This was my last train day and I would also be covering the longest distance, starting from Kunming in the China's southwest corner to Qingdao on the Yellow Sea.

I failed to see the sign the previous night



Although I was staying only two stops from the station, I decided to play safe and set off more than an hour before departure time.

My phone's mobile internet suddenly went wonky just before the metro gantry and I had to seek assistance from the security personnel. They were really helpful and one of them even switched on her hotspot for me to connect. However, it seemed to be my phone's issue and I couldn't connect to her WiFi hotspot as well. Luckily, the mobile internet returned to my phone after I walked to a different spot and I managed to purchase the metro token from a machine.

The name of the metro station is Lianda Street; it is related to a rather obscure piece of World War 2 history. Lianda actually refers to National Southwestern Associated University, the amalgamation of three top Chinese universities (Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University) which was forcibly relocated away from the Japanese-occupied area to Yunnan from 1938 to 1946. Despite its relative short existence, the two first ethnic Chinese Nobel Prize winners Yang Chen-Ning and Lee Tsung-Dao both studied there. After the war, the schools returned to their original locations and only the teacher training college remained in Kunming. It evolved later into Yunnan Normal University, whose current-day campus is in the vicinity.



One of the reasons behind me reaching early was to take pictures of the station's exterior.

Kunming South Station - peacock-inspired design





After going through the security check, I scanned through the departure screen to see which platform my train would depart from. It wasn't there yet and I had to ask the staff at the counter.



Departing from Gate 2B/3B



I went to level 2 where the restaurants are and tried my best to take a picture of the entire station.

Kunming South



Unlike the Chinese locals who could use their ID cards to go through the gantries, foreigners had to go through the manned lane. The staff would usually attempt to scan the passport first but often ended up having to key in the details manually.

G72 Kunming South to Beijing West operated by CR400BF


Car 3 was the quiet car and there were signs reminding passengers to stay quiet.



The crew would go through the carriage reminding anyone talking on the phone to have their calls outside of quiet car.

The train departed Kunming right on time.

Starting a cross-country train ride with good weather



Passing through Yunnan's rice fields at 300km/h



Next stop would be in the next province Guizhou



Due to the hilly terrain of southwestern China, we spent quite a fair bit of the journey inside tunnels.

Glimpses of Yunnan's villages when we were out of tunnels



Probably the best shot of the journey



When the train rolled into Guiyang North station, there was a group of men who boarded my carriage. What caught my attention were the two men dressed in blue jumpers with the words “市看” (I am guessing that it's short for City Detention Center) and their heads hooded. Upon closer inspection, I realised that their hands and legs were chained together.



Clearly it wasn't everyday that we were sharing the same space with fugitives or suspects; my seatmate also couldn't help but take some pictures discretely.

After the initial excitement wore off, I decided to order my lunch. Besides the rather unappetising food offered on pushcarts, China Railways also allows travellers to order food from restaurants located in the stations en-route on its mini app.

It took me a while to realize that the system couldn't accept my name typed in English and the order went through without a hitch once I wrote in Chinese instead.

Entering Huaihua, the second stop and third province of the day



Lots of cranes



My lunch was delivered after leaving Huaihua station. By then it was just past my half-way point on this train journey. The crew verified my identity by requesting for the last 4 digits of my mobile phone number.

I've ordered a chicken dish (双椒鸡丁); it wasn't cheap at 49 CNY (~6.7 USD) but the portion was huge and it was quite good taste-wise.



We left the hills of southwestern China behind as we rolled across Hunan and then into Hubei.

Three minute stop in Wuhan



We crossed Yangtze River (world's third longest river) shortly after leaving Wuhan. The sun was setting as we continued our journey north. The flat North China Plain in Henan was in stark contrast to the morning hills of Southwest China.



It was my first time traveling through Henan and I suddenly had the realisation that this area was where the Chinese civilisation started thousands of years ago. Despite its glorious past, Henan now lags behind economically when compared to the coastal Chinese provinces and Henan locals are still subjected to many unkind stereotypes from rest of the country.

We arrived into Zhengzhou East 16 minutes late but thankfully I still had more than an hour to transfer to the next train. The announcer apologised for the delay and the train would continue onwards towards Shijiazhuang before ending the journey in Beijing, China's capital.

Distance travelled so far: ~5,653km

The suspects also alighted at the same station and were then led away to exit. Meanwhile I followed the transfer signs and took the elevator back to the departure level.

Yet another huge Chinese station



There was plenty of time before my next train so I walked around checking out the shops.

Train model



Standing by for ticket check


My train was operated by a Kweichou Moutai-branded CR400AF with both exterior and interior covered with the alcohol company's branding.



Honestly I didn't think that Kweichow Moutai needs any extra advertising in China; it's the second-most valuable company in China by valuation (just behind Tencent) and their 53%-proof alcohol are commonly found in Chinese state banquets as well as business meetings. However, its popularity seems to be limited to within China, perhaps due to its image as the "national spirt".

Moving at over 300km/h



The train passed through places which most foreigners have never heard of before: Lankao, Heze, Linyi, Rizhao.

Stopping at Heze



This train was operated by China Railway Chengdu Group and it had an impressive menu.



Milking the panda theme for everything Sichuan-related



Cold rabbit anyone?



No luck for me as the page refused to load after scanning the QR code. I only learned after that I needed to use WeChat app to scan the QR code for it to work properly.

The 4-hour journey to Qingdao felt like a breeze after the 8.5-hour jaunt from Kunming to Zhengzhou. With G1834 rolling into Qingdao North for an on-time arrival, it meant that I had completed the eighth and last train journey of the trip.

In all, I spent almost 62 hours on 8 different trains over 6 days and traveled around 6,400km across 5 countries. To be honest, the journey wasn't difficult at all; the trains were mostly on time and I made sure that there are always sufficient buffer for delays.

Distance travelled so far: ~6,383km

Qingdao was below freezing at half past ten at night and I quickly ordered a Didi to Le Meridien Qingdao. It took me a while to get to the pick-up area and locate the car; the 15km ride came up to be around 30 CNY.

For ~480 CNY (~66 USD), I got a huge room. While it showed a bit of age, it was still very comfortable.



There was even a bathtub


​​​​​​​