Zabeni Kalsky freight cars packed with chinese meats fruit vegetables grains television sets radios and thermos bottles fill the station. You think there Are Many trains Here said Vadim Evdokimov another railway worker As he looked out Over Manz Houli s cluttered freight Yard. Zabai Kalsky is even  chinese press reports say thai in the first six months of this year Trade Between the soviet Union and China reached $ 1.3 billion a 32 percent jump when compared to the same period last year. But chinese businessmen said the real amount could rival China s Trade Wilh the United Stales which hit $10 billion last year indeed on aug. 29, China s official Xinhua news ,. Saturday