Things seemed alright for a while, but then we found what the traffic was like. We stopped, surrounded by trucks in the middle of nowhere. The driver turned off the engine. Turned out there were 200km of trucks between us and the outskirts of Beijing. We would be here a while.
Most of us got off the bus to survey the situation. There were trucks in both directions as far as one could see. The truck drivers had also left their vehicles and were milling around. Estimates as to how long we would be stuck varied - our teacher told everyone we might not make it back tonight. One driver said he had been stuck in one of these for a week. With this news, some of us left in search of food.
Toilets
About half an hour in, some relief came in the form of old ladies walking through the traffic with baskets of snacks. It took a few of these to deliver enough noodles to keep us from resorting to cannibalism. The exploration party returned with bad news - no significant human settlement further down the road. Another party left to see if they could find the other bus - there was a rumour that it was only a few minutes walk up the road. The teacher was making plans - there was a possibility of getting a bus to pick us up on a side road and take us to Zhangjiakou, from where we could take a train to Beijing. This didn't happen though.
Trading with the natives was our key to survival.
They sold alcohol as well.
After almost two hours, good news - word was that trucks had started moving a few km down the road. We all had to drop our noodles and board the bus immediately. The bus started moving before we were all seated, and before we realised the party which left for the other bus hadn't returned. Fortunately we managed to get in contact with them and arrange for the other bus to pick them up (they still hadn't found it).
We managed to get quite some way before stopping again, in a pretty similar situation. Apparently in busy times they cycle through the many roads into Beijing, allowing 500 vehicles at a time to enter from each road. This time, we were by a tiny village, and there was a pedestrian bridge a little way up the road. Some of us went to it to get a better view of the situation. I didn't feel like climbing through barbed wire so I stayed behind. It took much less time for us to get going again on this occasion, so those who went to climb the bridge or explore the village had to run back.
We continued this way, making about 5 or 6 stops of up to an hour and a half each. Our teacher had booked a restaurant in Zhangjiakou, originally for an early lunch at about 11:30. We arrived eight hours late, after taking the exit before Zhangjiakou, and driving through a coal mine to get there. As it turns out, Zhangjiakou is a fairly significant city, with about the population of Melbourne.
Food!
Fortunately our meal was not cold. In fact, it was the best meal of the whole trip. Not just because we had been subsisting on noodles until then, but there was a lot of meat and potatoes, and they even got us some beer. Again, we shared the restaurant with the aftermath of a wedding.
As we were leaving, one teacher stayed behind. The other bus had still not made it to Zhangjiakou, and was at least two hours behind us. To applause he dismounted the bus and went back inside the restaurant. After leaving the restaurant we had a surprisingly clear run the rest of the way to Beijing, and managed to arrive at midnight. The other bus, I hear, arrived at 2am.
So, in all, it was a good trip. But I won't take the bus again.
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