When travelling across China the places you see may, and most likely will, thrill you. But sometimes the very means of transportation can open the door into a new world. Besides the conventional (and by now probably taken for granted) ways to travel, there is another, comfortable yet exciting means of moving about: the sleeper bus.

Photo: traveljournals.net

The revelation

I was stranded in a small town in Fujian Province on Chinese New Year with all train and plane tickets sold out for the occasion, some thousand kilometres to cover and a class to teach in 25 hours’ time. Through the hubbub of firecracker explosions, a sobering awareness washed over me as I took in my situation.

Being young and adventurous, I closed my eyes and dove in. Since then the sleeper bus became my transport of choice for most long-distance travels. It grossly outweighed the upside of both planes (speed vs. price, need to find accommodation on arrival, transportation to and from airports) and trains (reliability and decent pricing vs. virtual impossibility to get a ticket on holidays – the only time I could travel). I usually chose the night bus thus saving the first night hotel money and utilizing that time to go from one point to another.

The amenities inside

Normally a sleeper bus features three rows of two-tier bunks (along both sides and in the middle) with rather narrow aisles in between. All bunks are with bedding – sheets, blankets and pillows. The best bunks are the top ones by the window closer to the driver. Lower bunks are flush with the floor and may not be as pleasant. Normally in the very back of the bus the aisles between the two last bunks are turned into extra sleeping places (and quite ingeniously so since where are you going to go from there anyway?) – making that whole area one humungous king-size bed.

On entrance you have to take off your shoes and put on plastic bags, which is quite a nice touch. There is normally a TV set under the ceiling above the driver. If you are lucky, they might show a flick in English with Chinese subtitles, in all other cases the TV is a bonus feature for honing your Chinese skills. But I admit it - it may get boring, especially at night when the TV and the cabin light are both turned off. My solution was a book and an LED head light. An eBook might be an even better choice, but you might want to think twice before flashing your iPad on such a democratic bus.

Though stops at gas stations or rest areas are regularly made en route, there is typically a toilet in the bus. The driver will distribute coupons for dinner in cafeterias – included in the price of your bus ride, but the menu is not the tastiest one around. Some pit-stops are quite a marvel: mall-size concoctions featuring various hotels, fast-food joints, stores (groceries, teas, books, fruit and vegetables, souvenirs, weapons and hardware – basically everything you might need on the road), while others might be no more than a hut in the middle of nowhere.

Normally your travel companions will be the low-class public, students, owners of budding start-ups, mothers with kids or even dogs with their owners. Usually all those folks are minding their own business, but seeing a laowai will almost surely raise a couple of eyebrows, which may or may not result in a friendly conversation. On the other hand, you will do yourself a favour by watching your bags, but that’s a standard precaution. People may transport various things in the luggage compartment below – from live chickens and geese to snakes to piglets to huge boxes of whatever.

Now for the spoon of tar

The first thing that jumps to mind is the smell of less than fresh socks, though it is clear from the beginning that you are not travelling on an aristocratic sleeper bus. Also some folks deem it quite acceptable to smoke inside the bus. But even though a request to stop might extinguish the cigarette in question, the local mentality will not transpose the request to any cigarettes they will light in half an hour or so.

The ubiquitous traffic jams may postpone your expected arrival time by several hours. Since the driver usually has a network of clients and travel agencies who always call him asking to pick somebody up on the roadside, your bus may make a couple of detours, thus slightly delaying the arrival time.

As for the comfort en route, the bunks are quite slim and of a standard length, though Yao Ming might find it difficult to fit in that Procrustean bed. Sheets and blankets are more or less clean, though they are not changed after each trip, but that’s the way it is.

If you are looking for a five star service…

This is definitely not it. What it is, however, is cheap (a real booster in the challenges of the how-much-cheaper-can-I-get-around-China kind). While not exactly a reliable choice if you have to be somewhere on time, it proves a treasure of insights for an intrepid sinologist, as well as a means to adrenalise your cultural awareness. It may be cool for students, extreme tourists, and those young at heart. And, possibly, for those who find themselves stuck in a town of their choice with no ordinary means of getting out of there. If you still want to give it a go but are not sure where sleeper buses flock in your city, ask your friends for a long distance sleeper bus station (长途汽车站 Chang1 Tu2 Qi4 Che1 Zhan4).

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