How I got here - Only in China

Tianjin, China

Chasing phantoms again. Something tells me I'll be using that heading a lot of times still: Only in China. At the moment there are a lot of things that strike me as really only possible here. And here's one of them:
My ticket said "Beijing - Tianjin" (both in English and Chinese) when I got on the train at Beijing Railway Station. That was right. I was going to Tianjin. Not the most interesting of cities in China ("还可以", my teacher had commented, "only so-so" - and she was right) but that's beside the point. It's the weekend and I wanted to explore. So Tianjin is a good choice for a weekend trip.
I got off the train again one hour later, checked my map and planned the circuit around the city. The first surprise was that my first destination seemed further than expected. On the map only two and a half kilometers helpful people urged me to take the bus; it would be too far to walk. Was that just people generally being adverse to walking? But really, the bus took ages to get there. Maybe distances just looked shorter on maps; besides, my travel guide did make mistakes occasionally...
The full extent of my misconception only came to light when I wanted to return in the evening: The last place of interest was near the main train station, so I decided to walk to last bit and buy my ticket before grabbing dinner. At a big crossing I asked a few workers the way just to be sure: "Is this the right way to the train station?" The group looked back in confusion. "There's no train station here." - "No train station?" Was my Chinese not good enough and I was missing something important? A joke maybe? "No", came the reply, "it's closed." - Closed?! "But I'm sure I got off the train here this morning. More confused, incredulous looks. "That's not possible." Then, how the heck did I get here?! Trains from Beijing, they explained, now go to a different station and I'd better take a cab. Still, a bit bewildered I followed their advice and caught a scooter. Sure enough, it took some 20 minutes to get to our destination. I was already biting my nails because the scooter seemed to leave all lights of civilisation behind and I was envisioning being beaten for my money in some dark construction site when we came to inhabited areas again and pulled up at the train station that I recognised now. Everyone in Tianjin seemed to know about this change, only me the silly laowai (foreigner) trudged around completely clueless. This was the place I had arrived at -almost at the other end of the city! That was why the surroundings of the station hadn't matched my map. Good business for taxis I'm sure. I swear, there was no notice of this anywhere but, hey, who'd expect they would just close a train station like a neighbourhood shop?
Later a friend asked me: "How can they just close an entire train station?" I had no answer. Because they can. Maybe this is China: Anything is possible.