Today I wanted quickly purchase a Ticket to Hong Kong from Shanghai by train. So that I could take the Transrapid from the airport to the city.

The day started with a horrible night.. I have to say that I'm in a hostel and normally I enjoy meeting travellers, but not snorring ones..

..especially when they keep you awake the whole night.. plus in the morning the hostel started to destroy some walls which makes a lot of noise

But back to the Ticket story..

I was pretty flexible in departing times/days..

..so I came to the purchase counter and all in chinese.. I found one counter with a sign "english spoken". So I was happy..

..until the lady said she don't sell tickets to Hong Kong and send me to another counter-->this one could't speak english-->to the next counter. Finally I made it to the right person (I felt like Asterix Obelix when they need to get form A 38). Anyway I was there where I thought I should be....

I told the woman when I would like to go all fine... and then she said " no trains" I was suprised / shocked...
Probably I misunderstood and asked again.. she looked again into her computer and said the next available train is on christmas...

..then I knew I that she was serious and not joking.. A moment I was thinking to give her a secret commision.. but I couldn't tell what the consquences would be..so I didn't and left shocked the station...

..and then my idea was to go to the next of three railstations in Shanghai..
..but same story and no happy end..

.. I still couldn't believe, but knew that I could go by airplane and thought that there must be a bus or something going that way.

And yes that was the case..but not to Hong Kong.. with a bit of luck and persistence I found someone who told me a trick..

.. I could go to Shen Zhen(one hour from Hong Kong) and then take a shuttle bus to Hong Kong..

..And suprise surprise there are even trains available..

..unfortunately you can only book trains for five days in advance..And as I want to go on Sunday I need to book the ticket tomorrow :(

I asked about HongKong and got the answer back that it is international..

Yes long story and hopefully with an Happy End tomorrow.. but I couldn't take the Transrapid today as all this cost me nearly a whole day....