I stand in the snow of Harbin and dream of Sanya 2

December 28th. Beijing.
Harbin was left behind. We drove in a reserved seat. And they all had different regiments. In Chinese trains, people sleep not only on the first, second, but also on the third shelf. I got seats right next to the toilet. It was an unforgettable night. Doors slammed endlessly, someone sang monotonously, it was cold and uncomfortable. The Chinese, passing to and fro, felt my legs. What this means, no one could explain to me in the morning. In the end, I decided that, probably, this is the sign of the Chinese.
In the morning, at eight-thirty, the train arrived at the Beijing North Station. At the station, the group was met by a nice girl with a Russian name Katya. The name of the girl was given by a Russian teacher when the girl was studying at the university. It was minus one in Beijing. Compared to Harbin, it was pure spring here, at least according to the thermometer. But I didn't feel much warmth. There was a cheerful haze over Beijing, it was overcast, dank and disgusting. Tourists were given a staff room at the Zhitan Hotel. As I understand it, it was a hotel created specifically for Russian tourists, it was located next to the shopping street Yabolou. Tourists were given a staff room and a free breakfast, but then the first problem arose. During registration of the room, they demanded the same list that remained at the border. Naturally, I said that he was not. An elderly Chinese woman in a blue tunic from the times of Stalin and Mao laughed incredulously. “It’s impossible,” she said, “without the list, the group would not have been allowed through the border.” But I just threw up my hands. The translator Katenka was very upset. She said that without a list we would not be placed in a hotel. These are the rules that were introduced during the Olympics and which have not been canceled so far. It was a dead end. I stood there, not knowing what to do, my eyes filled with tears, and then, thank God, an idea occurred to me.
I advised Katya to call the dearest Slava in Suifenhe. I still have Slava's phone, but no matter how much I dialed it, I heard gibberish in Chinese in response. The sentence all began with the same word "Burning" and then followed by an unpronounceable text, which, if translated into Russian, would probably sound something like: "The subscriber is temporarily unavailable." Being almost in a semi-conscious state, I dictated a tricky number to Katya. Katya instantly connected with Slava, and after about seven minutes it became clear how the situation would develop further. Katya explained that the list would be sent by fax in about five minutes, but for now she advised me to go out and look around. We left the door of the hotel, but immediately returned back. Various helpers attacked us at the door, each of them, in good Russian, offered an assortment of entertainment from a cycle rickshaw ride along Yabolou to ... There were many options. The kingdom of heaven was even mentioned. So we had to sit in the lobby of the hotel and wait until the situation with the lists was resolved. The seal was hard to see on the first fax, so Slava was called again and asked to send another fax. In general, not even an hour had passed before the group was led to breakfast. The breakfast was awesome. I hoped that the room in which we were to wash and rest would be the same, but we were disappointed. I didn’t have a very long travel experience, but I saw a lot of hotels. Everyone was, but this hotel was something special! When the tourists entered the room, it seemed to them that they had returned back to Harbin. The room was not just cold, it was a severe frost. We somehow figured out the air conditioner, but when we decided to wash ourselves, it turned out that there was no bathroom and toilet in the room. What I was looking for was found in the hallway. Thank God it's not at the end of the corridor, but right in front of the room. But the joy of such amenities was not enough. Amenities had to be opened with a key that hung on a carnation in the room. While they cleaned themselves up, until ... Some even managed to take a shower and now sat, shivering, in a cold hotel room. When it was my turn to use the facilities, a nice girl Katya called from the first floor of the hotel and invited the tourists to go downstairs with their things. She explained such a harsh approach by the fact that there is little time left for the planned excursions, and the station from which tourists will leave for Sanya, at the other end of Beijing, and therefore, it is desirable that in the next half hour the tourists leave the inhospitable room and go down from things. I hastily put myself in order, but the child remained unwashed, there was not enough time for him. The most we could do was shower and brush our teeth. Soon the whole group was waiting for Katya downstairs. If one of the tourists hoped that he would be taken to the Chinese wall, then his hopes turned out to be empty, the city tour was called a sightseeing tour. We quickly drove around the famous places of the city, visited the tea ceremony and moved to the object, which, at this moment, is the pride of all China. The bus was moving in the direction of the Olympic Park, and the stadium, in the common people called the nest. As expected, the group was not allowed inside the stadium, saying thatthat the excursion inside will take a lot of time, since at the entrance to the nest, there is a very serious control and inspection of things. Everywhere you looked, there were decorated New Year trees, but there was no feeling of a holiday. Helpers scurried around, offering all sorts of souvenirs with the emblems of the Olympics. In the meantime, a serious dispute broke out between the tourists and Katya. The tourists decided that since they couldn’t see the Chinese wall, it was desirable to at least get inside the nest and take a walk, but Katya suddenly showed her character. She categorically refused to go on about the tourists. It soon became clear that she had already planned the remaining time, and she wanted to take tourists to where they had been waiting for us for a long time and what she was vitally interested in. She really needed to take us to the Tibetan medicine center. Hearing what they were going to replace the longed-for excursion, the tourists protested in unison. Some of the tourists have been to China more than once and have seen enough of the so-called free tours. Katya insisted on her own, the tourists refused. Time passed, and the bus driver could not move until the situation was resolved, and until Katya and the group came to some kind of solution. Frustrated, Katya called the director of the travel agency several times, but the director apparently had some profit from this event, and, judging by Katya's persistence, a lot, and was not going to lose it because of the whims of the Russians. Katya was upset, and then the magic word of the Soviet times surfaced into the white light: "Comrade." She said so: "Comrades, please..." When the girl began to appeal to the broad Russian soul, clicking on the words "Comrades" and "Please", the tourists gave up. And where to go? "Please" and "Thank you" are magic words. Just think, we are in the heart of China, in its capital! So what's the difference where to go? The main thing is not to stand still. And then it got cold. The reception was led by a Tibetan lama. Before taking the alleged patients to a separate room, the tourists were offered tea, which looked like a solution of furacilin or urine. Unlike the others, I turned out to be almost completely healthy. Although the doctor still recommended me to buy a medicine for general cleansing and strengthening of the body. Looking at Kirill's nails, and asking the boy to open his mouth and show his tongue, he accurately identified the child's illness and said that the boy did not absorb vitamins and other substances, and therefore he was so thin, and prescribed the child a medicine that cost 65 dollars. The lama prescribed one of the tourists three medicines at the same price, the other four, the tourists carefully read the composition of the medicines, which were made on the basis of Tibetan herbs, carefully folded the recipes, but no one bought anything. Since the train to Sanya left at 18 pm, tourists, along with their belongings, were taken first to dinner, and then immediately to the southern station. Taught by bitter experience, tourists, before starting to eat, asked at whose expense it was. Katya reassured people by explaining that they, in Beijing, strictly adhere to the program. At eighteen-ten the train moved from the southern station. The car was good and clean. The beds were already made. It was necessary to go night, day and night. This time the tourists were lucky, everyone had the lower shelves. However, this did not please Kirill at all, the boy wanted to ride on the third shelf. I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. And in the morning, when I woke up, it was already clear that the train was moving south. Everything around was green and sparkled with the colors of summer. When the train stopped at some station, I went out to the platform to get some air. It was warm outside, stuffy even. Bananas ripened on palm trees, carefully tied up and packed in bags.
http://proza.ru/2022/09/28/87